SimulTel: Enabling Remote Simultaneous Medical Interpreting

描述(由申请人提供)：63%的美国医院每天或每周治疗LEP患者。Simultel，Inc.(“Simultel”)是一家创新的技术公司，旨在通过促进使用远程医疗同声传译(“RSMI”)来提高医疗保健中口译的效率、准确性和降低成本。传统的医学口译是连续的。口译是在说话者讲完之后进行的，因此说话者必须停下来等待口译员。在同声传译中，口译员与S/他同时听到原文发言，就像在联合国一样，在代表发言时提供同声传译。最近发表的研究表明，使用RSMI导致的医疗差错明显减少，而且比通常的口译方法更快。患者对RSMI的满意度也更高。Simultel建议使美国各地的医疗机构能够为他们的LEP患者提供RSMI。这种口译方法将通过以下方式实现：(1)使卫生保健机构能够灵活地扩展、最大限度地利用其自身的口译资源，以及(2)与电话口译提供者合作。在拟议的SBIR授权期内，我们将：(1)确定服务于大量LEP人群的医疗机构通过一个新的大规模、多实体、基于网络的系统实现RSMI-使他们的口译员能够使用RSMI的可行性和要求；(2)设计、开发和测试技术平台；以及(3)在参与的医疗机构部署和评估RSMI。这项研究将在纽约大都会地区的三个医疗保健系统和第四家医院进行，代表着不同的医院、门诊诊所和护理设施。医疗保健机构为美国一些最多元化的社区提供服务，他们的患者中有20%-55%的人英语水平有限。此外，我们将确保这项技术创新拥有一批熟练的口译员，能够提供高质量的口译。为此，我们还将开发和测试一个在线口译员培训模块，这将是一个可扩展的系统，以有效地培训双语人员的RSMI。将进行严格的评估，检查服务、软件和培训计划。这将包括口译技能和知识的前后测试、设立试验试验台以广泛评价系统行为和性能、审查系统日志、服务质量、患者满意度、提供者满意度、监测系统和使用率统计数据。Simultel汇集了一个多学科团队，代表着移民健康、语言学和口译、通信技术和软件开发以及在线教育方面的互补和综合专业知识，以开发、测试和传播亟需的技术创新，以解决医疗保健中的语言障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sixty-three percent of U.S. hospitals treat LEP patients daily or weekly. SimulTel, Inc. ("SimulTel") is an innovative technology company founded to enhance efficiency, improve accuracy, and lower costs of interpreting in health care by facilitating the use of remote simultaneous medical interpreting ("RSMI"). Conventional medical interpreting is consecutive. The interpreting occurs after the speaker has completed speaking, necessitating that the speakers pause for the interpreter. In simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter interprets at the same time as s/he is hearing the original speech, as in the United Nations, where simultaneous voice-over interpreting is provided as delegates speak. Recently published research has shown that the use of RSMI results in significantly fewer medical errors and is faster than usual and customary interpreting methods. Patient satisfaction is also higher with RSMI. SimulTel proposes to enable health care facilities across the United States to offer RSMI to their LEP patients. This interpreting method will be made accessible by: (1) Enabling health care facilities to flexibly expand, maximize utilization of, and 'RSMI-enable' their own interpreting resources, and (2) Partnering with over-the-phone interpreting providers. During the proposed SBIR grant period, we will: (1) Determine feasibility of, and requirements for, health care facilities serving large LEP populations to RSMI-enable their interpreters through a new large- scale, multi-entity, Web-based system that can be delivered in a 'Software as a Service' model; (2) Design, develop and test the technology platform; and (3) Deploy and evaluate RSMI at participating health care facilities. The study will be conducted at three health care systems and a fourth hospital in the New York Metropolitan Area, representing a varied group of hospitals, ambulatory clinics, and nursing facilities. The health care facilities care for some of the most diverse communities in the United States, with 20-55% of their patients having limited English proficiency. Further, we will ensure that a skilled pool of interpreters, able to deliver quality interpreting, is housed on this technological innovation. To do so, we will also develop and test an online interpreter training module that will be a scalable system to efficiently train bilingual persons in RSMI. A rigorous evaluation will be conducted that examines the service, software and training program. This will include pre- and post-tests on interpreting skills and knowledge, setting up trial testbeds to extensively evaluate the system behavior and performance, reviewing system logs, quality of the service, patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction, monitoring the system and utilization statistics. SimulTel brings together a multidisciplinary team representing complementary and integrated expertise in immigrant health, linguistics and interpreting, communications technology and software development, and online education to develop, test, and disseminate a much-needed technological innovation to address the language barrier in health care.