New books at a glance
Franz Pöchhacker & Miriam Shlesinger, eds. Healthcare Interpreting. Discourse and Interaction
Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007. viii + 155 pp. ISBN 978-90-272-2239-8 80 € 96 USD (Benjamins Current Topics, 9).

Reviewed by Alexander Bischoff
Genève

Table of contents

European cities are characterised by increasing numbers of foreign-born and foreign-language speaking inhabitants. The resulting cultural and linguistic diversity presents a number of challenges for health care services. The importance of interpreters in ensuring adequate communication with foreign-language speaking patients is well-established (L.S. Karliner et al. 2007; L. Loutan 1999). A lack of attention to language barriers can lead to limited patient-provider communication, a poor therapeutic partnership, sub-optimal care and poor health outcomes (C. Divi et al. 2007; L. Ku and G. Flores 2005; S. Yeo 2004).

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