ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2021
A Pragmatic Assessment of Google Translate for Emergency Department Instructions.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Relationships between cognition and daily functioning in adults with bipolar disorder: A systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- Bridging language gaps in healthcare: a systematic review of the practical implementation of neural machine translation technologies in clinical settings.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Pooled it
- Usability of technological tools to overcome language barriers in healthcare- a scoping review.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Pooled it
- Google Translate Voice App vs. Qualified Interpreters: An Exploratory Study of Clinical Accuracy in Real-World Speech/Voice Encounters.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Perceptions of People From South Asian Backgrounds With Chronic Kidney Disease on Digital Health Interventions: Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Consultation Focus Group.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Comparative Evaluation of ChatGPT, Google Translate, and UD Talk for Chinese-to-Japanese Translation in Cardiology and Pulmonology Outpatient Consultations: Prospective Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Evaluating LingualAI: a prospective validation of AI-based real-time translation against certified human interpreters.npj health systems · 2026Article
- Assessment of Artificial Intelligence-based Translation Tools for Emergency Department Discharge Instructions.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Multilingual Accessibility of Health Websites for Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: A Methodological Systematic Review.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Review
- Linguistic Barriers in U.S. Neuropsychological Assessment: A State-of-the-Art Review.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2026Review
- Evaluation of the accuracy and safety of machine translation of patient-specific discharge instructions: a comparative analysis.BMJ quality & safety · 2026Article
- Understanding language barriers within patient portals: workarounds and opportunities for Spanish-speaking caregivers.JAMIA open · 2026Article
- Evaluating Spanish Translations of Emergency Department Discharge Instructions by a Large Language Model: Tool Validation and Reliability Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- The DO-KB knowledgebase 2026 update: expanding programmatic and language access.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Delivery of interpreting services in UK primary care by population needs: a multisite case study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Evaluating human-in-the-loop strategies for artificial intelligence-enabled translation of patient discharge instructions: a multidisciplinary analysis.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Accuracy of Artificial Intelligence vs Professionally Translated Discharge Instructions.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Scoping Review of Adult Emergency Department Discharge Interventions.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- What makes a 'good' decision with artificial intelligence? A grounded theory study in paediatric care.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBecause many hospitals have no mechanism for written translation, ED providers resort to the use of automated translation software, such as Google Translate (GT) for patient instructions. A recent study of discharge instructions in Spanish and Chinese suggested that accuracy rates of Google Translate (GT) were high. STUDY
objectiveTo perform a pragmatic assessment of GT for the written translation of commonly used ED discharge instructions in seven commonly spoken languages.
methodsA prospective assessment of the accuracy of GT for 20 commonly used ED discharge instruction phrases, as evaluated by a convenience sample of native speakers of seven commonly spoken languages (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Armenian, and Farsi). Translations were evaluated using a previously validated matrix for scoring machine translation, containing 5-point Likert scales for fluency, adequacy, meaning, and severity, in addition to a dichotomous assessment of retention of the overall meaning.
resultsTwenty volunteers evaluated 400 google translated discharge statements. Volunteers were 50% female and spoke Spanish (5), Armenian (2), Chinese (3), Tagalog (4), Korean (2), and Farsi (2). The overall meaning was retained for 82.5% (330/400) of the translations. Spanish had the highest accuracy rate (94%), followed by Tagalog (90%), Korean (82.5%), Chinese (81.7%), Farsi (67.5%), and Armenian (55%). Mean Likert scores (on a 5-point scale) were high for fluency (4.2), adequacy (4.4), meaning (4.3), and severity (4.3) but also varied.
conclusionGT for discharge instructions in the ED is inconsistent between languages and should not be relied on for patient instructions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.