HealthHub Solutions and Voyce form a new partnership to advance healthcare equity in Canada by offering virtual language interpretation services to hospitals and patients.
HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions and Voyce will expand access to virtual language interpretation services; by improving communication for non-English speaking patients, they’re eliminating barriers to healthcare conversations.
March 15, 2021 Toronto ON – Today, HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions and Voyce are pleased to announce a partnership that enables healthcare access for underserved demographics in Canadian hospitals by eliminating language barriers between hospital staff and patients.
Voyce is a virtual on-demand language interpretation service. Voyce delivers immediate, seamless, and secure access to interpreters. HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions is the provider of myHealthHub, a digital patient engagement platform built for healthcare in Canada. It empowers patients to actively participate and manage their own healthcare plan and helps clinicians focus on providing care. Partnering with HealthHub’s digital platform, myHealthHub, Voyce is now able to broaden the types of services the portal allows healthcare providers to give to their patients. The integration of Voyce software to myHealthHub services will offer healthcare providers and patients easy access to interpreters 24/7 in over 235 languages and dialects on a platform that’s encrypted and secure. The scope of impact is nationwide since myHealthHub platform is used across Canada by healthcare providers.
“Canada is one of the most diverse countries in the world. We respect the incredible diversity of people here and realise that not all people are able to speak English or French fluently. Voyce is a critical tool to ensure these people are still able to get the care they need,” said Voyce CEO Andrew Royce. “Health equity can be actualized through providers’ use of the best tools available. Voyce ensures conversations can be started, consent can take place, and the little nuances that are so central to a patient experience are recognized, not ignored.”
“Digital health technology in Canada is transforming the way hospitals operate and we have witnessed this evolution accelerate by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the outset I knew this partnership was a great fit for the company. myHealthHub is designed to enable patients to manage their care while meeting the needs of the healthcare provider, and the hospital. We saw an opportunity to help provide all Canadians with equal access to care through our platform myHealthHub, that is already at the bedside for so many patients across Canada,” said CEO of HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions Larry MacGirr. “As we continuously evaluate and add new functionality to our suite of patient engagement tools, Voyce is a welcomed addition. Our partnership with Voyce is intended to help engage patients in a language they understand. Our aim is to improve communication and reduce the feeling of stress for a patient while they are in the hospital alone.”
A study by Health Canada found that, “those facing language barriers also face increased risk of medication errors and complications, and adverse events. The rights of limited English proficient patients to informed consent and confidentiality are often not protected.” The first pilot hospital to offer the service to its patients will be announced in late Spring.
Based in Toronto, Canada, Voyce Canada was founded with the mission to use technology to make communication channels available anywhere and everywhere. Millions of immigrants who don’t speak English in Canada are often left out of the basic services available. Voyce Canada gives service providers the chance to connect with these people and give them a chance for better health and a better quality of life.
Voyce and HealthHub believe that, when patients are provided with the right information, they become better informed, more empowered and more engaged in their own care – all of which leads to better health outcomes and a more efficient healthcare system.
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About HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions
Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, HealthHub Patient Engagement Solutions help Canadian hospitals engage their patients and transform their experience through our digital bedside patient engagement platform. We’re proud healthtech advocates, partnering with Canadian healthcare leaders, empowering patients to play an active role in their care and providing clinicians with real-time access to information. We’re driven by our passion to help deliver the best care and experience possible. To engage with us, please visit www.healthhubsolutions.ca
About Voyce
Voyce expands access to language services and improves communication and understanding for people who need it most. Innovative applications in legal, health care, and business market segments help to support underserved populations. Voyce’s mission and reach extends past services. It also supports humanitarian endeavors to help displaced populations more easily understand the course toward normalizing their lives, joining new communities and building new lives.
Voyce is an innovative on demand interpretation service that delivers seamless, secure, and cost-effective access to healthcare interpreters. Voyce supports 235+ languages and dialects with medically qualified interpreters’ that patients and healthcare providers can get access to in less than 30 seconds.