New videoconferencing services are helping non-English speakers in Missouri communicate with their physicians, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The Missouri Telehealth Interpretation Project links the Missouri Telehealth Network with interpreters from St. Louis' Language Access Metro Project.
Patients using the service describe their ailments to a remote interpreter, who then translates the information for a physician. Physicians then relay their advice back to the patient through the interpreter.
Since the project's launch last year, 48 of the Missouri's 114 counties have linked into the network. Officials expect the project to expand to 58 counties by the end of this year.
The Missouri Foundation for Health funds the program through a two-year grant. The grant is scheduled to run out in October 2010 (Jackson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/1).