The United States is the third largest Spanish-speaking county in the world, and according to the Pew Research Group, the Hispanic population contributes to about 15% of the population in this country, soon to double by 2050. Despite these statistics, Hispanics are still one of the most severely underserved groups in healthcare in the US.

According to The Commonwealth Fund, Hispanics who are Spanish-dominant speakers had poorer health, were less likely to see a regular doctor, and were more likely to not have necessary health insurance than other minority groups. Gaining access to the right healthcare has been harder for uninsured Hispanics who primarily speak Spanish; “66% of them do not visit a doctor regularly, compared to 37% of uninsured caucasians.”

More specifically, Hispanics who primarily spoke Spanish had lower cancer screening rates than caucasians because they could not communicate as well with their care providers. According to the NCBI, “Hispanics face barriers in seeking cancer information..[and] cancer screening rates are lower than those for whites.”

Hispanics face multiple barriers with access to healthcare

The quality of healthcare is severely impacted by language barriers when Hispanics cannot understand their diagnoses or obtain resourceful information.

As the Hispanic population rises in the United States, so does the increased demand for health care providers to be able to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients. Though uncommon, there are technologies in the healthcare market that can aid Spanish-speakers.

At Willowglade Technologies, we provide a mobile platform solution for cancer patients in both English and Spanish (Cancer Journey Apps) so that they can engage with their doctors, as well as friends and family, in a safe and reliable way. Our app ensures that everyone has access to quality healthcare content, personalized to the patient’s needs. We are also dedicated to engaging Spanish-speaking survivors via social media with relevant and helpful information.

In this era of technology, we hope to minimize the barriers that lead to lower quality medical care for Spanish-speaking survivors. We know there is great potential for our Cancer Journey Apps to incorporate new languages into our technology, and we are hard at work on this. We’re striving to provide every cancer patient in the world with engaging and helpful information on their diagnoses and treatments.