Language barriers in the consultation: the unseen risk

When doctor and patient do not speak the same language, the risk of error rises. A study released in June 2026 by the Autonomous University of Barcelona showed that 85% of health workers in Catalonia face language difficulties in providing care, and warned that machine translation, one of the most used resources, can create a false sense of understanding.

What happened

The CIMAS project, the Catalan acronym for mediated intercultural communication in health care, is led by the MIRAS group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with Rovira i Virgili University and the Vall d'Hebron and Mútua de Terrassa hospitals. The research surveyed 1,390 health workers and about 40 language mediators, and also analyzed the views of patients, interpreters and companions.

According to the summary published by Medical Xpress on June 22, 2026:

• 85% of professionals say the language barrier affects their work;
• 29% face the problem every week, and 9% every day;
• machine translation is the second most used resource, and the study points to risks such as "a false sense of understanding" and longer consultations;
• only 1.5% use telephone interpreting services;
• the available interpreting services are considered insufficient for the real need.

Catalonia has 16.3% of its population of migrant origin, and the problem is not Catalonia's alone. A pilot study published in 2007 in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, in six U.S. hospitals, had already shown that, among patients with limited English, 49.1% of adverse events involved physical harm, compared with 29.5% among English speakers. And communication failures accounted for more events in the first group: 52.4%, compared with 35.9%.

Why it matters

Language decides what patients can tell and what they can understand. Those who do not master the language of the doctor's office nod along, forget half the instructions and leave without really knowing how to take the medicine. The Catalan study adds a new warning: the tool that seems to solve the problem can hide it, if no one checks whether the message got through.

The same applies between professionals. The specialist who has studied a rare case most may be in another country, speaking another language. In Brazil, CFM Resolution 2,314/2022 provides for tele-interconsultation, the exchange of opinions between doctors, with the doctor who follows the patient responsible for the course of treatment. The language barrier is often what keeps that conversation from happening.

In Bairo's view

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez knows this barrier from the inside. He says he came to Brazil from Colombia and that, for years, he tried to explain important things in a language that was not yet his. In his reading, at a shop counter this is an inconvenience; in a doctor's office, it can be dangerous.

That is where the idea of Global Language, from Xperienc Global Labs, came from: patient and specialist talking, each in their own language. For Bairo, the proposal only holds with clear limits. The conversation with a specialist from another country is a clinical second opinion, not a diagnostic report, brought to the doctor who follows the person. The translation is done by an assistant, and the one who validates what was said and decides is always a professional. The Catalan study reinforces why: translation without human checking can give the impression of understanding where there is none.

The same principle is in Hospital Triage, which keeps the person's original words alongside the summary, for the professional to check. And the pain of those who live far from home, without their own language, also has a place in the pages on pain, faith and reconnection.

Where this meets the ecosystem

Xperienc Global Labs, a biotechnology R&D laboratory registered in London and founded by Bairo, is developing Global Language as part of its teleconsultation platform. The translator is under development and should not be presented as a service in operation. Operation in Brazil will have to fit the telemedicine rules, which require a headquarters in the country and a technical lead registered with a CRM (Regional Council of Medicine) for anyone providing the service here.

Sources

• Medical Xpress, "Language barriers between health care workers and patients affect care quality", 6/22/2026, on the CIMAS project of the Autonomous University of Barcelona: medicalxpress.com
• Divi C, Koss RG, Schmaltz SP, Loeb JM, "Language proficiency and adverse events in US hospitals: a pilot study", International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2007;19(2):60-67: PubMed 17277013
• Federal Council of Medicine, CFM Resolution 2,314/2022: sistemas.cfm.org.br (PDF)

Read also

• What Xperienc Global Labs is
• The sun is for everyone
• CFM Resolution 2,314/2022: the telemedicine rules