New technology fights nonadherence in multiple languages

According to most estimates, the costs exerted on the healthcare system due to poor medication adherence are about $290 billion per year, but it’s an issue that can be a particular problem among people living in the United States who have limited or no English skills.

One company, Morrisville, N.C.-based Polyglot Systems, has recently partnered with a number of other companies to help make medication adherence information accessible to non-English-speaking patients. In February, it partnered with CellePathicRx to provide its Meducation content, which is available in multiple languages, to patients through mobile Web and email technologies. And in December, the company partnered with nonprofit health information technology provider and clinical information exchange HEALTHeLINK to provide Meducation content in multiple languages to the rapidly growing Southeast Asian and Eastern African refugee populations in western New York state.

Meanwhile, Language Line Services provides pharmacies and other healthcare centers with special two-receiver telephones that allow three-way conversations among an English-speaking pharmacist, a non-English-speaking patient and an interpreter.