HMS provides medical language training and certification opportunities to support MD students as they pursue clinical training, research, and service opportunities in different cultural contexts in Boston and abroad.
Goals
- Equip MD students with language skills to provide language-concordant and culturally-humble care with diverse patient populations
- Promote awareness of language barriers in achieving health equity
Medical Language Courses
HMS students interested in any of these courses should contact the Office of Scholarly Engagement.
Longitudinal Medical Language Courses
Classes are held weekly during one or two semesters, either during the fall semester or during both fall and spring semesters. Course content focuses on the consolidation of oral language skills in the clinical encounter and cultural sensitivity when working with patients who speak these languages.
- Intermediate Medical Arabic (LN711), fall
- Intermediate Medical French (LN709), fall
- Intermediate Medical Mandarin (LN701), fall and spring
- Intermediate Medical Portuguese (LN703), fall
- Intermediate Medical Spanish (LN705), fall and spring
- Advanced Medical Spanish (LN707), fall and spring
If you are not at the intermediate level of the languages listed above, you can visit this list of Language Learning Resources to improve your skills.
Students can pursue clinical clerkships in countries where these languages are spoken. (HarvardKey required)
Intensive Medical Spanish (ME518M.41A)
This 4-credit course is designed for beginner and intermediate Spanish-speaking 3rd or 4th year medical students. It is offered as a full-time, 4-week elective course in September and October. Instructors from Latin America teach the course and students interact with native speakers through one-on-one conversations daily. The intensive class model offers the fastest and most efficient way to improve oral medical Spanish skills. By the end of the course, students should have the skills to conduct a basic medical examination in Spanish.
Clinical Elective Exchange
For students who wish to participate in a Spanish-language clinical training experience in Latin America, ME518M.41 is offered each month. Students may take one or two months for credit. Prior Spanish fluency or completion of ME518M.41A is required for these clinical rotations. See the list of Clinical Elective Exchange Programs for current rotation sites.
Language Fluency Qualification for Patient Interactions
OSE offers HMS students the opportunity to obtain qualification to work as a multilingual team member at Harvard-affiliated hospitals/institutions. Students who successfully complete a qualified multilingual assessment (QMA) will be able to engage in direct patient care in the target language without a certified medical interpreter.
Language Assessment
If you consider yourself “Excellent” or “Very Good” in a language other than English, you may apply to take a QMA assessment.
Important Note: This assessment does not qualify you to serve as a medical interpreter.
Assessment Process
- Complete the QMA Application form
- OSE will schedule your assessment, the ALTA Medical Listening & Speaking Test, and cover the testing fee
- You will receive an email from ALTA and have 30 days to take the test
- Expect results within three weeks
- A score of 9 or above is considered a passing score and is required to communicate directly with patients in the target language.
Upon Passing the Assessment
OSE will send you your test results and a qualification letter. Stop by the OSE to pick up a button you can wear stating “I speak (language).”
Didn’t Pass?
You can retake the test after 6 months. OSE offers language learning opportunities to help you improve your language skills.
Please refer to the Qualified Multilingual Assessment Policy in the Student Handbook, Section 2.14: Rules Governing Other Educational Experiences.
Get In Touch
Rose Molina, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Director, Medical Language Program
rmolina@bidmc.harvard.edu
Marcie Naumowicz
Senior Scholarly Engagement Coordinator
marcie_naumowicz@hms.harvard.edu
More About the Medical Language Program
Medical Language Research
Our team has published scholarship related to the Medical Language Program and the importance of language concordance in clinical care. Please see some of our work below:
- Mai M, Molina RL, Aguayo-Mazzucato C, Diaz AA, Canenguez K, Cheung HC, Graupera NR, Martel B, Bonilla S. A Standardized Clinical Case-Based Assessment for Evaluating Medical Students' Oral Spanish Communication Skills. MedEdPORTAL. 2025;21:11518. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11518
- Pereira JA, Hannibal K, Stecker J, Kasper J, Katz JN, Molina RL. Professional language use by alumni of the Harvard Medical School Medical Language Program. BMC Medical Education. 2020 Nov 6; 20(1): 407. PMID: 33158441.
- Molina RL, Kasper J. The Power of Language-Concordant Care: A Call to Action for Medical Schools. BMC Medical Education. 2019 Nov 6;19(1):378. PMID: 31690300.
- Molina RL and Kaimal AJ. Heard but Excluded: A Language Manifesto
- Molina RL and Kasper J. Medical Language Programs to Enhance Engagement with Diverse Communities in the United States and Around the World. In P Ortega, G Martínez, M Lou, S Ramírez (Eds). The Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell (pp. 349-366). 2024.
- Shah PP, Diaz AA. Creating Multilingual COVID-19–related Material. Expanding Health Literacy in Vulnerable Populations.
HMS Student Scholarly Projects
- Rivera L, Butler H, Salinas KE, Wade C, Bazan M, Larson E, Molina RL. Communication Preferences During Pregnancy Care Among Patients With Primary Spanish Language: A Scoping Review. Womens Health Issues. 2023 Oct 10:S1049-3867(23)00155-X. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2023.08.008. PMID: 37827863.
- Salinas KE, Bazan M, Rivera L, Butler H, Larson E, Guise JM, Hacker MR, Kaimal AJ, Molina RL. Experiences and Communication Preferences in Pregnancy Care Among Patients With a Spanish Language Preference: A Qualitative Study. Obstet Gynecol. 2023 Sep 14. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005369. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37708499.
- Butler HM, Bazan M, Rivera L, Salinas KE, Hacker MR, DeLevie-Orey S, Siegel MR, Larson E, Molina RL. Prenatal Care Clinician Preferences Among Patients With Spanish-Preferred Language. Obstet Gynecol. 2024 Aug 15. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005697. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39147367.
Program Timeline
1972
Dr. Guillermo Herrera initiates the first medical Spanish language course (later formalized into ME518M.41a).
The courses have had over 600 participants in the past nearly 50 years.
2003
Office of Scholarly Engagement establishes clerkship exchanges with medical schools and centers in South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Students participate in these electives abroad to further their clinical training and put their language learning into practice.
2008
HMS students establish the Harvard Medical Language Initiative (HMLI).
Existing non-credit classes in medical Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin were included in HMLI.
2011
Credit-bearing, longitudinal courses are established in medical Spanish, Mandarin, and Portuguese.
Over 500 students have participated in longitudinal courses since their inception.
2017
The faculty-led Medical Language Program is established in the Office for Scholarly Engagement.
Dr. Rose Molina is the inaugural Medical Language Program Director.
Founder of Medical Spanish at HMS: Dr. Guillermo Herrera
Since the early 1970s, Harvard Medical School has offered Medical Spanish courses and accompanying clinical rotations in Latin America for credit, originally designed by HMS and HSPH faculty member, Manuel Guillermo Herrera, MD. For some 45 years, Dr. Herrera directed the medical Spanish education of hundreds of HMS medical students until he retired in 2017.
Born in Guatemala in 1932, Manuel Guillermo Herrera traveled to the US to improve his English at the age of 16. He later enrolled at Harvard College and obtained a degree in biochemistry followed by a medical degree in 1957 from Harvard Medical School. Afterward, he travelled the world as the physician for the New York Philharmonic which was under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Dr. Herrera would then spend the rest of his career as an internal medicine physician with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Hippocrates Society honored Dr. Herrera with their Humanitarian Award in 2017. In 2017, he was honored for 60 years of service to the Brigham.
In 1971, Dr. Herrera founded a primary care Spanish Clinic at the Brigham that operated until 2017. Oftentimes, students from the Medical Spanish courses would volunteer in the clinic to assist the patients and also to maintain their Spanish-speaking skills and build their clinical skills. Dr. Herrera was also a faculty member at the Harvard School of Public Health where he pursued research on nutrition and the effects of micro-nutrients in a variety of countries over many years. Dr. Herrera passed away on January 19, 2022 from cancer.
ReVista Harvard Review of Latin America Fall 2000 issue: “Dr. Manuel Guillermo Herrera Acena: Changing the Face of Health Care for Latinos/as” by Susie Seefelt Lesieutre
Boston Business Journal Aug 16, 2013, Updated Sep 18, 2013, 8:52am EDT: “Champions in Health Care: Dr. Manuel Guillermo Herrera-Acena - Bridging the health care gap” by Mary K. Pratt, Special to the Journal. Dr. Manuel Guillermo Herrera-Acena: Brigham and Women’s longest serving acting physician advocates for a Latino community as health care needs, policies grow more complicated.