Haitian Medical Reference Guide

Haitian Creole-English medical dictionary • Audio phrasebook • Cultural notes and usage examples • No internet connection required

This free app is a comprehensive guide for English-speaking medical workers who need to communicate with Haitian Creole speakers. It was created to aid the ongoing relief effort following the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010.

It would not have been possible for us to provide this application without the donated works of Professor Bryant C. Freeman, PhD. Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas and director of the University of Kansas Institute of Haitian Studies. This app includes content from three of his published works, listed below.

Haitian Medical Reference Guide includes three powerful tools:

***Medical Dictionary***
The dictionary offers thousands of medical translations between English and Haitian Creole, as well as some non-medical terms for everyday communication. It uses the same full-featured search as Ultralingua’s other dictionaries, so it includes:
• Search results narrowed as you type to display your translation faster
• Pinch and drag to zoom in on results in the dictionary

More than 400 dictionary entries also contain cultural notes, highlighting an entry from the anthropology tool that relates to the translation at hand. These entries can be browsed in isolation in the anthropology tool as well. Some of these entries contain special usage notes about beliefs held by some Haitians on various topics, marked and labeled “Beliefs” for clarity.

Click on any term to jump to either its translation in the dictionary or a Google search for more information.

***Audio Phrasebook***
The phrasebook tool includes more than 750 audio phrases recorded by a native Haitian Creole speaker. It is a great resource for mastering Haitian Creole pronunciation and learning key phrases.

Phrases are organized by category, with some displayed on anatomical diagrams, so it is easy to find the phrase you need. Volume controls allow you to set and change the volume of the Haitian Creole phrases as you play them.

***Anthropological Reference Guide***

This tool includes cultural information about Haiti to help visitors better understand the beliefs and perspectives of Haitians.

A note from the author, Professor Freeman:

“This tool includes cultural details and background regarding medical beliefs held by many Haitians, yet usually withheld from the foreign health practitioner. It offers a sampling of cultural barriers to be confronted, within brief explanations of 340 beliefs, arranged alphabetically.

This work is intended for the many English-speaking physicians, dentists, nurses, and paramedics treating Haitian patients. It is a compendium of the questions and answers heard during the course of several hundred medical interviews which we had the privilege of attending in ten different medical institutions in rural Haiti.”

Browse the anthropological data alphabetically, or search the headwords to quickly jump to the term you are interested in. Entries are often cross-linked, so you can smoothly navigate between related terms.

Source for the data included in this app:
Third-World Folk Beliefs and Practices: Haitian Medical Anthropology, Bryant Freeman

Haitian-English English-Haitian Medical Dictionary, Bryant Freeman

Haitian-English Medical Phraseology, Bryant Freeman

We also thank Babble-On Recording Studios for generously donating studio time to create the audio recordings present in this app.