Point-of-care interpretation applications are limited by small phrase libraries and a narrow range of supported languages

Current point-of-care interpretation applications are constrained by limited libraries of pre-translated phrases and a narrow range of supported languages, and the most common improvement users request is a larger phrase library and more languages.

Narrative synthesis #

Across the eight included applications, phrase libraries ranged from 32 to 1800 unique phrases and language support from 1 to 39 languages; the review identifies the restricted phrase and language range as a shared design limitation and as the single most frequent improvement authors recommend. This is a mechanism/design-constraint claim about the fixed-phrase and image-based application designs. Certainty/GRADE appraisal is left for expert review.

"The most common suggestion by authors was that users would like a larger library of phrases and more languages available in the application" (Kiblinger, 2024, p. 4)

"The restricted range of languages interpreted in the articles included in this review is a limitation, pointing to the need for future applications to include a wider range of translated languages." (Kiblinger, 2024, p. 4)