French at heart
| CMAJ 2000;163(6):750 | See: eLetters |
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is developing a multimedia software package to help physicians and other health care providers learn French medical terms. The program, French@Heart, is being developed by the institute's French Resource Centre with funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Elisabeth Crisci, spokesperson for the project, says the software is needed now because many Ontario hospitals are going to be designated bilingual beginning next year. The software, which will be available this fall, is supposed to provide physicians, nurses and other health care providers with the "functional French" they will need in these bilingual institutions. Next year, all Ontario communities in which more than 10% of the population is francophone will have to designate a hospital to provide bilingual health care. Crisci said French@Heart will include an extensive lexicon of medical terms and lists of common words used with patients, as well as filmed interviews showing patients seeing specialists from several different fields. — Patrick Sullivan, CMAJ
© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
