Intercultural health communication

Language, technology and communication in healthcare

On 10 December 2018, RUMACCC - in conjunction with the Department of Medical Education, the Centre for Stem Cell Systems and the Centre for Integrated Critical Care - hosted a symposium which brought together interdisciplinary researchers, clinicians, and educators to discuss aspects of communication for healthcare in the 21st century.

CALDER: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Ethics and Research resources

Clinical research plays an important role in improving outcomes for older patients and provides direct benefits to participants. To participate in clinical research, informed consent is required where patients acknowledge they have understood all dimensions of their involvement. However, research information is often given in highly complex written documents. This not only excludes large sections of our community due to cultural, linguistic, and literacy barriers but also poses scientific challenges as trial data are not representative of the target populations. The CALDER project addresses this problem by exploring the development of a simple, robust, cost effective and accessible method of delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate research information to patients and their families.

Publications

• Woodward-Kron, Robyn, Bresin, Agnese, Hajek, John, Parker, Anna, Phan, Tuong Dien, Hughson, Jo-anne and Story, David. 2019. “Improving access to and participation in medical research for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background patients: A bilingual, digital communication approach,” in Meng, J. (ed.), Cross-Cultural Health Translation: Exploring Methodological and Digital Tools. Abingdon, UK: Routledge
• Woodward-Kron, Robyn, Hughson, Jo-anne, Parker, Anna, Bresin, Agnese, Hajek, John, Knoch, Ute, Phan, Tuong Dien and Story, David (2016), “Culturally and linguistically diverse populations in medical research: perceptions and experiences of older Italians, their families, ethics administrators and researchers,” in Journal of Public Health, 5(1), pp. 43-51
• Hughson, Jo-anne, Woodward-Kron, Robyn, Parker, Anna, Hajek, John, Bresin, Agnese, Knoch, Ute, Phan, Tuong Dien and Story, David (2016), “A review of approaches to improve participation of culturally and linguistically diverse populations in clinical trials,” in Trials, 17(1), p. 263

We-HELP: Western e-Health patient information portal for Pregnancy

Access to accurate and trusted information about pregnancy and to related health services is vital for safe and successful pregnancies. This can be challenging particularly for women (and their families) new to the Australian health system or from socioeconomically, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The We-HELP project aims to produce a prototype web-app, which efficiently disseminates patient-centred information that is easily accessible and culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Apart from RUMACCC researchers, the team includes clinicians and medical researchers from Western Health and The University of Melbourne and information technology experts.

Publications

• Hughson, Jo-anne, Daly, Justin Oliver, Woodward-Kron, Robyn, Hajek, John and Story, David (2018), “The rise of pregnancy apps and the implications for culturally and linguistically diverse women: Narrative review,” in JMIR mHealth and uHealth 6(11):e189
• Hughson, Jo-anne, Marshall Fiona, Daly, Justin Oliver, Woodward-Kron, Robyn, Hajek, John and Story, David (2018), “Health professionals’ views on health literacy issues for culturally and linguistically diverse women in maternity care: barriers, enablers and the need for an integrated approach,” in Australian Health Review, 42(1), pp. 10-20
• Smith, W., Wadley, G., Daly, O., Webb, M., Hughson, Jo-ann, Hajek, John, Parker, Anna and Story, David (2017), “Designing an app for pregnancy care for a culturally and linguistically diverse community,” in Proceedings of the 29th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI 2017), Brisbane November 2017, 10 pp.