Interpret-X: Improving uptake, experience and implementation of interpreting services in primary care: a mixed methods study with South Asian communities in England
Start date
September 2022End date
January 2025Overview
The interpret-X project is a two-year NIHR funded research project involving academics and researchers from the University of Surrey, Queen Mary University of London, University College London, Warwick University, and King’s College London. The research will explore the uptake, experience and implementation of interpreting services in primary care in England among South Asian communities using a mixed-methods approach. The study aims to deliver updated guidance for commissioners, frontline staff, and interpreters, as well as influence patient education and policy to improve patient uptake and experience of interpreting services and, ultimately, patient outcomes.
Aims and objectives
The interpret-X project aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of uptake, experience and implementation of interpreting services in primary care in England across three work packages.
Work package 1: Patient uptake and experience
To understand the current uptake and experience of interpreting services among South Asian linguistic minority groups in England.
- What are the barriers and facilitators to uptake?
- How do users of the services describe their experiences of different types of language support (e.g. face-to-face, telephone, video, informal)? How do non-users access primary care/ experience language support?
- What is the association between uptake of interpreting services and healthcare access, patient satisfaction, patient characteristics and self-reported health?
Work package 2: Implementation
To investigate how interpreting services are currently delivered/implemented in primary care.
- How do front-line staff experience the use and delivery of interpreting services in primary care?
- What barriers and facilitators are encountered in the implementation of interpreting services in primary care, and how are these are shaped by the local context?
- What aspects of the planning and delivery of interpreting services do policy makers/ commissioners think are working well?
Work package 3: Pathways to impact
To work with NHS England/ commissioners to generate and disseminate updated guidance that will improve use of interpreting services in primary care.
- How do commissioners and policy makers plan the delivery of these services? (including planning for their cost).
- What areas need to be improved? (e.g. suggestions for a minimum dataset to support benchmarking and quality improvement).
Funding amount
£610,007.46
Funders
Team
Principal Investigator
Professor Katriina Whitaker
Professor of Psychology and Lead for Cancer Care
Biography
Katriina Whitaker is Professor of Psychology in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey and co-leads the Cancer Care group (@CancerAtSurrey) with Dr Rob Kerrison. Katriina's own programme of work focuses on early diagnosis and cancer, with a particular interest in healthcare-seeking and health inequalities. Katriina is a Chartered Psychologist and was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 2017. Katriina is an expert review panel member for Cancer Research UK's Early Diagnosis & Detection Trials, Behavioural Health System and Health Economics research panel.
Co-investigators
Professor Paramjit Gill
Professor of General Practice, Warwick Medical School
See profile Dr Georgia Black
Reader in Applied Health Research, Wolfson Institute of Population Health
See profile
Professor Sabine Braun
Professor of Translation Studies, Director of the Centre for Translation Studies, Co-Director (FASS) of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence
Biography
I am a Professor of Translation Studies, Director of the Centre for Translation Studies, and Co-Director (FASS) of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence at the University of Surrey in the UK. From 2017 to 2021 I also served as Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Surrey.
My research explores the integration and interaction of human and machine in translation and interpreting, for example to improve access to critical information, media content and vital public services such as healthcare and justice for linguistic-minority populations and other groups/people in need of communication support. My overarching interest lies in the notions of fairness, trust, transparency, and quality in relation to technology use in these contexts.
For over 10 years, I have led a programme of research that has involved cross-disciplinary collaboration with academic and non-academic partners to improve access to justice for linguistically diverse populations. Under this programme, I have investigated the use of video links in legal proceedings involving linguistic-minority participants and interpreters from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. I have led several multi-national research projects in this field (AVIDICUS 1-3, 2008-16) while contributing my expertise in video interpreting to other projects in the justice sector (e.g. QUALITAS, 2012-14, Understanding Justice, 2013-16, VEJ Evaluation, 2018-20). I have advised the European Council Working Party on e-Law (e-Justice) and other justice-sector institutions in the UK and internationally on video interpreting in legal proceedings and have developed guidelines which have been reflected in European Council Recommendation 2015/C 250/01 on ‘Promoting the use of and sharing of best practices on cross-border videoconferencing’.
In other projects I have explored the use of videoconferencing and virtual reality to train users of interpreting services in how to communicate effectively through an interpreter IVY, 2011-3; EVIVA, 2014-15, SHIFT, 2015-18).
A further example of my work on accessibility is my research on audio description (video description) for visually impaired people. In the H2020 project MeMAD (2018-21) I have recently investigated the feasibility of (semi-)automating AD to improve access to media content that is not normally covered by human AD (e.g. social media content).
In 2019, the Research Centre I lead was awarded an ‘Expanding Excellence in England (E3)' grant (2019-24) by Research England to expand our research on human-machine integration in translation and interpreting. As part of this, I am currently leading and involved in a number of pilot studies aimed at better human-machine integration in different modalities of translation and interpreting.
The insights from my research have informed my teaching in interpreting and audiovisual translation on CTS’s MA programmes and the professional training courses that I have delivered (e.g. for the Metropolitan Police Service in London).
From 2018-2021 I was a member of the DIN Working Group on Interpreting Services and Technologies and co-authored the first standard on remote consecutive interpreting worldwide (DIN 8578). I am a member of the BSI Sub-committee Terminology. From 2018-2022, I was the series editor of the IATIS Yearbook (Routledge) and am currently associate series editor for interpreting of Elements in Translation and Interpreting (CUP) and a member of the Advisory Board of Interpreting (Benjamins). I was appointed to the sub-panel for Modern Languages and Linguistics for the Research Excellence Framework REF 2021.
Professor Cecilia Vindrola
Director of the Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab, University College London
See profile Professor Emily Williams
Professor of Diversity, Development & Inclusion, Kings College London
See profile Lily Islam
University College London
Researchers
Dr Judith Yargawa
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Wolfson Institute of Population Health
See profileCollaborators
Outputs
Academic papers
- Uptake and experience of professional interpreting services in primary care in a South Asian Population; a national cross-sectional study (forthcoming)
Resources
- Summary report from community focus groups (People Street, 2024) (PDF)
- Study protocol (NIHR website)
- Parliamentary workshop policy briefing, October 2024 (PDF)
Research groups and centres
Our research is supported by research groups and centres of excellence.