Company offers interpretation and translation for medical services

Omar Gonzalez's model for his company, LingoMD, is based on personal experience.

As a bilingual youth in San Antonio, Gonzalez served as an interpreter during medical appointments for his Spanish-speaking grandmother.

The experience led him to create LingoMD, a company focused on providing medical interpreting and translation services for patients with limited English language skills.

"My grandmother was the one who taught me Spanish as a young boy," Gonzalez said. "This teaching turned [out to be] quite valuable as I became her interpreter for medical care. As a young boy my role was to help translate and interpret a multitude of information from bills, newspapers and other modes of communication."

Before LingoMD's launch in 2013, Gonzalez worked as a pharmacist in San Antonio for about seven years before taking a position in Austin in fall 2012. Gonzalez, who earned his doctorate in pharmacy from the Health Sciences Center at Texas Tech University in the late '90s, enrolled in an online MBA program focused on health care policy at George Washington University's School of Business shortly before moving to Austin.

"I am a second-generation pharmacist," Gonzalez said. "My background as a pharmacist helps me understand the health care system."

Gonzalez said his time as a volunteer at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul) in Barcelona, Spain, last summer convinced him that the time was right to launch LingoMD in Austin. The business focuses on limited-English proficiency patients who utilize small emergency clinics as well as patients in pediatric and adult hospice facilities, nursing homes, and private residences.

He said LingoMD personnel are all certified medical interpreters who earned certifications from either the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters or The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters.

"We are here to help organizations minimize their liabilities," Gonzalez said, referring to health care providers who treat and serve Medicare and Medicaid patients.

He said patients are often pleased to learn that Lingo MD's fees for its services are paid by the clinics. Although services for Spanish speakers are a key focus for LingoMD, Gonzalez said his team of interpreters can also provide services for German, French, Farsi and Vietnamese speakers, among other languages.

Gonzalez said he is currently focused on assisting health care providers who service the East Austin community but has plans to grow LingoMD into South Texas as well.

He said the company also plans to offer video remote interpretation, or VRI, by the end of June, after all of the service's issues have been worked out.

"Some of the main challenges with VRI are having sufficient Internet bandwidth. The most challenging bandwidths are those associated with cellular technology," Gonzalez said.

"The other challenge is making sure that clients are well-trained in how to use a remote interpreter," he said. "Clients and patients must be trained [on] how to log in to the VRI, allow time for patients to talk—be interpreted—then [have the] practitioner respond."

Gonzalez said LingoMD's mission is about empowering patients who are often accustomed to opting for home remedies or avoiding medication simply because they do not understand the ramifications of those actions.

"Patients with limited English proficiency have a right to understand the info presented to them," he said. "A lot of this is advocacy. There's going to be millions of new patients [because of the Affordable Care Act], and the system must be as efficient as possible."

Services

LingoMD personnel are all certified medical interpreters specializing in Spanish, German, French, Farsi and Vietnamese, among other languages. Services include:

• Medical document and patient information translation
• Health care website translation
• Medical equipment manual translation
• Medical equipment tutorial recording
• On-site interpretation and patient counseling
• Remote video- and telephone-based interpretation

LingoMD, P.O. Box 40819, Austin, 1-844-695-4646, www.mylingomd.com