Multilingual Health Resources

In walks a person into the public library and asks the librarian “I am looking for information on Alzheimer’s Disease?” Easy, right? Not if the library users wants that information written in Somali (af Soomaali). Where do you go to find health & disease information in a language other that English? There are several websites that can help you.

MedlinePlus is the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) consumer health website that provides links to authoritative sites on hundreds of health topics, interactive tutorials on health and disease issues, and directories (Go Local projects like Health-E Illinois) to local healthcare providers and services. MedlinePlus has been bilingual (English/Spanish) for years. On May 7th, NLM introduced a new multilingual feature. This feature provides information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service benefits people who want to read health information in their own native language. The languages covered by this new service are Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. To access, MedlinePlus’ Health Information in Multiple Languages, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/languages.html.

Health Information Translations is a collaborative initiative by Ohio State University Medical Center and others to improve health education for limited English proficiency patients. Languages covered are Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Marshallese, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

S*P*I*R*A*L (Selected Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages) is a joint initiative of the South Cove Community Health Center and Tufts
University Hirsh Health Sciences Library. This website provides patient information in Khmer, Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Healthy Roads Media is a website that contains free health education materials in a number of languages and a variety of formats. The languages include Vietnamese, Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Russian, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Somali, Tagalog, Farsi, Burmese, French, Kurdish, and Kirundi. The formats include print, audio, video, and multimedia. Healthy Roads Media covers asthma, cancer, diabetes, and many other health related topics.