User study of a Spanish-language ClinicalTrials.gov prototype system

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Consumer Health Informatics
• Information Retrieval

Background:

• ClinicalTrials.gov is a vital resource but is English-only.
• Limited access to health information exists for non-English speakers.
• Bridging language barriers in health information is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a Spanish-language prototype of ClinicalTrials.gov.
• To assess user expectations, usability, and satisfaction among Spanish-speaking consumers.
• To explore a generalizable approach for multilingual health information systems.

Main Methods:

• User study with 36 monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking consumers.
• Evaluation of a prototype combining Spanish-English cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) and document display.
• Collection of qualitative feedback on user experience.

Main Results:

• Preliminary results indicate enhanced online information access for Spanish-speakers.
• User feedback suggests the prototype meets expectations for usability.
• Satisfaction levels were generally positive, pointing to successful information retrieval.

Conclusions:

• The developed prototype shows promise for improving health information accessibility for Spanish-speaking populations.
• The cross-language information retrieval approach can be adapted for other health systems and languages.
• Further development is warranted to refine and implement the system broadly.