Imagine your life depending on taking a bottle of pills properly, but neither you nor your family members understand the instructions because of a language barrier. Unfortunately, every touch point in U.S. healthcare expects patients to read their treatment protocols and health information, and read well in English, but one in five Americans go home to a family that speaks another language. We cannot build an inclusive and healthy community if we leave vulnerable patients behind because literacy, culture, and vision impairments render printed health instructions useless and decrease treatment outcomes and adherence.

SpeechMED™ is a language and audio platform that allows patients and their caregivers to read and listen to their health information in the language that they understand and is specifically designed for immigrant households, seniors, the visually impaired, and socioeconomically vulnerable populations. This digital therapeutics tool to improve health literacy (1) Educates patients and caregivers about their medical condition and recovery goals in the language that they speak and (2) Decreases patient hospital re-admissions due to miscommunication and language barrier. With just two clicks, English and Spanish translations are readily available to educate the patient, deliver care instructions, send automatic medication reminders, keep emergency contact information, and record directions from health providers.

In this session, I will share the progress of SpeechMED’s clinical trial with Baptist Hospital (Miami) Neuroscience Center on the transition of care from hospital to Spanish-speaking patients and caregivers. Each patient and caregiver are given a tablet device with SpeechMED’s language and audio app to assess the patients’ needs and goals in a proactive care plan. I will also share initial results on how the combination of voice, language, and digital therapeutics improves re-admissions, medication literacy and management, and overall health compared to patients that are only given written discharge instructions.