Communication between medical students and patients took a leap forward recently when 25 people -- out of an applicant pool of 150 -- completed a seven-day training program for medical interpreters at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q).

The 40-hour "Bridging the Gap" course in early June was run by experts from the Seattle-based Cross Cultural Health Care Program, an organization that has trained some 10,000 interpreters in the United States, Canada and Japan since 1995. The program's immediate aim is to train the participants, who are all fluent in English and one of four other languages, to work as translators and interpreters between medical students and patients who speak only Arabic, Hindi, Tamil or Urdu. They are the first professional medical interpreters to be trained in Qatar.

Once qualified, some of the new interpreters will work with WCMC-Q medical students who are starting their third-year clinical clerkships this July as they work with patients from among the local population and the diverse expatriate community.

A professional medical interpreter provides an immediate, accurate translation as the doctor -- or medical student -- takes a patient history, gives commands, explains procedures during the physical examination and discusses treatment options. The interpreter also communicates discharge and medication instructions as required.

"The idea of training professional medical interpreters and translators is to get a verbatim translation of the written language and interpretation of the spoken language," says Dr. Nounou Taleghani, assistant professor of medicine and associate dean of clinical curriculum, who is overseeing the implementation of the training program at WCMC-Q.

Taleghani notes that family members may leave information out or lack the expertise to translate accurately. Health-care professionals, on the other hand, tend to allow their medical knowledge to interfere with a verbatim translation, adding a gloss to what the patient is saying.

To receive accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, hospitals in the United States are required to have available qualified medical interpreters. However, the growth of medical interpreting services is also a response to changing needs, as people migrate across the globe.

With an emphasis on learning through discussion and role play, "Bridging the Gap" covers training in interpreting skills, instruction in medical terminology and health-care systems, and professional and communication skills development.

The program leads to certification in medical interpreting upon successful completion of a theoretical and practical examination.

WCMC-Q's medical students also will receive training to prepare them to use interpreters in the correct way, Taleghani says. They should maintain eye contact with the patient, for example, and use brief sentences to allow the interpreter to translate.

While WCMC-Q is training an initial group of 25 interpreters in preparation for this summer's start of the clinical clerkships, the longer-term goal is to create a pool of trained personnel who would be available to translate whenever needed, she says.

Established in partnership with the Qatar Foundation, WCMC-Q is part of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, the first American institution to offer its M.D. degree overseas.