Central Ohio Hospital Council “Health Information Translations” Project Summary

Posted by Darlene Kaskie on February 20th, 2023 Posted in: Blog, Funding, News from the Region

Effective communication is a marker of health care quality. Shared language between patients and health care providers enables gathering information for diagnosis, explaining treatment strategies, and ensuring understanding and joint decision-making. The Network of the National Library of Medicine promotes access, use, and understanding of health information for everyone. Therefore, NNLM supported two projects that made health information accessible for multiple cultural and language speakers. One of these projects is the “Health Information Translations” led by the Central Ohio Hospital Council.

In May 2022, the Central Ohio Hospital Council was awarded $19,999 in funding from the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Region 6 to support the efforts of “Health Information Translations” during the performance period June 1, 2022 through April 30, 2023. This memo serves as the final report for the work accomplished this year by Health Information Translations using the funds awarded.

As way of background, Health Information Translations (HIT) is a website for low-literacy health information translated into multiple languages. Healthinfotranslations.org was established to share translated health information, predominantly for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations. Primarily provided for health care providers serving LEP patients, it is also available for individuals to access at no cost in up to 14 languages, depending on the topic. HIT was launched in 2005 as a collaboration of Central Ohio Hospital Council and the primary central Ohio health systems to reduce the barriers to providing health content in a person’s preferred language. Accessing quality health information in different languages can be challenging and translating content by trained professionals is costly. By pooling resources, commonly needed topics could be translated once and shared widely. Currently, there are 374 titles on the HIT site, totaling 3,552 separate documents.

Using the funds awarded by NNLM, this year the Health Information Translations website was able to update or add 131 files to the HIT website. Those titles below, including the languages in which they were translated, are provide in the link below. The titles can be viewed by control-clicking on the hyperlinks in the left column.

COHC spent all funds awarded directly on costs for translation. Clinicians employed by the four Franklin County hospital systems reviewed and edited the titles at no cost.

On behalf of the central Ohio hospital systems, we appreciate the partnership with NNLM in providing these important resources, not only to residents of central Ohio, but also to clinicians and patients throughout the United States who regularly utilize the HIT website as a trusted resource.

— Jeff Klingler, President and CEO of Central Ohio Hospital Council

Health Information Translations – Central Ohio Hospital Council

ABOUT Darlene Kaskie
Darlene Kaskie, M.L.S. is Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist for Region 6 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine. She connects communities to training, engagement, and funding to improve access to health information and NLM Resources such as MedlinePlus. Advancing health literacy and digital skills training helps people make informed decisions about their health. She earned her Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS) from the Medical Library Association.

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