Video Service Breaks Language Barriers - Wall St. Journal

By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

10/23/2006

Charles Vialotti recalls the Korean cancer patient who was referred to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J., after refusing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy elsewhere.

Communication was a problem, but he was able to converse with Holy Name Hospital doctors through an interpreter who appeared on a television screen. Doctors learned that the man hadn't understood the nature of his illness or the consequences of refusing treatment.

"His treatment was implemented within a week -- and it had been six or seven months of carrying this stigma of being uncooperative, noncompliant and refusing therapy," says Dr. Vialotti, the hospital's director …

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