The importance of language in the biosanitary environment

The role of language in health science is of utmost importance in the everyday work of health professionals, and deserves much more attention than it usually receives. Hence, in this new monograph of the Esteve Foundation, 14 experts address the different fields of health in which language plays a decisive role.

Communication between research colleagues, consultation with patients, lecture rooms and scientific dissemination. These form the different stages in a biosanitary professional career, which are analysed from a linguistic viewpoint, in the book La importancia del lenguaje en el entorno biosanitario (The importance of language in the biosanitary environment), by the medical translator, Fernando A. Navarro, author of the Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de traducción del inglés médico (Dictionary of doubts and difficulties in medical translations from English), and by Bertha M. Gutiérrez Rodilla, professor of medical language of the Universidad de Salamanca.

The paediatrician, José Ignacio de Arana opens the section in the healthcare environment, and asks his colleagues for greater clarity and precision when speaking to patients, particularly in the prognosis.“Our language must come down from the heights of science to everyday language”, he states. Bárbara Navaza, of the International Medical Interpreters Association, illustrates two disciplines, health interpretation and cultural mediation. These are vital to guarantee doctor-patient communication in a country with over six million resident foreigners.

Regarding language in the field of research, Juan Aréchaga, professor of cell biology of the Universidad del País Vasco, states that the Spanish language can only become an international science language, if it is done from global journals. Jesús Porta Etessam, director of the department of culture of the Spanish Society of Neurology, recommends that journals in Spanish should use all resources and technology to promote their authors.

Language in education, the third section of the book, is examined by Josep-Eladi Baños and Elena Guardiola, both from the department of experimental and health sciences of Universitat Pompeu Fabra. “To speak and write correctly should not be a secondary goal for university lecturers”, they conclude. Another two experts in handling medical language in the lecture room, Bertha Gutiérrez (Universidad de Salamanca) and Carmen Quijada (Casa de las Lenguas of the Universidad de Oviedo), have persisted in the design of two terminological skills which students should achieve by the end of the degree, and also for a future subject on biosanitary language.

The last section focuses on the media. In order to stop the decline of scientific information, the journalist, Gonzalo Casino proposes greater specialization of professionals and a style guidebook of medical journalism with a glossary of the most problematic terms. Javier González de Dios, responsible for the blog Pediatría basada en pruebas (Paediatrics based on tests), warns scientists that they have no choice but to form part of information and communication technologies, as long as they do so with the same precise language they would use in other media.

You can ask for or download free of charge in PDF, the Esteve Monograph La importancia del lenguaje en el entorno biosanitario (The importance of language in the biosanitary environment).