For patients and their families to be actively involved in care, patients need to understand the diagnosis, the treatment options provided to them, lab test results and more. For patients who do not speak English or who learned English as a second language, this communication gap can be tough. Terms such as “incontinence”, “dosage” and “diagnosis” are not typically used in everyday conversation.
Patients Know Best is built on communication and we work towards decreasing any barrier between the patient and their healthcare team. This month, we bring the “language bar” option to every single page within PKB. This change will help many patients (and relatives of patients) to understand their discussions with clinicians, lab results and care plans. As a patient, you can switch the page to your language and (for example) quickly understand where to input your symptoms.
This also has the added benefit of widening your healthcare team. We have stories of patients who receive care in another country. Through the PKB platform, the patient can provide access to their medical record for the best specialist in their condition, regardless of which country that specialist is based in. The clinician can then easily communicate – without a language barrier – and provide advice for the patient.
To find the language bar, scroll down to the bottom of each page and select the language you would like to see. PKB will remember the choice you made the next time you log in. If you log in from the same computer, PKB will also remember your language choice from the log-in screen.
We are systematically completing the expanded translation in multiple languages. If we have not yet translated PKB into the language you speak, or the language that your patients speak, drop us a line and we will try to speed up the translation for you. You can find us here.
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