Interpreter proxy survey administration (family or carer, 2-way telephone)

Purpose #

A pragmatic, low-cost method for administering patient-reported outcome surveys by telephone to LEP patients, using the patient's own family member or carer as the interpreter proxy in place of a certified professional healthcare interpreter — the intervention whose reliability this study evaluates against the professional-interpreter "gold standard."

Mechanism #

The interview is conducted as a 2-way telephone call: an English-speaking research officer reads the standard survey questions on one end, and the family/carer proxy on the other end translates the questions and the patient's responses to and from the patient's preferred language. This contrasts with the certified-interpreter comparator, which uses a 3-way conference call connecting research officer, professional interpreter, and patient (organised through the Sydney South West Local Health District Language Services).

"Interviews with interpreter proxies were performed in a 2-way telephone call with the research officer on one end and the proxy translating the interview questions and responses to and from the patient on the other end." (Xue, 2019, p. 2)

Example(s) #

Deployed within the ACORN clinical quality registry (see A-0010ArtifactA-0010Initial AI draftACORN Arthroplasty Clinical Outcomes Registry NationalThe Arthroplasty Clinical Outcomes Registry National (ACORN) is the clinical quality registry that provides this study's setting: it collects health-outcome data on patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty a…) to collect 6-month post-arthroplasty PROMs (EQ-5D-5L, EQ-VAS, Oxford Hip/Knee Score, satisfaction, success, readmission, reoperation, complications) from LEP patients, motivated by the cost and limited availability of certified interpreters.