Hospitals Upgrade FG Handling

[Mulboyne]

Just a few mouse clicks away...
Kippo: Auto-translation system for foreign patients developed
The Kohka Public Hospital...has developed a clinical application of personal computer for communicating with foreign outpatients...Translated medical treatment-related sentences such as "Please specify degree of stomach ache" and terms are displayed on the PC screen. Foreign outpatients point to prepared sentences and terms on the screen or input figures in the processes of preliminary questionnaire, medical interviews and medical explanations. The newly developed system is capable of responding to outpatients in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. The translation for foreign outpatients...has so far depended almost entirely on interpreters dispatched from manpower agencies and volunteers...Moreover, it has been difficult to confirm whether interpreter's translation is appropriate. Clinical application tests on 15 outpatients...show that the new system won high marks as 14 of the 15 outpatients said they could understand what doctors said either fully or to some extent.

[amdg]

Just a few mouse clicks away...
Kippo: Auto-translation system for foreign patients developed
The Kohka Public Hospital...has developed a clinical application of personal computer for communicating with foreign outpatients...Translated medical treatment-related sentences such as "Please specify degree of stomach ache" and terms are displayed on the PC screen. Foreign outpatients point to prepared sentences and terms on the screen or input figures in the processes of preliminary questionnaire, medical interviews and medical explanations. The newly developed system is capable of responding to outpatients in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. The translation for foreign outpatients...has so far depended almost entirely on interpreters dispatched from manpower agencies and volunteers...Moreover, it has been difficult to confirm whether interpreter's translation is appropriate. Clinical application tests on 15 outpatients...show that the new system won high marks as 14 of the 15 outpatients said they could understand what doctors said either fully or to some extent.

Amateurs! Let me show you how to word a piece like that.

the new system won high marks as 15 of the 15 outpatients said they could understand what doctors said either fully or not at all.

15 out of 15 baby! That's how to win public opinion.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: When the interpreter gets it flat wrong
The charge involved "an act committed in a locked room," said the court interpreter, leaving English-speakers in the courtroom scratching their heads in confusion. What sort of charge was that? It turned out the trouble stemmed from a misheard phrase-mihitsu no koi-that should have been rendered as "willful negligence," an intentional act or misconduct in disregard of a known risk. The Japanese legal term is very close in pronunciation to misshitsu (locked room) no koi (act). Such confusing moments often happen in Japan's courts and hospitals, raising possibilities of injustice and medical malpractice in worst cases... The situation with hospital interpreters is just as lax. The medical field counts mainly on volunteers, even though expertise is required on most occasions, such as when doctors are trying to obtain informed consent. Noriko Muramatsu, 41, who heads the Medint group, is a Japanese-Spanish interpreter. She says she finds it difficult to give an accurate explanation for some medical conditions...more...