Methods and Mission
In proud collaboration with the University of Michigan Language Resource Center:
The Wayne State University School of Medicine takes clinical language outreach seriously, especially in an area known for Dearborn’s Lebanese community and for Southwest Detroit’s Mexican community. The State of Michigan reports that following English, the most spoken languages in Michigan are Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin:
Figure 1: Languages spoken in Michigan by non-English speakers
In medicine, miscommunication could mean something as dangerous as an overlooked symptom. Even in cases where a medical translator may be present, communication can easily become lost in translation.
To address such issues, every U.S. MD school has an official medical Spanish club in which students host clinical language lessons for their peers. Our clinical language classes have been more useful for those who already have a background in a given language. But they may be ineffective, especially for beginners. That’s a blunt truth of language learning. To learn a language, one must either be a native speaker or dedicate time toward immersion. There are no shortcuts.
So we have no illusions about actually teaching beginners languages over a few sessions, nor do we think that’s the right priority. This year our clinical Arabic language club decided to introduce a novel approach. Instead of teaching the grammar, we decided to focus on teaching cultural rapport and we developed a closed-ended history taking method.
This guide presents simple, direct questions that are most crucial in taking a patient’s history. They can usually be answered with a yes, a no, or a show of fingers. Therefore, an individual need not know the target language to take a patient history. Although not meant for conversation, the questions in this guide should help narrow down the relevant symptoms and potential causes of the HPI.
The guide is built on a Google Sheet than any approved editor can edit, so that people who have knowledge of different languages can all work toward making a more accurate and comprehensive guide.
