I wanted to provide some context to this tweet: I’ve been a language interpreter virtually all my life. Prior to med school, I received formal training and volunteered for 2 yrs as a Spanish language interpreter at the NIH. Today, as part of my residency 🧵 1/8
https://twitter.com/drbryanleyva/status/1363558446491140100
I do primary care at the Center for International Health, where I use a language interpreter for about 90% of my patient encounters. My patients are mostly East African and South East Asian. Yesterday, I stumbled upon an article about the use of interpreter services. 2/8
It was a descent article. But how do you think I felt when I discovered that the all-white-male authorship team included no interpreters? If you are going to write about interpreter services or really any topic, pls partner with people who are doing the work. 3/8
By writing about it you are positioning yourself as an expert on something you don’t do and potentially stealing an opportunity from somebody who may have been inspired to write about it if it weren’t for your article. Please stop that. That’s all I’m asking. 4/8
Collaboration is key. If you are going to write about racial inequities, partner with people of color who experience or are working to dismantle them. If you are going to write about rural populations, partner with providers who work in those communities. 5/8
If you are going to have a panel about racism in academia, include Black women who are most likely to experience overt/covert aggression and hostility within our medical systems. Despite my intersectional identities, I can’t provide you the perspective they bring. 6/8
If you are going to write about transhealth, please try to include members of the GLBTQI community in your scholarship. 7/8
If you are going to write about interpreter services, for the love of God, please include the interpreters who give their time— often times for free, to ensure that our patients receive adequate culturally appropriate care. Thanks for listening. 8/8 #MedTwitter
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