bengali for NYC pharmacists…
the language access in pharmacies act passed in 2009 requires pharmacies in NYC to offer translated drug labels to clients from ethnic neighborhoods speaking one of the city’s seven most common foreign languages, including korean and bengali. a 2010 study evaluating the accuracy of labels translated into spanish found an overall error rate of no less than 50%. the vast majorityof pharmacies used computerized translation software, and only 3% used a professional translator.
while providing information in a patient’s native language certainly is a laudable undertaking, the way the act has actually been implemented does not appear to have eliminated the disparities it was designed to amend. translation—looks simple, but isn’t.
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