MedlinePlus Multilingual Enhancement

  On May 7, 2008, MedlinePlus will debut a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them. Over the years, many of you have requested this enhancement. Your suggestions helped us to develop this important service.

The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. Continuous growth is expected.  The link to the new collection is http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/languages.html

Users can navigate the new collection of health information in multiple languages either by language or by topic. A page listing all of the languages covered will be linked from the MedlinePlus homepage. Users can browse these languages or link to the page listing all of the topics covered. In addition, a languages box will display on the English Health Topic pages. The languages box lists the languages with links on that topic in MedlinePlus. The languages box also links users to the collection of health information in multiple languages. Users can also search the new collection of health information in multiple languages. A new collection called Multiple Languages appears on the MedlinePlus search results pages.  Look for an update to the MedlinePlus Search Tips in the near future.

Finally, an interactive world map teaches users about the number of people who speak nine of the languages in the MedlinePlus collection. The languages - Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese - are among those most frequently spoken at home in the United States other than English, according to the U.S. census.