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Language barriers in healthcare are more than just an inconvenience—they represent a significant clinical risk and a major obstacle to health equity. In the United States alone, over 25 million people have limited English proficiency (LEP), a reality that contributes to longer hospital stays, greater admission and readmission rates, more emergency room visits, and worse outcomes.
How can healthcare systems bridge this critical communication gap at scale?
Jaide Health CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Joe Corkery, recently joined Jason Schifman, Co-Founder & President of SCALE Healthcare, on the Healthcare Technology & Innovation podcast to tackle this very question. Their conversation explored the many challenges and costs of scaling multilingual care and offered a look into how technology is poised to transform language access for patients and providers alike.
During the podcast, Dr. Corkery provided a live demonstration of the Jaide Health platform, showing in real-time how AI interpretation can seamlessly enable a conversation between a Spanish-speaking patient and an English-speaking clinician.
Our web-based platform, which currently supports 35 spoken languages and over 80 for written translation (language support), is designed to run on the devices that clinicians are already using—from mobile devices to desktops.
While facilitating interpretation and translation with AI is our focus, our vision is to create a more connected and equitable experience that empowers clinicians to deliver and patients to receive high quality care.
The communication journey for LEP patients is often fragmented long before and after they enter the exam room. Dr. Corkery noted that many health systems struggle to support these patients across the full continuum of care. Because accessing traditional translation services can be cumbersome, critical touchpoints are frequently missed.
A friction-free solution like Jaide enables clinicians to engage with their patients immediately, 24/7, with no waiting or advanced planning. This is a game changer, especially for nursing, who have many brief and unscheduled encounters with the patients in their care.
Furthermore, Jaide’s support for real-time written (in addition to spoken) translation enables health systems to expand language access to every part of the patient journey. Providers can now easily translate pre-visit instructions, check-in/check-out, post-visit discharge summaries, scheduling requests, and even patient portal messages. By integrating seamlessly into existing workflows, we ensure language access is not an afterthought, but a consistent part of the care experience.
The conversation also explored the rapid evolution of AI in medical translation. Referencing a recent study from Boston Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center where AI tools outperformed human translators in fluency and accuracy for certain languages, Dr. Corkery explained Jaide's belief that AI has the potential to leapfrog traditional approaches, empowering clinicians to have equal touch points across all patients, and allowing existing interpreters to practice at the top of their license.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how technology is breaking down one of healthcare’s biggest barriers:
Jaide Health is a technology company developing AI-powered healthcare-specific, foreign language interpretation and translation services. Leveraging recent advances in large language models, Jaide Health enables healthcare organizations to improve the overall experience for patients with Limited English Proficiency. Led by “techy clinicians” and security/privacy experts, Jaide Health is venture backed by Inovia Capital, Flare Capital, and Innovation Global. Follow us on LinkedIn and visit www.jaide-health.com to learn more.
Follow us on LinkedIn and visit www.jaide-health.com to learn more.
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