Multilingual Patient Safety: Comparative Study of Language Assistance in Healthcare (LangCare)
General Overview
What happens when patients and doctors do not share a common language?
LangCare addresses the growing challenge of language barriers in healthcare across Europe. As cross-border mobility increases, ensuring that patients understand medical information is essential for safe and equitable care. The project maps language support systems, compares national approaches, and identifies effective practices. It also explores international students’ needs when receiving medical information in a language they understand, contributing to safer and more accessible healthcare for diverse populations.
Purpose and Significance
Access to healthcare should not depend on language skills, yet many patients face serious risks when they do not speak the language used in the local healthcare system. Miscommunication and mistranslation can lead to incorrect diagnoses, repeated hospital visits, difficulties following medical instructions, financial burdens, legal disputes, and difficulty making informed decisions, ultimately creating unequal access and undermining patients’ rights.
This project examines how healthcare systems in five countries (Hungary, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom) support patients who do not speak the local language and highlights effective practices. By combining research, student perspectives, and cross-country collaboration, it identifies gaps and fosters shared learning. Aligned with EUniWell’s focus on well-being, social equality, and multilingualism, the project promotes inclusive healthcare and supports solutions that can be adapted across different national contexts to improve communication, safety, and equitable access for international and migrant populations.
Implementation Method and Timeline
The project is carried out by a multidisciplinary team from EUniWell partner universities, bringing together expertise in healthcare, law, linguistics, social sciences, and research methodology. The study focuses on five countries, with each partner responsible for mapping language support systems in their own national context and contributing to the comparative analysis. Students are actively involved in data collection and in sharing their perspectives.
The project uses a structured 47-point guide to examine language policies, interpreting services, and the availability of translated medical documents across countries. This is complemented by a survey of international students exploring their needs and preferences regarding healthcare information in a language they understand. By combining policy analysis with lived experiences, the project identifies gaps and highlights effective practices.
The project runs from December 2025 to November 2026 and is organised into four main phases:
- Initiation (December 2025): project launch, coordination, and finalisation of research tools
- Data collection (January-April 2026): country-level mapping and student survey
- Analysis (May-July 2026): comparative evaluation of findings
- Knowledge sharing (August-November 2026): preparation of outputs and dissemination through workshops, conferences, and academic activities
Expected Outcomes
The project will produce country profiles on language support in healthcare across five countries and a comparative overview identifying gaps and effective practices. It will also deliver an open-access methodological guide to support further research and enable the exploration of language assistance systems in additional countries.
Contact persons:
Ágnes Horváth, Semmelweis University
Ana Isabel Foulquie Rubio, University of Murcia
Francesco Zanotelli, University of Florence
Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky, Inalco
Ian Litchfield, University of Birmingham
