Lingua MED

How might we help medical Spanish students gain confidence interpreting at Spanish-speaking clinics?

LinguaMED is a platform that provides students who volunteer at Spanish-speaking clinics with an objective way of measuring their language skills.

Students go through simulated patient encounters with Spanish-speaking standardized patients. The patients will have common clinical conditions and have different Spanish accents. After the encounters the students receive an evaluation consisting of areas of improvement linked to modules targeted at those areas and also a stoplight-based score of red (needs practice), green (ready to go and volunteer), or yellow (almost there with some practice).

This solution bridges the gap between expensive and time-consuming language interpreter certification and jumping in to interpret with no formal evaluation. LinguaMED provides students with an assessment that simulates patient encounters and feedback so that they can feel confident in serving as interpreters while continuing to improve their language skills. Students who volunteer at Spanish-speaking clinics often don’t have an objective way of measuring their language skills, which can translate to under- or over-confidence in serving as interpreters for patients and providers. LinguaMED aims to connect medical Spanish learners with native Spanish speakers who can objectively assess readiness to interpret in a clinic.