You don’t speak Spanish?… ¿y él no halba inglés? It’s no longer a problem!

Polyglot Med Spanish is the perfect tool to bridge the communication gap between health care providers and Spanish-speaking patients. This simple-to-use app offers immediate audio translation of over 3,000 common words, phrases and assessment questions from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English.

The original Polyglot: Multimedia Medical Spanish Translator was developed in 1999 by a Duke University medical student, BJ Lawson. Since 1999, the Duke AHEC Program has distributed CD-ROM versions of Polyglot to health care providers and health professions students across North Carolina with the support of the NC AHEC Program. One past user of Polyglot stated, “The program helped me tremendously in learning certain phrases.”

Polyglot Med Spanish is available for use on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. While you are sitting in a café or waiting at the airport, you can practice medical words, phrases, or entire assessment questions. If you need to conduct a mental health assessment or a prenatal assessment on a Spanish-speaking patient, we have the phrases you need to get started. Polyglot Med Spanish offers phrases categorized in conversations to allow the health care provider to practice a series of assessment or conversational questions structures to solicit a “yes” or “no” response. Users can create their “favorites” list, so that locating their most frequently used phrases or questions is fast and easy.

The voice of Polyglot Med Spanish is Alicia Gonzalez, MSN, RN, CS. Gonzalez, born in Honduras, is a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist and has worked with the NC AHEC Program in developing and presenting beginning Spanish programs for health care providers, including Latino culture and cultural differences, since 1998. “Many health care providers work with patients who are predominately Spanish-speaking on a daily basis. Polyglot Med Spanish is designed to teach them the common clinical phrases for use in their work setting. Saying even a few phrases in Spanish to their patient will communicate much more than just that statement. It communicates your interest and motivation to work with them,” said Gonzalez.

The Polyglot Med Spanish app is currently available in the Apple iTunes Store for FREE – from now until April 7, 2011. Spread the word to your colleagues across North Carolina! Visit the Apple iTunes Store to download the app.