Houston, TX, June 5, 2023 – To provide equitable access to trusted health information for non-English speaking patients, The Texas Heart Institute has deployed an innovative translation service on its websites texasheart.org and texasheartmedical.org. The advanced form of machine translation uses an artificial neural network to predict the likelihood of a sequence of words in a sentence, improving traditional Google translations.

The Institute recognized the need for quality health information over a decade ago and began offering heart-health topics and articles in Spanish in 2011.  These Spanish-language pages are among the most used resources on its website. Today, people from over 235 countries, territories, and dependencies around the world visit The Institute’s website every year.

With this modern technology upgrade, users can now learn in their native language, with over 100 languages available, including several Spanish dialects, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Arabic.

The innovative approach will help ensure the ethnically diverse Houston community and global users have access to heart-health information, regardless of language barriers.

A 2021 study by the UCLA Medical Center found that Google Translate preserved the overall meaning for 82.5% of the translations, but the accuracy between languages spanned 55% to 94%.¹  Traditional Google Translate used statistical machine translations. Neural translations are more accurate than statistical translations when translating to and from the English language. For example, the statistical translation quality for Spanish to English ranks at 6 out of 10 in accuracy, with 10 representing a perfect translation. Although human translation is still the most accurate method today, these translations have accuracy scores of 8.5 out of 10, and the new neural translations reach 8.3. They are expected to improve with broader adoption.

This initiative supports The Institute’s inclusive approach to health education that aligns with its commitment to equitable access to health information and cultural sensitivity.

“The Texas Heart Institute remains committed to serving as a trusted source of health information and patient empowerment by simplifying access to our extensive library of knowledge,” said Dr. Joseph G. Rogers, CEO and President of The Texas Heart Institute.

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About The Texas Heart Institute

The Texas Heart Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization that is improving cardiovascular health through trailblazing research, thought leadership, education, and patient care. Located within the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1962 by renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley, The Texas Heart Institute performed the first successful heart transplant and total artificial heart implant in the United States. Since then, our physicians and surgeons remain recognized as worldwide leaders in the diagnosis and treatment of even the most complex cardiovascular conditions. Research programs at The Texas Heart Institute continue to push the boundaries of cardiovascular science by translating laboratory discovery to patient care. The Texas Heart Institute has been ranked among the top cardiovascular centers in the United States by U.S. News & World Report for more than 30 years. www.texasheart.org  @texasheartinstitute

For Media Inquiries about this story, contact Keri Sprung 

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