| Abstract: |
Language concordance provides an important means of facilitatingcommunication with patients who do not speak the dominant language of their healthcare system. This becomes more relevant, particularly in the United States, as the limited English proficient (LEP) population is continually growing, leading to cross-language healthcare encounters. This chapter discusses the current state of language concordance research and potential future directions of the field, including the implications of language concordance on larger-scale health policies. Characterizing the limitations of language concordance research as they relate to interdisciplinary care teams, less commonly studied settings (including surgical fields), training future linguistically-competent clinicians, and identifying strategies to address these shortcomings will allow language-concordant clinicians and policymakers to improve upon the ways in which language concordance can be provided to language-discordant communities and address the healthcare disparities that stem from structural linguistic misalignment. © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. |
