Introduction:

Hispanophones and francophones who have access to the mainly anglophone scientific literature, medical interpreters, as well as trainees in bilingual genetic counseling programs are in particular need of a translation tool specific to medical genetics. The original French/English Lexigene was published online in 2011. Although a Spanish/English glossary was created in the 1990s, its medical genetics terminology had not been updated in almost twenty years.

Objectives:

Lexigene aims to facilitate the provision of genetics services in the three most commonly spoken languages in North America and to contribute to the development of the genetic counseling profession.

Methods:

The translation of terms into Spanish was performed by genetics professionals from various Spanish-speaking countries. Prior to its launch, the Spanish version of Lexigene was piloted by 18 genetics professionals through qualitative and quantitative questions.

Results:

Lexigene (www.lexigene.com) is now trilingual and allows to search for terms in either English, Spanish or French and to find the equivalent term in the other language. Lexigene boasts about 3600 terms and is updated regularly. During the piloting phase, all respondents ranked the tool as “easy” or “very easy” to use and 89% indicated they would use it in their practice. Eighty percent of the words that respondents searched for were present in Lexigene. Finally, the qualitative feedback provided was used to improve the website’s functionality. Trilingual Lexigene was launched in the Spring of 2017.

Conclusion:

Lexigene will help genetics professionals and interpreters enhance their vocabulary and provide better service through accurate communication.