Wearable technology is transforming the healthcare landscape. From fitness trackers to blood sugar monitors, wearables empower individuals to take more control over their health. Yet wearable data is equally valuable for healthcare providers and health insurers. They can use it to provide personalized recommendations and develop resources that target specific demographics—including limited English proficiency (LEP) speakers.
Given that many commercial wearables allow users to choose their preferred language, they can be particularly useful for LEP speakers. They provide recommendations that a user may not receive otherwise, and the language data they generate can help improve health outcomes. That’s because wearable data can inform decisions on interpreting, website localization, and other healthcare translation needs.
But before we dive into how wearable data can improve LEP patient care specifically, let’s take a look at the benefits for both healthcare providers and health insurers.
Benefits for Healthcare Providers
Wearables offer a window into a patient’s behavior and lifestyle. More reliable than self-reporting for metrics such as daily activity, these devices help doctors develop personalized treatment plans.
Yet wearable data not only improves individual patient care. Hospitals that use remote patient monitoring—including wearables—saw improvements across metrics such as hospital admission, readmission, patient satisfaction, operating costs, and more.
Benefits for Health Insurers
Rising health insurance premiums pose a major barrier for U.S. residents who need access to healthcare. However, wearables can help reduce premiums by incentivizing members to improve their lifestyle. For example, Humana developed a platform that allows members to connect their wearables with the Go365® app, the company’s wellness and rewards program.
Benefits for LEP Communities
LEP patients typically experience poorer health outcomes due, in part, to a lack of language support. Language preference data can help healthcare organizations determine which languages have the highest demand and how much they need to budget for interpreting and translation services.
LEP speakers may need access to a remote interpreter to:
- Schedule a doctor’s appointment over the phone.
- Complete patient forms, including insurance information.
- Communicate with healthcare providers.
- Speak with a customer service representative about health insurance coverage.
In order to access patient portals, member portals, and other online resources, they may need to have the website translated into their preferred language. This is also true for office signage, patient forms, information about treatment options, and other print materials.
However, the benefits of collecting language data go beyond assisting individual patients. It can also help organizations develop multilingual patient education. By combining language data with health trends across racial and ethnic groups, organizations can create public health campaigns and other types of outreach in multiple languages.
With the purpose of improving outcomes for LEP patients, organizations must take information such as race, ethnicity, health trends, and language preferences into consideration. Using this data to provide multicultural and multilingual patient experiences is an essential part of providing more effective healthcare.
Working with Avantpage
If you need assistance with translation, website localization and/or interpreting, we recommend working with a language service provider (LSP) that specializes in healthcare. At Avantpage, we’ve worked with hospitals and clinics, health insurers, and other health organizations to provide the language support LEP speakers need. By analyzing data, we can make recommendations on language choices, content development, and more.
Ready to discuss your multilingual project? Contact us today to get started.
