Follow us
This app translates voice in any South African language and it's now used to fight COVID
An award-winning app that translates voice recordings across South African languages is now used to help treat COVID patients. Over the past three years, AwezaMed, a voice-enabled communication app, was used in clinics to help healthcare workers cross language barriers with maternity patients. The app, which originally offered only three primary translation options in English-isiZulu, English-Afrikaans and English-isiXhosa, can now recognise and transcribe all of South Africa’s official languages into text. With more than 1 800 questions, reassurances, explanations and patient responses in all 11 official languages, the app was redeveloped to include a coronavirus-specific language algorithm. Redeveloping the algorithm included a four-month consultation process with healthcare professionals and fine-tuning the programme’s text-to-speech synthesis. The initial trial, done in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was conducted at five public hospitals and included almost 100 healthcare practitioners in real-life scenarios. “I found the app to be useful when language becomes a barrier between me and my patients,” explained one healthcare practitioner who participated in the trial. “I feel that being able to speak to a patient in their home language helps me provide better care for my patients, which means we both get a better result.” The AwezaMed COVID-19 app, in its pilot form, is available for free download via Google Play.
Aweza founder Glenn Stein noted that, importantly, the app’s grammar-based machine translation is more dependable and accurate than Google's translation service, particularly within the South African context. “With the right institutional support to further the research and development of this technology, there is great potential to bring South Africans together in ways previously thought impossible,” says Stein. The app has also been lauded by Dr Karen Calteaux, Research Group Leader of Digital Audio-Visual Technologies at the CSIR, who explained that defeating the language barrier at patient-doctor level could help save lives. AwezaMed has received both local and international acclaim, scooping multiple awards including the Netexplo Innovation Award, winning “Best Healthcare Focused Language Barrier Solution 2020” and is listed as one of the most innovative companies in Africa by Fast Company. Source: Business Insider |
|
