The following is a guest article by SriVani Ganti, Senior Director of Health Equity, Content & Creative Services at mPulse

以下是mPulse健康公平、内容与创意服务高级总监SriVani Ganti的客串文章

My grandmother did not speak English. She spoke Telugu, the fourth most commonly spoken language in India.

我祖母不会说英语。她说泰卢固语，这是印度第四大常用语言。

I remember trying to secure medical care for her once, and a practitioner told me I couldn’t translate on her behalf. Instead, a third-party translator needed to confirm she was providing consent.

我记得有一次我试图为她争取医疗保健，一位医生告诉我我不能代表她翻译。相反，第三方翻译需要确认她是否同意。

So, we put the phone to my grandmother’s ear. She listened to the translator for a few moments and then looked back at me in confusion. The hospital’s translator was fluent in Tagalog, not Telugu.

所以，我们把电话放在奶奶的耳朵上。她听了翻译一会儿，然后困惑地看着我。医院的翻译能说流利的塔加洛语，而不是泰卢固语。

It’s a seemingly innocent mistake, yet one that speaks to a far more pervasive and harmful problem — the lack of cultural consideration in American healthcare messaging. Cultural nuance is inseparable from the healthcare experiences we’re able to provide. Yet too often, we resort to broad, generalized messaging that fails to account for differences among our patients..

这是一个看似无辜的错误，但它说明了一个更为普遍和有害的问题——美国医疗保健信息中缺乏文化考虑。文化差异与我们能够提供的医疗保健体验密不可分。然而，我们经常求助于广泛而普遍的信息，这些信息无法解释患者之间的差异。。

This lack of consideration reinforces pre-existing divisions between healthcare practitioners and those receiving it, especially among already marginalized communities. And it’s all too common. From cardiovascular health to Lyme disease to pregnancy, our healthcare approaches and communication strategies are both too generic and too specific.

这种缺乏考虑加剧了医疗保健从业人员与接受医疗保健的人之间预先存在的分歧，特别是在已经边缘化的社区中。这太普遍了。从心血管健康到莱姆病再到怀孕，我们的医疗保健方法和沟通策略既过于通用，又过于具体。

They’re too generic in their impact and too specific in catering to the experiences of certain segments of the American population over others..

它们的影响过于笼统，在迎合美国人口中某些群体的经历方面过于具体。。

To do better, we must aim for more representative healthcare messaging, patient care, and data infrastructure.

为了做得更好，我们必须致力于更具代表性的医疗保健信息、患者护理和数据基础设施。

The Centuries-Long Scope of Medical Distrust

长达数世纪的医疗不信任

Medical distrust does not happen by accident. It’s the byproduct of centuries of medical racism, colonialism, and systemic bias. It manifests in siloes that teach healthcare providers to treat the majority and overlook the minority. This results in many healthcare consumers (i.e., all of us) feeling unseen when walking into a clinician’s office..

医疗不信任不是偶然发生的。这是几个世纪以来医学种族主义、殖民主义和系统偏见的副产品。它表现在教会医疗保健提供者对待大多数人而忽视少数人的孤岛上。这导致许多医疗保健消费者（即我们所有人）在走进临床医生的办公室时感到被忽视。。

In many ways, medical practitioners are set up to fail. Our healthcare system incentivizes efficiency above all else — providers may spend as little as 13 minutes with a patient. This offers barely enough time to discuss an effective treatment plan, let alone account for each patient’s cultural background and unique personal needs..

在许多方面，医生注定要失败。我们的医疗保健系统最重要的是激励效率-提供者可能只需与患者相处13分钟。这几乎没有足够的时间来讨论有效的治疗计划，更不用说考虑每个患者的文化背景和独特的个人需求了。。

The root of our problem stretches into academia, where many medical students aren’t taught how to prioritize impactful and effective health communication. They often receive little training on navigating the complex background of each patient. It’s also an unfair ask. Especially given the unique cultural nuances that influence how healthcare teams should treat each patient..

我们问题的根源延伸到学术界，许多医学生没有被教会如何优先考虑有影响力和有效的健康沟通。他们通常很少接受关于导航每个患者复杂背景的培训。这也是一个不公平的要求。特别是考虑到影响医疗团队如何治疗每位患者的独特文化差异。。

The dangers of our culturally insensitive medical system extend beyond healthcare settings, too. Health misinformation and disinformation, especially on social media, are natural byproducts of care that are not culturally informed. Today, health consumers understandably look elsewhere for the answers and validation they fail to find in traditional healthcare settings..

我们对文化不敏感的医疗体系的危险也超出了医疗环境。。今天，健康消费者可以理解地在其他地方寻找他们在传统医疗环境中找不到的答案和验证。。

To rebuild trust, we require culturally relevant healthcare communications that lead with empathy. We need healthcare systems that acknowledge the range of unique human experiences and are informed by each patient’s understanding of their own health.

为了重建信任，我们需要与文化相关的医疗保健沟通，以换位思考为导向。我们需要医疗保健系统承认人类独特的经历范围，并通过每位患者对自身健康的理解来了解。

An Evolved Approach to Healthcare Messaging

一种改进的医疗保健信息传递方法

Rethinking how health plans can engage member populations in a more culturally nuanced way requires reframing and intention, but it’s possible. Healthcare leaders aiming to improve the quality of their communications should consider the following three steps:

重新思考卫生计划如何以更具文化差异的方式吸引成员人群，需要重新规划和意图，但这是可能的。旨在提高沟通质量的医疗保健领导者应考虑以下三个步骤：

Audit Your Information Sources

审核您的信息来源

Bridging the gap with historically underrepresented communities requires a new approach to healthcare communication. While academia still holds tremendous value as an information source, I advise against relying solely on these institutions to inform your messaging strategy.

弥合与历史上代表性不足的社区的差距需要一种新的医疗保健沟通方法。虽然学术界作为信息来源仍然具有巨大的价值，但我建议不要仅仅依靠这些机构来告知您的信息传递策略。

Instead, go directly to the source. There’s no shortage of community leaders championing incredible grassroots efforts related to health education. Talk to them. Learn what obstacles they’re encountering and what strategies have helped them break through to skeptical health consumers in the past.

相反，直接转到源。不缺乏社区领导人支持与健康教育相关的令人难以置信的基层努力。与他们交谈。了解他们遇到了什么障碍，以及过去有哪些策略帮助他们突破了对健康持怀疑态度的消费者。

Take inspiration from social media, too. Joel Bervell, for instance, is a TikTok influencer who’s amassed over 700,000 followers for his videos debunking health misconceptions — he details how communities of color have been left out of many healthcare conversations. His accessible, engaging, and validating content shows how we can more effectively communicate with and care for patients..

也从社交媒体中获得灵感。例如，乔尔·贝维尔（JoelBervell）是一位TikTok的影响者，他通过视频揭露健康误解，聚集了70多万粉丝。他详细介绍了许多医疗保健对话中如何遗漏了有色人种社区。他的易访问、引人入胜和有效的内容显示了我们如何更有效地与患者沟通和护理。。

Support Providers in Prioritizing Empathy During Patient Visits

支持提供者在患者就诊期间优先考虑同理心

We’ve all suffered through a doctor’s appointment where our provider was speaking at us, not to us. It’s an isolating feeling, and one providers should avoid, even during a time crunch.

我们都经历了医生预约的痛苦，我们的提供者是在对我们说话，而不是对我们说话。这是一种孤立的感觉，即使在时间紧迫的时候，提供者也应该避免。

The advice sounds simple enough. Define complex medical terminology. Speak slowly and use short sentences. Check-in periodically to see if patients are still on board. But these small actions go a long way, and they start with health plans that handle more of the heavy lifting so providers can focus on patient care..

这个建议听起来很简单。定义复杂的医学术语。慢慢说，用短句。定期检查病人是否还在船上。但是，这些小行动有很长的路要走，它们从处理更多繁重工作的健康计划开始，以便提供者能够专注于患者护理。。

For example, visual and digital media now offer powerful communication tools capable of sharing complex medical information in accessible and appealing ways. However, health communication still tends to rely on traditional media strategies like newspapers, print ads, and radio, which work for some, but not all.

例如，视觉和数字媒体现在提供了强大的通信工具，能够以可访问和吸引人的方式共享复杂的医疗信息。然而，健康传播仍然倾向于依靠传统的媒体策略，如报纸、平面广告和广播，这些策略对一些人有效，但不是全部。

Daring to venture into channels such as SMS can be powerful. Similarly, using plain language and culturally relevant visual assets can help healthcare providers better connect with individuals and ensure their message resonates before and during patient visits. Simply put, representation matters..

敢于冒险进入短信等渠道可能会很强大。同样，使用通俗易懂的语言和与文化相关的视觉资产可以帮助医疗保健提供者更好地与个人联系，并确保他们的信息在患者就诊之前和期间产生共鸣。简单地说，代表性很重要。。

Championing culturally relevant resources and more comprehensive health plans allows providers to engage patients on a person-to-person level — with a greater awareness of and empathy for cultural practices, beliefs, common fears, and more.

支持与文化相关的资源和更全面的健康计划，使提供者能够在人与人之间的层面上吸引患者-对文化习俗，信仰，常见恐惧等有更高的认识和同情。

Optimize Healthcare Plans with Data Inclusivity in Mind

考虑到数据包容性，优化医疗保健计划

Comprehensive data is a prerequisite to culturally minded health plans. Without data that’s inclusive of race, gender identification, age, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and more, it will remain a challenge to tailor your content and communication on a patient-by-patient basis.

全面的数据是有文化意识的健康计划的先决条件。如果没有包括种族、性别认同、年龄、种族、神经多样性等在内的数据，那么在逐个患者的基础上定制您的内容和沟通仍然是一个挑战。

I often suggest referring to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines as a jumping-off point. Here we see how data enables scalability in your messaging and greater creativity in your communication style. For example, instead of a generic email blast encouraging patients to receive timely vaccinations, imagine offering different communities spokespeople (or fictional characters) that speak directly to their experiences and healthcare concerns..

我经常建议以医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心指南为起点。在这里，我们可以看到数据如何实现消息传递的可扩展性和通信风格的更大创造力。例如，与鼓励患者及时接种疫苗的普通电子邮件爆炸不同，想象一下提供不同的社区发言人（或虚构角色）直接讲述他们的经历和医疗保健问题。。

Any attempt to pull off this type of campaign without up-to-date, reliable data risks coming off as insensitive or alienating key populations. Health plans can look to specialized partners to avoid this outcome and instead achieve more data-driven outreach. These third-party leaders can help integrate your consumer engagement platforms with a robust, connected data layer — setting the foundation for accurate, inclusive, and easily accessible data insights to inform your communication strategies..

任何在没有最新可靠数据的情况下开展此类活动的尝试都有可能被视为不敏感或疏远关键人群。。这些第三方领导者可以帮助将您的消费者参与平台与强大的互联数据层集成在一起，为准确、包容且易于访问的数据见解奠定基础，从而为您的沟通策略提供信息。。

Make Culturally Nuanced Communications an Everyday Practice

使文化上细微差别的沟通成为日常实践

There’s no quick fix to bridging the gap with health consumers who have been traditionally left out of the conversation. Trust is hard-earned.

要弥合与传统上被排除在对话之外的健康消费者之间的差距，没有捷径可循。信任来之不易。

However, culturally relevant health communication is a step in the right direction. By rethinking our approach to data, patient communication, and information sourcing, we can do our part in ensuring a care experience that reflects the humanity of every health consumer.

然而，与文化相关的健康传播是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。。

Because the difference between Tagalog and Telugu can really be life or death when our healthcare is on the line — and embedding a tailored approach throughout all patient communications and health plans is an important step toward a better healthcare future for all Americans.

因为当我们的医疗保健上线时，塔加洛和泰卢固之间的区别可能真的是生死攸关，而在所有患者沟通和健康计划中嵌入量身定制的方法是朝着所有美国人更好的医疗保健未来迈出的重要一步。

TagsData Inclusivity Digital Patient Communication Doctor-Patient Communication Healthcare Language Healthcare Messaging Healthcare Translation Language Barriers Medical Distrust mPulse Multiculturalism Patient Experience SriVani Ganti

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