Objective

To create patient education materials and handouts for patients in their native language.

Background

San Francisco has an incredibly diverse population. Census data shows that approximately 45% of households have a language other than English spoken at home.  Nearly 30% of these households identify as speaking English “not well” or “not at all” resulting in approximately 1 out of 8 San Francisco residents identifying as having limited English proficiency (LEP)

Brief description of intervention

Hospitalization and the navigation of the health system is increasingly complex - those hospitalized need an easy to use tool to outline the hospital journey from admission to discharge and care at home. While some of this information can be found on the UCSF web-site, paper documents, and in verbal conversation with staff - a web based mobile application can serve as an easy to use reference or introduction to concepts not previously explained to patients - like what to expect at time of discharge.

Cohort studies are a critical component of clinical and translational research. They provide data on the natural history of disease, biobank specimens for translational studies and often provide a framework from which one can recruit for clinical trials. Traditional cohort studies also have many drawbacks. Data collection is often still performed on paper and management is usually centralized at a data-coordinating center with limited ability for interested investigators to obtain transparent, real-time information on data and specimens available for study.

As a recent patient in one of our clinics, I arrived 30 minutes early for a blood draw after being told that was possible, since I had a scheduled a 30 min. meeting with a colleague.  I waited 50 minutes for a late blood draw.  After the blood draw, I then waited another hour  for the appointment.   Keeping the patient informed on approximate time ( like waiting for a delayed airline flight)  The airlines have such an app, why not UCSF?   Scheduled and estimated times would be shown on the patients smartphone app.