How effective is Google Translate for medical emergencies in Spanish

Google Translate is moderately effective for medical emergencies in Spanish but has limitations. Studies show it can accurately translate about 80-90% of emergency department discharge instructions into Spanish, but there are inaccuracies in some translations that could potentially cause clinically significant harm. For example, in a study of 647 sentences in patient instructions, around 2% had inaccuracies with potential clinical harm when translated into Spanish by Google Translate. These errors include the incorrect interpretation of medical jargon or atypical use of words which may affect patient understanding in critical situations.

Google Translate is useful as a supplementary tool when human translators are unavailable, especially in urgent settings, but it should not be solely relied upon for critical or complex medical communication due to occasional mistranslations and the risk of misunderstanding. ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

In emergency care, specialized translation apps or fixed-phrase translation tools designed for medical contexts have shown improvements in communication quality and safety over general tools like Google Translate, especially with trained medical personnel. ^{5, 6}

Thus, while Google Translate can help bridge language gaps quickly in emergencies, caution is necessary, and confirmation by a human translator or healthcare provider is highly recommended when possible.

References

• Assessing the Use of Google Translate for Spanish and Chinese Translations of Emergency Department Discharge Instructions

• A Pragmatic Assessment of Google Translate for Emergency Department Instructions

• Evaluating the Usefulness of Translation Technologies for Emergency Response Communication: A Scenario-Based Study

• Use of Google Translate in medical communication: evaluation of accuracy

• Overcoming Language Barriers in Paramedic Care With an App Designed to Improve Communication With Foreign-Language Patients: Nonrandomized Controlled Pilot Study

• Overcoming Language Barriers in Paramedic Care With an App Designed to Improve Communication With Foreign-Language Patients: Nonrandomized Controlled Pilot Study

• Evaluating the Usefulness of Translation Technologies for Emergency Response Communication: A Scenario-Based Study

• Bridging the Language Gap in Patient Portals: An Evaluation of Google Translate

• Google Translate Error Analysis for Mental Healthcare Information: Evaluating Accuracy, Comprehensibility, and Implications for Multilingual Healthcare Communication

• Translating Electronic Health Record Notes from English to Spanish: A Preliminary Study

• Statistical machine translation for biomedical text: are we there yet?

• Artificial intelligence in clinical settings: a systematic review of its role in language translation and interpretation

• Technological Devices Improving System of Translating Languages: What About their Usefulness on the Applicability in Medicine and Health Sciences?

• Advancing health equity: evaluating AI translations of kidney donor information for Spanish speakers

• The Use of Machine Translation for Outreach and Health Communication in Epidemiology and Public Health: Scoping Review

• Supporting Risk-Aware Use of Online Translation Tools in Delivering Mental Healthcare Services among Spanish-Speaking Populations