Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland.
Department of Clinical Speech & Language Studies, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jun 9;24(6):e32439. doi: 10.2196/32439.
Persons who are deaf are more likely to avoid health care providers than those who can hear, partially because of the lack of means of communication with these providers and the dearth of available interpreters. The use of video remote interpretation, namely the video camera on an electronic device, to connect deaf patients and health providers has rapidly expanded owing to its flexibility and advantageous cost compared with in-person sign language interpretation. Thus, we need to learn more about how this technology could effectively engage with and respond to the priorities of its users.
We aimed to identify existing evidence regarding the use of video remote interpretation (VRI) in health care settings and to assess whether VRI technology can enable deaf users to overcome barriers to interpretation and improve communication outcomes between them and health care personnel.
We conducted a search in 7 medical research databases (including MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar) from 2006 including bibliographies and citations of relevant papers. The searches included articles in English, Spanish, and French. The eligibility criteria for study selection included original articles on the use of VRI for deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) sign language users for, or within, health care.
From the original 176 articles identified, 120 were eliminated after reading the article title and abstract, and 41 articles were excluded after they were fully read. In total, 15 articles were included in this study: 4 studies were literature reviews, 4 were surveys, 3 were qualitative studies, and 1 was a mixed methods study that combined qualitative and quantitative data, 1 brief communication, 1 quality improvement report, and 1 secondary analysis. In this scoping review, we identified a knowledge gap regarding the quality of interpretation and training in sign language interpretation for health care. It also shows that this area is underresearched, and evidence is scant. All evidence came from high-income countries, which is particularly problematic given that most DHH persons live in low- and middle-income countries.
Furthering our understanding of the use of VRI technology is pertinent and relevant. The available literature shows that VRI may enable deaf users to overcome interpretation barriers and can potentially improve communication outcomes between them and health personnel within health care services. For VRI to be acceptable, sign language users require a VRI system supported by devices with large screens and a reliable internet connection, as well as qualified interpreters trained on medical interpretation.
与能听见的人相比，聋人更有可能回避医疗保健提供者，部分原因是缺乏与这些提供者沟通的手段，以及缺乏可用的口译员。由于视频远程口译（即电子设备上的摄像头）具有灵活性和比现场手语口译更有利的成本优势，因此它已迅速扩展，用于连接聋人患者和医疗保健提供者。因此，我们需要更多地了解这项技术如何能够有效地满足其用户的需求并对其做出回应。
我们旨在确定有关在医疗保健环境中使用视频远程口译（VRI）的现有证据，并评估 VRI 技术是否可以使聋人用户克服口译障碍，并改善他们与医疗保健人员之间的沟通结果。
我们在 2006 年从 7 个医学研究数据库（包括 MEDLINE、Web of Science、Embase 和 Google Scholar）中进行了搜索，包括相关论文的参考文献和引文。搜索包括英语、西班牙语和法语的文章。研究选择的纳入标准包括使用 VRI 为聋人或重听（DHH）手语用户进行或在医疗保健范围内进行的原始文章。
从最初确定的 176 篇文章中，有 120 篇在阅读文章标题和摘要后被排除，有 41 篇在全文阅读后被排除。总共纳入了 15 篇文章：4 篇为文献综述，4 篇为调查，3 篇为定性研究，1 篇为结合定性和定量数据的混合方法研究，1 篇为简要交流，1 篇为质量改进报告，1 篇为二次分析。在本次范围综述中，我们发现了一个与医疗保健中的手语口译质量和培训有关的知识空白。它还表明，这一领域的研究不足，证据稀少。所有证据都来自高收入国家，这尤其成问题，因为大多数 DHH 人生活在中低收入国家。
进一步了解 VRI 技术的使用是相关和重要的。现有文献表明，VRI 可能使聋人用户能够克服口译障碍，并有可能改善他们与医疗保健服务中的卫生人员之间的沟通结果。为了使 VRI 被接受，手语用户需要一个由具有大屏幕和可靠互联网连接的设备支持的 VRI 系统，以及经过医学口译培训的合格口译员。
