Language must be one of the highest barriers to evidence based practice,
with the majority of evidence appearing in English, most people who don't
have some fluency in English will be seriously disadvantaged. Translation
would seem to be one solution and perhaps semi-automatic computer
translation will yield huge benefits in due course. Some sort of organised
twinning of organisations in one part of the world with a similar
English-speaking organisation might help in a number of ways: has this
potential been seen by any of the global bodies, such as WHO? Apart from
Language, other
cultural differences would presumably affect transferability of some
evidence. Have there been any studies of cross cultural aspects of evidence
based health? Have you any other ideas regarding the lowering of the
language barrier?
George Kernohan
http://www.ulst.ac.uk/faculty/shse/Health/Staffprofile/gkernohan/contact.htm
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