A local mobile application (app) aims to improve the communication of safety protocols and other vital information related to Covid-19, by bridging the language divide evident on many Web-based platforms.
Numerous campaigns have been launched worldwide to raise awareness about the pandemic but language remains a significant challenge in conveying life-saving information. Multilingual communication is particularly important in South Africa with its 11 official languages and the voice-enabled AwezaMed app aims to ensure that healthcare professionals and patients understand one another, no matter which language is spoken.
The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, welcomed the development of an innovative language app, saying "In the context of healthcare, where it is common that the healthcare provider and patient often do not share a common language, this results in serious challenges such as a poorer patient experience, incorrect diagnoses, increased stress levels for the patient and misunderstandings about post-consultation self-care instructions."
Featuring localised technology such as speech recognition, text-to-speech and machine translation, the AwezaMed was developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), and is compatible with any Android smartphone.
"The app enables healthcare providers to access a phrase in English, translate it into any South African official language, and play the phrase in the selected language. The content of the application was developed in collaboration with health experts," said Nzimande.
AwezaMed features a database of over 1 800 questions, reassurances, explanations and patient responses, with key vocabulary included in consultation with a team of medical professionals.
Its automatic speech recognition allows for the recognition and transcription of speech in any of South Africa’s 11 official languages, while machine translation takes input text in the source language and translates it into the target language. The text-to-speech feature takes the translated text and synthesises it in the target language.
The language technology driving the mobile app was developed using language resources hosted and distributed by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR).
The DSI launched SADiLaR as part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap to support the creation, management and distribution of digital language resources and relevant software. The first of its kind in Africa, the research infrastructure platform responds to the constitutional imperative to recognise all South African languages as key resources.
The Minister said that the application holds potential benefits for the public health sector beyond Covid-19, as it will go a long way towards improving trust between healthcare providers and patients, allowing for more accurate diagnoses and saving lives.
The AwezaMed application can be accessed free-of-charge on the Google Play Store.
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