Lyonnais. An application to help families who do not speak French in pediatric emergencies
Through Nicolas Drusien
Published on
It’s not always easy to make yourself understood in the hospital when you don’t speak the language. Two interns Lyon Civil Hospices have devised an application so that all patients can describe their symptoms to healthcare professionals.
The Marti project, as it was named, underwent a first phase of experimentation in the pediatric emergency room of Lyon Woman Mother Child Hospital, from May 26 to June 4, 2021. Thanks to a touchscreen tablet that houses hundreds of pictograms in a multitude of languages, 23 parents were able to describe their children’s symptoms during this period.
These pictograms are images describing the effects of the disease as simply as possible and have been specially designed for the application: coughing, vomiting, receiving, pain, discomfort, burns, etc.
It takes between 5 and 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire. Rather useful for families who do not speak French and for the doctor who can see it more clearly at the time of treatment. The first feedback has been very positive.
One in ten people in the emergency room speak little or no French
A second version of the application was tested on August 12 at the end of 2021. A period during which the medical and paramedical teams used the Marti project in complete autonomy.
Next step: extend the application in the various pediatric emergency services in France. An appeal that should not be refused knowing that each year, in France, more than 21 million people are in emergencies and that one in ten speaks little or no French.
It is from this observation that started Quentin Paulik and Iliès Haddou, internal to the HCL of Lyon, to create the application. When the language barrier is a problem, “the questioning is then difficult and often interrupted prematurely for lack of time, leading to a high risk of misdiagnosis and poor management,” they recall in a press release.
Towards national development
The concept of Quentin Paulik and Iliès Haddou was then developed with the medical and pediatric emergency care teams of the Femme Mère Enfant hospital in Lyon, as well as the innovation department of the HCLs and the management of the Groupement Hospitalier Est.
The project was then supported by scientific expertise from researchers in linguistics and interactional analysis from the Icar laboratory, with the support of the Lyon-Est faculty of medicine.
The Pulsalys incubator has planned to financially support the project for national development.
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