In healthcare, just as in other industries, eLearning is helping far-flung personnel stay up to date on the most recent information, thereby making it possible for them to better serve your patient populations. Whether you’re using eLearning now or expect to do so in the future, here are five best practices to consider as you address the translation and localization of your program.

1. Internationalize — Neutralize the English content from your eLearning framework and source files.
2. Consider the culture — Just as with other multicultural medical resources, know your audience and the ways in which they prefer to see content organized and presented.
3. Make content translation friendly — Shoot for a reading level of 6th to 8th grade, avoid slang, and opt for shorter sentences.
4. Let the region guide you — Customize training components for the region so that content and techniques are appropriate.
5. Confer with in-country personnel — Working together on the plan and schedule will save you time and heartache later and bring about better results.

Your regional healthcare teams and staff are the emissaries of your message, but they are only as effective as the training they receive. eLearning affords us an unprecedented opportunity to ensure all are equipped with the right information at the right time.

For more best practices, and other guidance with your eLearning program, check out the viaLanguage global eLearning blog.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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Entitled “Bridging the Digital Divide in Health Care: The Role of Health Information Technology in Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities,” the article was published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and makes the case for the development of a health information technology (IT) infrastructure to address disparities in healthcare.

According to lead author, Lenny Lopez, assistant in health policy at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy and faculty at the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, “If carefully designed and implemented, [health IT] [also] has the potential to eliminate disparities.”

Toward that end, Lopez calls on healthcare organizations to do the following:

1. Automate and standardize data about race, ethnicity, and language.
2. Approach data to identify disparities and draft improvement strategies.
3. Target health IT at fragmented care delivery for minority and limited-English proficient (LEP) patients.
4. Create computer-based clinical systems where health disparities are most prevalent.
5. Survey minorities and LEP populations when developing health IT tools.

Check out the complete article here, and the accompanying editorial by Adil Haider and Peter Pronovost of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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Unfortunately, while we may be able to recognize change of this kind as it approaches, we often struggle when it comes to adapting our behavior to meet it. But the risks of moving too slowly in response to such changes can be profound, as those working healthcare know all too well.

Today’s limited English proficiency (LEP) populations continue to struggle when it comes to accessing healthcare services. And while the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) does address the issue, there is much more to be done to ensure LEP patients are served, and compliance requirements met.

viaLanguage is looking to help with a free webinar on Dec. 6 entitled, “Language Services in the New Millennium: Tips to ensure compliance and improve quality communications with non-English speakers.” The webinar will address the following:

• An overview of PPACA as it relates to language access in the healthcare field
• Real-life examples for ensuring secure, accurate and compliant translations
• Effective strategies for saving time and money on the translation process

Learn how to keep current with language access mandates, while still providing culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare communications. You can register here. We hope you can join us.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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But there are challenges. So, if you’re considering or developing an e-Learning program for your health plan staff, here are a few tips to consider:

• Be choosy – Hire staff that not only fit the bill for a given job, but also demonstrate an ability to effectively work independently. Not everyone can.
• Adapt to the employee – It’s best to let the remote workers drive their schedule and routine. They are typically in the best position to make that call and will feel invested.
• Provide the right tools – Tools like email, smart phones, Internet, private networks, shared docs and software as a service (SaaS) applications are even more pivotal for remote workers, and they must be ready on day one.
• Start face to face – Success is so often about relationships, and those are best established in a face-to-face setting. First bring your far-flung staff together to build a sense of belonging and set expectations.
• Conduct training – If people are trained to use it, supporting technology can provide myriad benefits. From simultaneous chat to Skype to instant messaging tools like Yammer, these tools can help keep the team connected, engaged, and productive.

The move to a greater reliance on remote workers is under way across industries. As health plans adapt, keeping these key recommendations in mind will help smooth the transition and promote more effective e-Learning.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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The upside is enormous as efficiencies are found for less cost. Still, there are challenges and some remain daunting. Among the most pressing is how best to train these increasingly far-flung personnel. As travel and logistical considerations made traditional face-to-face classroom approaches both too inflexible and too expensive, a new solution became necessary.

An increasing number of organizations are finding the answer to the Internet revolution on the Internet in the form of e-learning. The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) reported that in 2009 27.7 percent of all formal learning hours were online, a jump from about 23 percent in 2008.

Not surprisingly, these trends are dramatically impacting healthcare organizations as well. This is particularly important for staff tasked with supporting and managing health plans. Given the frequent changes and updates made to insurance plans, it is critical that health plan sales teams, channel resellers, and other partners have the most current information.

But making the change to e-learning can be difficult, especially when those with whom you are dealing are scattered across the globe. In our next post, we’ll address a few tips for helping your health plan staff make the transition to e-learning. In the meantime, be sure and register for our upcoming webinar December 8 on Emerging Learning Trends in Healthcare: How to boost channel engagement, learning and retention.

Till next time,
Steve
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With that focus in mind, we were pleased and proud to recently announce our third grant recipients—Akron Children’s Hospital (ACH) and Caring Health Center (CHC). These are special organizations. ACH is the only one in its community offering a Language Access Services (LAS) Program, which is critical as Akron is a refugee resettlement area. This means it must contend with a broad range of languages and cultures, from Nepali and Burmese to Karen and Spanish speaking.

CHC, meanwhile, works with the rapidly growing immigrant populations arriving in and around Springfield, MA. Among those they must serve are people from Vietnam, Russia, Iraq, Turkey, Bosnia, Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan, and Liberia, among others. In 2010 alone, nearly 7,000 of CHC’s patients preferred a language other than English.

The viaLanguage Translation Grant is a unique in-kind donation program. We seek out those organization that contributing the health care of these underserved populations. For their leadership and commitment, ACH and CHC will each receive $1,500 of in-kind translation services.

If you work for an organization or know of one that deserves to be recognized, encourage them to apply. At a time when the health care challenges can seem overwhelming, it’s never been more important to spotlight those organizations that are helping lead the way.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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A recent study published in the Journal of Operations Management underscores once more this fact and what is put at risk when short shrift is given to translation. The investigation sought to answer a fundamental question: Does offshore production of pharmaceuticals pose a heightened quality risk compared to drugs produced in the U.S.? And if so, what are the factors at the root of the increased risk?

The study compared the relative safety of those drugs manufactured in a sample of 30 pairs of regulated drug manufacturing plants in the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico matched by parent firm and by product standard industrial code.

Sadly, the results are not encouraging. The authors discovered that the Puerto Rican plants operate with a “significantly higher quality risk” than matching plants in the mainland U.S. operated by the same firm.

It will come as little surprise to medical translators that language plays a key role in this breakdown in quality. As the study’s lead author points out, “We believe the quality differences we found in Puerto Rican plants were driven by challenges in transferring knowledge from headquarters to the plant, due to cultural differences, primarily differences in language and values.”

Thank you to the blog Medical Translation Insight for sharing the study. The complete results are available for purchase at the Science Direct website.

Till next time,
Steve
viaLanguage

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For today’s reform to truly benefit those it intends to serve among the Hispanic population, steps must be taken to ensure that such offerings are clearly understood. Such programs can be a challenge for English-speaking audiences familiar with insurance and how it works. The same is likely to be doubly true of Hispanics, especially those more recently arrived in the country.

Questions as fundamental as what the program offers, who is eligible, and how to enroll must be filtered through a keen understanding of Spanish and the broader Hispanic culture. Even the tagline of the program can be a stumbling block, as Regence discovered. When the line “Together we can take charge” failed to resonate,” further exploration among Hispanics led to the modification “Juntos podemos” or “Together we can.” This line proved to be more culturally meaningful.

There are other issues to bear in mind as health reform proceeds. The most challenging may be fear. Concerned about possible impact on immigration status, Hispanics are often reluctant to participate in government-sponsored programs. A sensitivity to this obstacle must be included in the development of messaging and materials.

Much work has gone into developing a healthcare system that addresses those who have heretofore been excluded or at the very least overlooked. Now that we are attempting to resolve these stubborn issues it would be tragic, both for the work already done and for those who stand to benefit, if we failed to address the necessary language and culture issues as well.

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Steve
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National Public Radio recently reported that due to some recent development many in the pharmaceutical industry are electing to abandon Facebook. Until recently, Facebook allowed these companies to exclude public comments. The recent announcement that that exception will end has led some to shutter their pages.

According to the story, “Take On Depression” disappeared, as did “ADHD Moms” and “Epilepsy Advocate.” The concern among the drug makers is that they are not sufficiently able to police comments to ensure that the information being shared about prescription drugs is accurate. These same companies must also comply with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “fair balance” requirements.

But the reality is that FDA hasn’t reprimanded a single drug company due to public comments. And many of the community benefits enjoyed by independent social media sites are being lost. Perhaps it’s only fitting that established industries like pharma are still trying to determine if and how to use emerging communication tools. It’s the job of experienced medical marketers to help provide guide them.

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Steve
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Not surprisingly, medical marketers have also turned to these new technologies as a means for connecting with their specific patient populations. What is not always clear is which of these vehicles is most effective and why.

A recent Acsys Interactive survey sought to provide some insight on those questions, and the results were revealing. Consider, for example, that about 33 percent of the 101 participants from hospitals and healthcare systems see online videos as being a very effective means of achieving their marketing objectives. But barely half that number can say the same for Twitter.

According to the survey, among large hospital respondents some 15 percent of communications is currently conducted via online tools. But that is a number those same respondents expect to grow to 40 percent by 2013. For small and medium-sized hospitals (fewer than 401 beds) the numbers were 3 percent and 28 percent, respectively, both sizable jumps.

The growth of such tools seems unavoidable, and their potential benefits only limited by one’s imagination. The challenge is finding the right mix for your organization and then developing a strategy for your audiences based not on guesses, but on a sound, clear understanding of their preferences and behavior.

Till next time,
Steve
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