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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Informatics
Volume 7 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1542485
Bridging Language Barriers in Healthcare: A Patient-Centric Mobile App for Multilingual Health Record Access and Sharing
Provisionally accepted
Theodoros Solomou 1,2*
Stelios Mappouras 3
Efthyvoulos Kyriacou 3 Ioannis Constantinou 1 Zinonas Antoniou 1 Ionut Cristian Canciu 1 Marios Neofytou 4 Zoltan Lantos 5 Christos N Schizas 4
Constantinos S. Pattichis 1,2- 1 Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nikosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 2 CYENS Centre of Excellence, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 3 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering and Informatics, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Limassol, Cyprus
- 4 National eHealth Authority, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 5 Semmelweis University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Virtual Health guide methodology, Budapest, Hungary
Access to health data for patients is hindered by a fragmented healthcare system and the absence of unified, patient-centric solutions. Additionally, there are no mechanics for easy sharing of medical records with healthcare providers, risking incomplete diagnoses. To further intensify the problem, when patients seek care abroad, language barriers may prevent foreign doctors from understanding their health data, further complicating treatment. Our study presents the development and evaluation of a mobile application designed to enable users to access and share their health records directly from their device, in multiple languages, ensuring ease of use and convenience. The solution utilizes OpenNCP for translating patient summaries into multiple languages and the FHIR Smart Health Links Protocol for secure sharing. We conducted a user acceptance study with 45 participants to evaluate our mobile app's interface and functionality. The feedback was positive, highlighting the app's user-friendliness and usefulness. The participants felt it would enhance communication between physicians and patients. Our mobile solution significantly enhances healthcare accessibility and efficiency by enabling easy access and sharing of health records in multiple languages, using relevant protocols and standards, reducing medical errors and ensuring personalized care.
Keywords: eHealth, mobile health, Patient access, medical sharing, Cross-border healthcare
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 31 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Solomou, Mappouras, Kyriacou, Constantinou, Antoniou, Canciu, Neofytou, Lantos, Schizas and Pattichis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Theodoros Solomou, Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nikosia, 2109, Nicosia, Cyprus
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