Clinical Linguistics and EMR Interoperability

Hi fellow Informaticists, CMIOs, CNIOs, and other #HealthIT enthusiasts,

For today's post, I wanted to muse on a favorite subject : What can language management teach us about design of clinical documentation and EMR interoperabilty?

To answer this, it's helpful to first understand the three common models of communication used in clinical settings : 

1. Synchronous Communication - Undocumented, real-time communication, where both sender and recipient are sharing the same moment in time - E.g. face-to-face conversations, telephone conversations, video chats, or meetings
2. Asynchronous Communication - Documented communication, where both sender and recipient are separated in time - E.g. EMRs, HIEs, Notes, charts, graphs, videos, recordings, videos, voicemails
3. Hybrid Communication - Shares features of both, e.g. Texting, social media, Twitter, recorded phone calls, etc.

Professional interpreters and translators (like you might find at the U.N.) have worked for years to manage communications across these models - What can healthcare learn from them?

To help answer these questions, I've developed the following 14-minute-3-second video, for your consideration : 

I hope you enjoyed it - Leave your thoughts or feedback in the comments section below!