Startup's software spurs deal

Polyglot medical translation gains Language Line's clout

Morrisville startup Polyglot Systems spent years developing software to help doctors and nurses communicate with patients who don't speak English.

Now the country's largest provider of telephone interpreter services is taking Polyglot's product to the market.

The partnership with Language Line Services strengthens the tiny company's credibility -- as well as its sales and marketing muscle, said Polyglot CEO Charles Lee.

Language Line will sell the software in the United States and Canada, and the companies will share the revenue.

"That's a great validation that what we've been doing is on par with what the market's requesting," Lee said.

Polyglot, which signed its first customer in December, is already fielding inquiries from half a dozen Language Line customers interested in purchasing the software, now branded as Language Line HealthPort, Lee said.

The product makes basic medical translation as easy as the click of a mouse.

Health-care providers select one of 7,000 questions or statements, such as "Please take a deep breath and hold it." The system then speaks to patients in the language selected. The company has recorded the phrases into Spanish and Korean; Mandarin, Russian and Vietnamese should be available by May.

The software, which includes multilingual demonstrations and educational tools, also incorporates a call button for Language Line's telephone service. That means health-care providers can handle simple questions and requests via computer, then bring in human interpreters when and if it's time for more in-depth discussion or explanation.

"By having a quick conversation [using HealthPort], we anticipate that will lead to more compelling discussions between patients and providers," Lee said.

A hospital-wide subscription to HealthPort will cost about $40,000 a year, or about $110 a day. By contrast, telephone interpreter services cost about $1.50 a minute for most common languages.

Polyglot's technology is one of the tools that will be key in helping the medical community address the needs of a growing immigrant patient population, said Louis Provenzano, Language Line's president.

"Every 31 seconds, another limited English immigrant comes into the United States, so the demand is explosive, and there are significant resources that are required across the board," he said.

Last month, Polyglot received a $750,000 federal grant to adapt its concepts for pharmacies. Software that issues multilingual pharmacy instructions and device demonstrations could be on the market in about two years, Lee said. It also recently closed on about $500,000 in private funding.

Polyglot will add at least two employees over the next six months to develop its existing and new software, manage the relationship with Language Line and support its new customers. The company has five employees and a dozen contractors.

Test sites including the University of California at Davis and Regional Medical Center at Memphis have used Polyglot's software for years. Bellevue Hospital Center in New York became the company's first paying customer in December.

Bellevue, a well-known public hospital, will be an excellent showcase for the technology, Lee said.

HealthPort was more expensive than MedBridge, the other software Bellevue considered, but it also offered capabilities that better fit the hospital's needs, said Joyce Buffolino, a staff nurse who is training her colleagues on the system. HealthPort also competes with a product called Phraselator.

The diversity of Bellevue's patient population has surpassed the hospital's ability to have employees as its only interpreters, Buffolino said. But Polyglot's technology won't replace humans. It will just help caregivers start evaluating patients while they wait for other interpreter services.

"Having the availability of the language right at your fingertips makes our interviewing process, our assessment process, much easier," she said.