Use of machine translation in healthcare
At a glance
- Project leader : Dr. Caroline Lehr
- Project team : Dr. Anne Catherine Gieshoff, Romy Stephanie Thommen
- Project budget : CHF 19'600
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : Internal (ZHAW digital / Digital Futures Fund)
- Contact person : Caroline Lehr
Description
The current migration crises as well as the necessity to recruit healthcare staff from abroad highlight the need for healthcare providers to deal with language barriers in a way that is efficient and patient-centred.
Machine translation (MT) opens up new possibilities for multilingual communication and is increasingly being used by healthcare professionals. Despite its potential, though, this use can include risks such as erroneous and disruptive communication, leading to less trusting relationships with patients and lower healthcare quality.
To date, recommendations on the use of MT in this setting are scarce and rarely evidence-based. In this project, we will interview healthcare professionals about their use of MT and test available tools for their suitability in healthcare. The goal is to determine professionals’ needs with respect to languages and MT applications, with a view to improving these digital tools, and to derive a set of recommendations for using MT to fully exploit their potential in healthcare.
Publications
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Lehr, Caroline; Gieshoff, Anne Catherine,
2023.
«Machine Translation Literacy» als digitale Kompetenz in der Gesundheitskommunikation.
In:
7. Fachtagung des Internationalen Netzwerks Gesundheitskommunikation, Hamburg, Deutschland, 20.-21. Oktober 2023.
-
Lehr, Caroline; Gieshoff, Anne Catherine,
2023.
Machine translation in healthcare settings : potential, limitations and ethical implications.
In:
NPIT6 Book of Abstracs.
6th International Conference on Non-Professional Interpreting and Translation, Nicosia, Cyprus, 25-27 May 2023.
Available from: https://www.ucy.ac.cy/npit6/wp-content/uploads/sites/292/2024/03/Book-of-Abstracts-NEW-WEBSITE.pdf