Validation of an Automated Online Language Interpreting Tool - Phase Two.

University of California (UC) Davis

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Medical Condition; Anxiety Disorder; Substance Use Disorder; Mood Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Intervention: Asynchronous Telepsychiatry; Behavioral: Active comparator: Human interpreter

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT03538860

1131922

R01HS024949 (U.S. AHRQ Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

There is a pressing national need to provide higher-quality, more effectively accessible language interpretation services to improve the health outcomes of Americans who have limited English proficiency (LEP). This project addresses a critical component of this problem: The need to improve access to high quality, mental health services for diverse populations by improving the flow of clinical work across care settings (primary care and specialty care) through the use of innovative online asynchronous methods of language interpretation and clinical communication. The investigators are conducting a two phase study. The first phase is completed and involved developing and testing the interpreting tool. The second phase of the research is a clinical trial to compare two methods of cross-language psychiatric assessment.

Full description

The investigators propose to develop and test a novel automated asynchronous interpretation tool. The proposed project builds on previous research, piloting the automated asynchronous interpretation tool. This 5-year project will be conducted in two phases. In Phase 1 the investigators iteratively evaluate and refine the automated asynchronous interpretation tool already developed in prior studies. In Phase 2, the investigators evaluate this tool using a two-group randomized cross-over trial. Investigators compare:

• Method A (current gold standard of in-person real-time interpreting practice). A Spanish-speaking patient is diagnostically assessed in-person by an English-speaking psychiatrist through a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
• Method B (comparative practice - ATP). A Spanish-speaking patient is interviewed in Spanish by a trained mental health interviewer. The interview is recorded in real time, translated into English using the automatic interpretation tool and adding sub-titles to the video file, and sent to an English-speaking psychiatrist to asynchronously - that is, at a later time - review the video and make a diagnosis.

All patients will undergo evaluation by both methods. Half of the patients will be randomized to be assessed by Method A first, followed by Method B and half to be assessed by Method B first, followed by Method A. The specific aims of the study are :

• Aim 1: To iteratively evaluate and refine the automated asynchronous interpretation tool already developed in prior studies.
• Aim 2: To compare patient satisfaction of Method A vs. Method B.
• Aim 3: To compare the diagnostic accuracy and psychiatrist inter-rater reliability of Method A vs. Method B and demonstrate psychiatrist inter-rater reliability for Method B.
• Aim 4: To compare the interview and language interpretation quality and accuracy of Method A vs. Method B.

Enrollment: 114 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion Criteria: Hispanic patients with significant Limited English proficiency (LEP)

• aged 18 or older
• diagnosis of a mood disorder, anxiety disorder, or substance/alcohol abuse disorder(s)
• Diagnosis of a chronic medical condition
• referred by PCP or self-referral with PCP informed

Exclusion Criteria: Criteria:

• less than 18 years
• imminent suicidal ideation and/or plans
• immediate violent intentions or plans
• significant cognitive deficits
• patient who's PCP recommends not participating.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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114 participants in 2 patient groups

Method A first then Method B

Other group

Description:

Conventional in-person interview with a psychiatrist with a live human interpreter with crossover to asynchronous telepsychiatry

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention: Asynchronous Telepsychiatry

Behavioral: Active comparator: Human interpreter

Method B first then Method A

Other group

Description:

Asynchronous telepsychiatry - that is, video-recorded interviews that are subsequently processed with automated speech recognition and machine translation technologies, with crossover to conventional in-person interview with a psychiatrist with a live human interpreter

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention: Asynchronous Telepsychiatry

Behavioral: Active comparator: Human interpreter