Survey-Based Evaluation of an Innovative Speech-Enabled Translator in Emergency Settings: A Phase II Cohort Study

Background: Emergency services are often confronted with patients who have no language in common with medical staff. As interpreters are not always available, medical personnel must rely on alternative solutions such as machine translation or medical fixed-phrase translators, which are sometimes lacking in usability. We aimed to evaluate patient and doctor satisfaction and perceived efficacy of a novel, speech-enabled, fixed-phrase translation tool (“BabelDr”) in real-life situations. Methods: We did a survey-based evaluation of BabelDr among a cohort of 30 of 42 eligible allophone patients visiting the outpatient emergency unit of Geneva University Hospitals (Geneva, Switzerland) between Nov 29, 2018, and Jan 31, 2020 (mean age, 38·2 years; male, 53·3% [n=16]) and their assigned doctors. Selected patients had no understanding of the local (French) language. Languages evaluated were Albanian (n=1), Arabic (n=4), Farsi (n=7), Spanish (n=11), and Tigrinya (n=7). Findings: Ninety percent (n=27) of patients and 86·6% (n=26) of doctors had a positive impression of the translation tool. Additionally, 90% (n=27) of patients felt that the tool enabled them to tell the doctor why they came to the emergency room and 93·3% (n=28) expressed that they understood the tool’s translations. Forty percent (n=12) of patients also stated that they would not have preferred to use an interpreter during the consultation.  Concerning perceived efficacy, 93·3% (n=28) of doctors affirmed that they could understand the patient’s health problem and 80% (n=24) were able to make a diagnosis. Results showed a significant positive association (P<0·05) between doctors’ appreciation of the different features of the tool and their overall satisfaction with its use. Conclusion: In an emergency context, the fixed-phrase translation system BabelDr is a suitable tool for diagnostic interviews and a valid alternative when no interpreter is available. Clinical Trial Registration Details: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04788966. Funding Information: Private Foundation of Geneva University Hospitals. Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Geneva regional ethics committee (ID REQ-2017-00996). Prior to participation, non-French speaking patients were asked to read an information leaflet about the study in their own language and give informed written consent for their participation.