How to translate at a doctor's or hospital appointment

What it is for, and what it is not

In a translation session, each thing the doctor says appears on the screen as two bubbles — what was said, and its translation — moments after they pause. When it is your turn, you exchange the two languages and your answer appears in theirs. The picker offers hundreds of languages, so a Portuguese-speaking parent at a clinic in Germany is as possible as English and Spanish.

What it produces is a machine translation of what was said, nothing more. The app is not a certified medical interpreter, and nothing it shows is medical advice. Treat it as a way to follow the conversation and be understood, and keep the medical decisions where they belong: with the clinician, and with the patient.

When to ask for a professional interpreter

Some moments at a doctor's are too important for a translation nobody in the room can check. Many hospitals and clinics can arrange an interpreter, in person or by phone. Ask whether one is available when you book, and again at reception; it is not guaranteed everywhere, so ask early. These are the moments to insist on one:

• Consent forms, and anything else you are asked to sign.
• A diagnosis, test results, or a conversation about a serious or long-term condition.
• Choosing between treatments, or preparing for surgery or anaesthesia.
• Mental health, and anything else where the exact words carry the meaning.
• A patient who cannot check the translation for themselves — a young child, or a parent who is confused or very unwell.
• An emergency. Call the local emergency number first; do not spend the first minutes setting up an app.

Setting it up before you go in

Do it in the waiting room, not with the doctor waiting. The Translate button switches translation on; choosing the Translation template alone does not.

1. Tap Translate, the globe button, and in the Translation sheet turn on “Translate chat and live session”.
2. Set From to the doctor's language, or Auto Detect, and To to the language of the person who needs to understand — you, or your parent.
3. Tap Start (Start Session on iPad and Mac) when you are called in, before the doctor starts speaking.
4. To answer, open Translate and exchange From and To, answer, then exchange them back. With From on Auto Detect, you only change To.
5. Tap End when the consultation is over, or before any part of it you would rather not send through the cloud.

In the room: the phone, and the first thing to say

Tell the doctor at the start, before the session runs: you are using an AI translation app, it listens to the conversation, and the audio is processed by a cloud service. A clinician should know how their words reach you, and some will offer an interpreter at that point. Accept it.

Put the phone on the desk between you, screen up, where both of you can read it; the doctor can see your side of the conversation too, which helps them notice when something came out wrong. Ask them to speak in short sentences, to pause, and to write down any number that matters.

A live session ends when the app goes to the background or the screen locks. An examination can take a while with the phone set down, so set Auto-Lock to a longer time beforehand, in the iPhone's Settings under Display & Brightness, and keep it plugged in for a long hospital appointment. If you need to look something up in another app, expect to tap Start again afterwards.

Prepare the words that matter at home

The most useful translation can be prepared before the appointment. Write down, in your own language, what you want the doctor to know. When it is your turn, with From set to your language, type or paste it into “Ask AI or paste context…”: typed text is translated like speech, and the doctor reads the translation instead of waiting for you to find the words. A useful list covers:

• What the symptoms are, when they started, and what makes them better or worse.
• Medicines taken regularly, with the doses.
• Allergies, and previous operations or conditions.
• The questions you want answered before you leave.

Double-check, and write it down

Names of medicines, doses and numbers are where live translation is weakest, and at a doctor's they are what matters most. A dose said quickly can be misheard before it is translated at all. Bring the packaging of any medicine you take: brand names differ between countries, and the active ingredient printed on the box is what a doctor elsewhere is likely to recognise.

Before you leave, say back what you understood — “So, two tablets a day for ten days, and come back if the fever lasts more than three days?” — and let the doctor read the translation and confirm or correct it. Ask for the prescription and the instructions in writing; a printed sheet is worth more than a screen you might misread later.

If you want to keep a line, select the text in its bubble and copy it with the system menu into your own notes. The session is stored on the device; there is no export or share button.

Health details are sensitive

What is said at a doctor's is among the most personal information there is, and during a cloud session it leaves the room: the audio goes from your device straight to OpenAI's Realtime API, which produces the transcript and the translation, and typed text is sent the same way. The session is then stored on your device, with no cloud sync. Arte Soft's servers never receive the audio, the transcripts or the translations.

Decide beforehand whether that is acceptable for this appointment, and say so to the doctor and to the parent you are with. Clinics often have their own rules about recording, and a live transcript deserves the same question as a recording; the guide on recording and transcribing other people covers what to say.