The Role of Medical Translator/Interpreter in Bringing Satisfaction to Health Tourists at Razavi Hospital

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of specialized translators and interpreters of medical discourse in bringingsatisfaction to health tourists. The goal was to find the effect of non-professional medical interpreters (translators) in breakingefficient patient-physician relationship. Nowadays, most foreign patients are accompanied by someone who is not familiar withmedical terminology and just thanks to knowing a language he/she becomes an interpreter of a foreign patient. Ten foreign patientsfrom different countries were investigated in this report. Basedonthe gathered data, three findings could be concluded: Firstly, nonprofessionalinterpreters could not usually interpret medical terminologies accurately. Secondly, trained specialized translators canbring satisfaction to health tourists and help them with successful course of treatment. Thirdly, patients themselves were aware ofnon-professional translators’ misinterpretations which lead to dissatisfaction and considering other destinations for treatment.

Keywords:

Translation , Specialized Translator and Interpreter , Non-Professional Interpreter , Health Tourism