Understanding linguistic diversity in the dermatology workforce and requirements to provide medical care in a non-english language: a survey

Excerpt

Language barriers in healthcare worsen disparities for Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients by hindering their access to and quality of their medical care. Language-concordant care is associated with improved patient trust, treatment adherence, better health outcomes, and lower healthcare costs [1]. While interpreters aid in communication, studies suggest patient care further improves with language-concordant patient-provider relationships [1, 2]. However, a lack of standardized policies surrounding the provision of patient care in non-English languages by multilingual physicians [3] may pose challenges for physicians to provide safe patient care for LEP patients. Despite the acknowledged importance of language concordance in dermatology as a step to improving health equity [4], there is a gap in studies assessing linguistic diversity in dermatology. We aim to advance the developing understanding of patient-provider language-concordance in dermatology and explore potential barriers that may exist through this survey study. …