CCHI’s Mini-Glossaries for Interpreters

We, interpreters, love words, and yet never seem to have enough time for in-depth research. Wouldn’t it be great if right before an appointment we could grab a brief, reliable, user-friendly bilingual glossary that contained words, terms, and phrases most frequently used by providers and patients at that type of appointment?

This is how the idea of medical mini-glossaries was born. Our volunteer Lois Feuerle and the two Commissioners, Virginia Perez-Santalla and Karin Ruschke, spearheaded this project. Yet it’s up to interpreters like you to create the English mini-glossaries and translate them into as many languages as possible.

During the first phase of the project, the CCHI Mini-Glossaries will consist of 50-101 words and terms. They’ll be organized thematically around an appointment type, in a logical sequence rather than alphabetically.

We do need your help to make this project thrive! Please send us (to solutions@cchicertification.org) your suggestions about:

• translating the existing mini-glossaries into your language (attachments are accepted; let us know what font you use),
• adding new terms to the existing mini-glossaries (remember, the maximum is 101),
• better translation or alternate translation of any term listed in any existing mini-glossary,
• which appointment type we should create a glossary for, etc.

We are also looking for volunteers of different languages to form language-specific Terminology Committees for this project. If you are interested, please contact us at solutions@cchicertification.org.