Research Evaluates Use of Machine Language Translation Platforms for Pediatric Discharge Instructions

A study compared the use of ChatGPT and Google Translate with professional translation services to evaluate if machine translation platforms can be used to provide pediatric discharge instructions for patients who speak languages other than English. The study, “Performance of ChatGPT and Google Translate for Pediatric Discharge Instruction Translation,” published in the July 2024 Pediatrics (published online June 11) provided 20 standardized discharge instructions to be translated into Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Haitian Creole. They found that ChatGPT and Google Translate showed a low rate of clinically significant errors for the languages Spanish and Portuguese, similar to professional translation. But both platforms showed an increased risk of clinically significant errors for translation of Haitian Creole and other languages that have a smaller digital footprint to train AI models. Therefore, these already at-risk populations may be made even more vulnerable to medical errors and lower quality of care. The authors observe that decreased understanding of discharge instructions, which are often the last piece of information shared with patients before leaving the hospital, can lead to missed follow-up appointments or misunderstanding of medication recommendations. While some institutions employ in-person or virtual interpreter services and develop standardized clinical documents in different languages, these resources are not universally available in all practice environments. They conclude that machine translation platforms have comparable performance to professional translations for Spanish and Portuguese but shortcomings in quality, accuracy, and preference persist for Haitian Creole. 

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.