Why Medical Interpreters
"Why not Google Translate?" you might ask. That's a fair question.
But machine translations were not meant to be used in a medical setting. Medical encounters are where life-or-death decisions may be made. And, even if the case might not be so dramatic, machine translations were not designed to capture nuance. We medical interpreters will take the initiative to interrupt the flow of a dialogue in a medical encounter to clarify, verify, etc. the meaning of a word, phrase, idiom, what have you, to ensure the meaning is rendered accurately and completely, something a machine is not going to do or do well. Also, machine translations from English to Turkish and back leave much to be desired at this point in time. That may change in the future. Still, I don't see the role of medical interpreters going away any time soon. There are some things that machine translations cannot make up for.
In the absence of a qualified medical interpreter, asking favors of a bilingual acquaintance or family member can result in failure to render the message between parties accurately and completely, not to mention potential conflicts of interest as well as issues with patient privacy.
Qualified medical interpreters are professionals who train in how to handle confidentiality and different circumstances in addition to training in medical terminology and interpretation techniques. The goal is to get the optimal therapeutic outcome for the patient as well as prevent mistakes which cost time, money, and, most importantly, quality of life for the patient.
But machine translations were not meant to be used in a medical setting. Medical encounters are where life-or-death decisions may be made. And, even if the case might not be so dramatic, machine translations were not designed to capture nuance. We medical interpreters will take the initiative to interrupt the flow of a dialogue in a medical encounter to clarify, verify, etc. the meaning of a word, phrase, idiom, what have you, to ensure the meaning is rendered accurately and completely, something a machine is not going to do or do well. Also, machine translations from English to Turkish and back leave much to be desired at this point in time. That may change in the future. Still, I don't see the role of medical interpreters going away any time soon. There are some things that machine translations cannot make up for.
In the absence of a qualified medical interpreter, asking favors of a bilingual acquaintance or family member can result in failure to render the message between parties accurately and completely, not to mention potential conflicts of interest as well as issues with patient privacy.
Qualified medical interpreters are professionals who train in how to handle confidentiality and different circumstances in addition to training in medical terminology and interpretation techniques. The goal is to get the optimal therapeutic outcome for the patient as well as prevent mistakes which cost time, money, and, most importantly, quality of life for the patient.
What Medical Interpreters Do
Medical interpreters may work on assignments in-person or telephonically (or, in today's day and age, virtually/remotely). For languages of lower diffusion such as mine (Turkish), most medical facilities or language services providers will typically not have a full-time interpreter, which is where independent contractors and freelance interpreters such as myself come in. I work with language services agencies, and I also work with direct clients. When you work directly with an interpreter such as myself, we have the benefit of building a business relationship, an advantage over calling a language services provider.
What Types of Services
Medical interpreters typically interpret consecutively (interpreting after each party) as opposed to simultaneously (that beast of a brain exercise you see conference interpreters doing in pairs so they do not burn out). That is also the case with myself. I provide consecutive interpretation for regular medical appointments as well as mental health sessions. I took a 160-hour course to train to become a medical interpreter and a 40-hour add-on for mental health interpreting as well.
In addition to the above, where needed, I can also provide what is called "sight translation" to convey instructions or other types of information from written material for the benefit of the limited English proficiency Turkish speaker and provide you any questions or requests for clarification they may have.
I provide telephonic interpretation and we can expand this to using video if you so choose. Perhaps you already use software for telehealth. Sign me up! Else, there are other options I can recommend at an additional cost.
I typically do not sign up for in-person/on-site assignments, but I would be amenable to changing my mind if you pay for my travel time and expenses. Or perhaps you have something in mind which I have not tried before or thought of. I'm open-minded. Contact me and let's talk it over.
In addition to the above, where needed, I can also provide what is called "sight translation" to convey instructions or other types of information from written material for the benefit of the limited English proficiency Turkish speaker and provide you any questions or requests for clarification they may have.
I provide telephonic interpretation and we can expand this to using video if you so choose. Perhaps you already use software for telehealth. Sign me up! Else, there are other options I can recommend at an additional cost.
I typically do not sign up for in-person/on-site assignments, but I would be amenable to changing my mind if you pay for my travel time and expenses. Or perhaps you have something in mind which I have not tried before or thought of. I'm open-minded. Contact me and let's talk it over.