DICTUM – Digital communication aids for non-German speaking patients in the border transit camp Friedland

Treating patients who hardly speak German is a great challenge for general practitioners: it is often almost impossible to provide adequate medical care while taking the patient's individual needs into account. Interpreters, however, are difficult to find, especially in rural areas, and their funding is usually unclear. In such situations, physicians often rely on lay interpreters, which is problematic in terms of translation accuracy and data protection.

In DICTUM, we want to support communication between doctors and non-German-speaking patients. With the help of an interdisciplinary digital communication and translation aid for 13 languages or dialects, anamneses can be video-assisted during the consultation. This facilitates and enables intercultural communication and should contribute to the reduction of misunderstandings and errors. The communication aid is to be tested during the project period in the infirmary of the initial reception center Friedland (district of Göttingen), inductively adapted by experience, and prepared for broad and long-term use. Criteria of the evaluation are an improved communication with effects among other things on re-presentation rates, correct medication intake and the avoidance of unnecessary diagnostics and therapy, with simultaneous consideration of the costs.

In the last third of the project we want to make the communication aid available to five selected GP practices in southern Lower Saxony, which mainly treat migrants.

DRKS-ID : DRKS00013076
DICTUM-Friedland is supported by funds from the Lower Saxony "Health Regions" funding program, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the European Social Fund (ESF).