The AP/Washington Times on Monday examined how translators "trained in medical terminology, especially those speaking Spanish, are in high demand as the country's population becomes more and more diverse." In addition to Spanish translators, translators in other languages are needed nationwide. For example, Albuquerque, N.M., has the need for Navajo and Vietnamese translators, and Seattle has the need for Russian, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Cambodian translators. Boston has the need for Portuguese translators, and parts of Florida have the need Haitian Creole translators. Michael Greenbaum -- CEO of Arizona-based CyraCom, which provides translator services in 150 languages for 900 health care providers nationwide -- said that in the past five years the number of languages requested by hospitals have increased from 50 to 136. Meanwhile, some hospitals have sought to attract bilingual employees, and some hospital employees have sought to learn Spanish at schools for medical personnel established in Mexico. Keith Rolle, president of the Baja California Language College in Mexico, said, "Doctors are mostly pretty intelligent people. We get some who have memorized phrase books; they can make commands, but they can't understand anything that's being said to them." He added, "Anyone can study out of phrase books, but it doesn't work very well in a trauma situation" (Moghe, AP/Washington Times, 7/24).

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