Francophone initiative
The Ontario SPOR Support Unit (OSSU) is a network of research centers that engages researchers, patients and other partners in patient-centred research to improve the health of Ontarians and the healthcare system.
COFFRE (for Communautés Ontariennes Francophones Facilitant la Recherche Equitable) is one of three OSSU initiatives providing cross-cutting expertise on the following priority areas from an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) perspective: First Nations and other Aboriginals (Métis and Inuit), Francophones, Sex and Gender.
Our resources
Article summaries
To make research concerning francophone minorities, patient partners, and research published in French more accessible to the public, COFFRE has identified the articles judged more pertinent, and prepared* a series of plain-language research summaries.
Here are the summaries, and you can click on the following links to find out more:
This study evaluates the ability of language models (LLaMA 3 and Qwen 2) to summarize real patient–healthcare team dialogues in Brazil conducted via WhatsApp. Despite the noisy and informal nature of Portuguese messages, the models generated useful and accurate summaries, with LLaMA 3 performing slightly better. The approach shows promise for enhancing digital healthcare communication, particularly in settings with limited access to primary care.
This study examines the use of ChatGPT-4 as a written medical interpreter in simulated pediatric urgent care visits between an English-speaking clinician and a Spanish-only simulated patient. With a 99.4% accuracy rate, most errors were minor, though some gender and formality mismatches were noted. The study suggests AI could be a fast, low-cost medical translation option, pending further real-world testing.
This study examines the experiences of bilingual and multilingual genetic counselors in the United States and Canada who provide services in a language other than English. The findings indicate that most participants counsel without interpreters but face challenges due to limited translated resources and insufficient specialized training. The study highlights the need for improved patient-facing translation tools and enhanced language training for future genetic counselors.
This study examines healthcare access disparities and discrimination faced by Black Quebecers, focusing on the intersection of race and language. Findings indicate that English-speaking Black Quebecers experience greater barriers, including reduced access to healthcare services, less access to COVID-19 information, and higher dissatisfaction with the healthcare system due to their double-minority status. The study highlights the need to consider both race and language as key health determinants to better address the needs of marginalized populations.
This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of various strategies to reduce language barriers in healthcare. The best outcomes are linked to care provided in the patient’s language or with a professional interpreter, either in-person or via video. Digital tools and informal interpreters may help in some contexts, but their effectiveness is mixed.
This study assesses healthcare providers’ use and satisfaction with interpretation services in Canadian emergency departments before and after implementing a pilot video-based interpretation service. Results show that video interpretation was rated higher for reliability, accuracy, efficiency, and was used more frequently than phone interpretation, especially by nurses. The study highlights that video interpretation can enhance accessibility and quality of care, while greater access to devices and training is needed to further promote health equity.
This article highlights the challenges faced by Francophone patients in minority settings in Canada, particularly the difficulty of accessing healthcare in their language. It suggests four strategies to improve their care, including proactively identifying Francophone patients, actively offering French-language services, using interpreters when needed, and ensuring continuity of care in French.
This qualitative study of 1,295 nurses from New York and Illinois explores their experiences caring for patients with limited English proficiency to identify strategies for improving hospital care. Four themes emerged: adequate and multilingual nurse staffing, community-integrated teams, standardized and reliable language access services, and tailored interpretation based on clinical needs. The study recommends investing in a diverse healthcare workforce, improving interpretation equipment, and implementing linguistic and cultural competency training to reduce disparities and enhance care quality.
This commentary provides an overview of the challenges of delivering language-appropriate care in Canadian emergency departments. It highlights the increased risk of adverse events among patients with limited English or French proficiency and emphasizes the importance of using professional rather than ad hoc interpreters. The authors propose a practical five-step approach to identify and document patients’ preferred language and prioritize professional interpretation, stressing that responsibility for language-appropriate care lies with clinicians, healthcare institutions, and governments to promote safety, trust, and health equity.
This study reports on the implementation of a Bilingual Competency Program (BCP) at an urban cancer center to improve care for patients with non-English language preferences. Over 900 staff members participated, representing 67 languages, with most language skills verified through self-assessment or oral testing. The program shows that structured language proficiency evaluation can not only strengthen health equity but also improve the quality of clinical interactions and support better patient outcomes.
This study examines the challenges faced by palliative care physicians in Ontario when caring for patients from linguistic and cultural minority groups. The findings reveal visible barriers, such as communication difficulties and limited time for in-depth discussions, as well as invisible obstacles, including the Eurocentric approach to palliative care and physicians’ lack of cultural awareness. The study highlights the need for improved access to interpreter services and enhanced cultural competency training to improve end-of-life care.
This study explores the use of medical interpretation services by pediatric residents in Canada and their perception of access and effectiveness. While interpreters are available, they are underutilized, and residents report providing lower-quality care to patients who do not speak English or French, even when an interpreter is present. The study highlights the need for improved resident training in interpreter use and cross-cultural communication to enhance healthcare equity.
This qualitative systematic review explores the experiences of 416 nurses from eight countries working with interpreters in healthcare settings. While interactions with professional interpreters were mostly positive, nurses reported challenges related to accuracy, time demands, and unreliable technology. The study calls for formal training and allocated clinical time to support interpretation in the care of patients with limited language proficiency.
This study examines administrative data on interpretation services used during contact tracing of high-risk COVID-19 cases in Ontario to better understand the linguistic needs of affected communities. The findings reveal that the most requested languages were French, Arabic, Spanish, Punjabi, and Mandarin, with trends generally aligning with the language profiles of the regions involved. The study suggests that analyzing administrative data could help public health authorities tailor communication strategies to better serve linguistically diverse populations.
This study assesses patient and provider satisfaction with an interactive mapping tool designed to help locate family physicians offering care in patients’ preferred languages in Ontario. Most users were satisfied, but many highlighted the need to include information on physicians accepting new patients. The study emphasizes the importance of an accessible and centralized directory of available physicians to improve healthcare access.
This article explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on reducing language barriers in healthcare, particularly for non-English speaking patients. The study highlights AI’s potential to enhance real-time verbal and written translations, especially for less common languages, while emphasizing the importance of human review to ensure accuracy. Such an approach could significantly improve access to care and reduce health disparities.
This national U.S. study investigates the link between Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and suicide attempts among 26,668 adolescents. Findings show that youth with LEP were over threetimes more likely to attempt suicide than English-proficient peers, even after adjusting for factors such as sleep, academic performance, persistent sadness, and bullying. The study highlights the urgent need for culturally and linguistically tailored mental health interventions to prevent suicide and reduce health disparities among linguistically diverse adolescents.
This study assesses the potential of ChatGPT for translating and simplifying radiology reports into multiple languages (Spanish, Hindi, and Russian) to enhance healthcare accessibility. Results indicate that Spanish translations were the most accurate, while Hindi and Russian versions contained more errors and limitations. The study highlights that, while promising, the use of ChatGPT for medical translation still requires improvements and additional training for languages that are less represented in medical literature.
This study explores the link between language isolation and the incidence of 19 cancer types in the U.S. Positive correlations were found with stomach, ovarian, liver, thyroid, and uterine cancers, while negative correlations were seen with lung, kidney, colorectal cancers, and melanoma. The study highlights the need for targeted interventions, including culturally tailored education and increased access to screening in patients’ preferred languages, to reduce health disparities.
*The summaries were written with the support of ChatGPT (OpenAI) in order to generate a short, clear and faithful synthesis of the content of the articles.
Essentials - Research information notes
To make research findings more accessible and influential, COFFRE has prepared a series of plain-language research summaries to share with decision-makers and the general public.
Click on the following links to find out more:
Availability and distribution of French-speaking pharmacists in Ontario
Are long-term care residents with dementia and language barriers more likely to be hospitalized?
Ascertaining the Francophone population in Ontario, validating the language variable in health data - NEW!
Is end-of-life care different for English-speaking and French-speaking people?
Portrait of French-speaking minorities in relation to vaccination against COVID-19
Find a French-speaking doctor
This interactive map shows the names, practice locations and language skills of family physicians serving the community of Ottawa and Renfrew County, Ontario.
Boarding kit for patient partners
This kit is sent to all patient partners joining our directory. It contains information that patient partners should consult before embarking on a research project.
Consultation preparation tool
Involving patient-partners in the development of your research project could be useful for obtaining direct feedback from people with a unique perspective thanks to their experiences with the healthcare system. This poster shows the information that should be presented clearly and accurately to lead to effective consultation.
Patient Partner Remuneration Guide
Here is a resource tool to facilitate compensation discussions with patient partners. It aims to help research teams plan and deliver fair and consistent compensation to patient partners participating in their projects.
Grant application template - Inclusion of the notion of Francophones living in minority settings
This model was created to help researchers include the Francophone minority community in their research grant applications.
A guide to sex and gender
This tool is designed to help researchers maximize their chances of obtaining funding by including sex and gender when writing a grant proposal. Available in French only.
How to undertake new research at ISM and Hôpital Montfort?
This poster outlines the main steps involved in undertaking a new research project at ISM or Hôpital Montfort. A guide will be developed to accompany the poster and the various steps.
Evaluating patients as research partners
This is a series of survey tools developed to help researchers better understand the actual experience of both researchers and patients/carers when partnering on a project where patients and/or carers are members of the research team.
Research and artificial intelligence infographic - NEW!
This tool provides a step-by-step overview of the research process and clearly identifies when the use of AI tools such as OpenAI is appropriate, in alignment with federal guidelines
*only available in French
Resources sourced from other organizations
USSO Equity Framework
This framework explains the principles and practices for promoting equity in patient-oriented research, as well as the equity requirements for researchers working with the Ontario SPOR Support Unit (OSU).
Mobilizing knowledge on the health of official-language minority communities (OLMCs)
This knowledge mobilization website is a one-stop shop for information on the health of official-language minority communities (OLMCs). The aim is to promote evidence-based data and facilitate knowledge transfer.
OSSU Capacity Building Compendium
The OSSU Capacity Building Compendium is a valuable resource that lists 35 training and learning initiatives focused on patient-oriented research in Ontario. This directory includes free online modules, seminars, academic courses, practical tools, and mentorship programs, accessible to diverse audiences: patients, researchers, healthcare professionals, policy makers, and trainees.
This fourth edition focuses on meaningful patient engagement, equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as the development of key research competencies. It promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and the emergence of learning health systems. In brief, the compendium is an essential resource for anyone wishing to strengthen their knowledge or integrate patient-oriented research principles into their projects.
PASSERELLE
PASSERELLE is the national bilingual hub dedicated to capacity building in partnership-based research, conducted with and for patients and other partners. It brings together a diversity of resources and expertise to strengthen the research capacity of individuals, research teams, and organizations through training activities, a repository of resources and tools, funding opportunities, and a collaborative approach. We invite you to explore its website to learn more.
Variety of Patient Engagement Resources
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Patient Engagement Committee has compiled a collection of resources from various Canadian organizations. These free resources include online courses, journal articles, toolkits, and more to help researchers and institutions implement best practices in patient engagement.
Integrate patient partners into your team
If you are looking for French-speaking patient partners to join your research team, please provide the following information. Please note that this information will be shared with potential patients for matching purposes, i.e. to find the patient who best meets your selection criteria.
Other research tools
CRA training modules
In order to improve the health research process and optimize its impact on patient and population health, the collaborative research approach (CRA) is a priority. This approach advocates bringing together players or stakeholders interested in the same issue, around the various aspects of a study. CRA involves partners from a variety of fields working together on a common project.
CRA training modules are developed in line with the principles of collaborative research.
Each module consists of 2 capsules only available in French.
Its objectives include :
- Identify the characteristics of CRA in healthcare.
- Recognize your role and responsibilities as a member of a research team using CRA.
- Describe the roles and responsibilities of CRA team members.
- Summarize the benefits and challenges of the CRA.
- Distinguish between the different types of collaboration used within CRA.
Students
A general training capsule that identifies the features and benefits of CRA and describes the roles and responsibilities of CRA research team members.
A specific training capsule targeting a well-defined category of partners, enabling them to identify the different stages of a research project using CRA. This capsule illustrates how a CRA project unfolds, using a fictitious example to help partners grasp the concept of collaborative research.
Managers
A general training capsule that identifies the features and benefits of CRA and describes the roles and responsibilities of CRA research team members.
A specific training capsule targeting a well-defined category of partners, enabling them to identify the different stages of a research project using CRA. This capsule illustrates how a CRA project unfolds, using a fictitious example to help partners grasp the concept of collaborative research.
Researchers
A general training capsule that identifies the features and benefits of CRA and describes the roles and responsibilities of CRA research team members.
A specific training capsule targeting a well-defined category of partners, enabling them to identify the different stages of a research project using CRA. This capsule illustrates how a CRA project unfolds, using a fictitious example to help partners grasp the concept of collaborative research.
Healthcare professionnal
A general training capsule that identifies the features and benefits of CRA and describes the roles and responsibilities of CRA research team members.
A specific training capsule targeting a well-defined category of partners, enabling them to identify the different stages of a research project using CRA. This capsule illustrates how a CRA project unfolds, using a fictitious example to help partners grasp the concept of collaborative research.
Patient partners
A general training capsule that identifies the features and benefits of CRA and describes the roles and responsibilities of CRA research team members.
A specific training capsule targeting a well-defined category of partners, enabling them to identify the different stages of a research project using CRA. This capsule illustrates how a CRA project unfolds, using a fictitious example to help partners grasp the concept of collaborative research.
Databases
Francophones research
This database brings together researchers from all walks of life whose research expertise is relevant to Francophones.
View the list of researchers
Organizations serving francophones
This database groups together various organizations whose services are geared towards Francophones.
View the list of organizations
Publications
This database brings together publications related to the health of Francophones in Canada, and can be sorted by subject and province.
view all publications
