J Genet Couns. 2019;1–5. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jgc4 | 1 © 2019 National Society of Genetic Counselors DOI: 10.1002/jgc4.1099 BRIEF REPORT Lexigene®: An online medical genetics translation tool to facilitate communication Mireille Cloutier 1 * | Julie Hathaway 2 * | Rachel Vanneste 3 * | Priscila D. Hodges 4 | Guillaume Sillon 5 * 1 Regional Genetics Program, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada 2 Blueprint Genetics, San Francisco, California 3 Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Saskatoon, Canada 4 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas 5 Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada Correspondence Mireille Cloutier, Regional Genetics Program, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada. Email: lexigene.cagc-accg@gmail.com KEYWORDS: translation, communication, genetics service delivery, cultural diversity, genetic counseling, language, bilingualism, language training, multicultural competence, medical interpretation, medical genetics, CAGC, NSGC Lexigene® (www.lexigene.com) is an online lexicon which provides the translation of terms related to medical genetics, and more specif- ically, to the profession of genetic counseling. This report describes how a team of genetic counselors (GCs) created Lexigene® to im- prove the communication of genetic information to patients in lan- guages other than English. It has been described that when individuals do not have access to health care in their preferred language, there is a potential for neg- ative health outcomes (Bowen, 2000). These patients are less likely to understand or adhere to care plans and are less satisfied with the care they receive (Gregg & Saha, 2007; Jacobs, Chen, Karliner, Agger-Gupta, & Mutha, 2006). Similar findings have been shown for patients receiving genetic counseling for a variety of indications when counseling is not provided in their preferred language (Cruz- Correa et al., 2017; Rajpal, Muñoz, Peshkin, & Graves, 2017). The need to diversify the field of practicing GCs has been noted throughout the history of the genetic counseling profession. Early on, three papers published in the second volume of the Journal of Genetic Counseling (JOGC) outlined the need to diversify the field as well as the shortage of bicultural and bilingual GCs (Punales-Morejon & Rapp, 1993; Smith, Warren, & Misra, 1993; Weil & Mittman, 1993). Later, additional publications also described the importance of diver- sifying the population of GCs (Lega, Veach, Ward, & LeRoy, 2005; Schoonveld, Veach, & LeRoy, 2007), and in 2011, an entire issue of the JOGC was dedicated to GCs’ cultural competency. More recently, Ormond et al. (2018) described the availability of genetic counseling globally and highlighted the challenge of this service being offered in different languages. Despite these efforts, data from the 2018 National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Professional Status Survey showed that only 14% of respondents (364/2,543) pro- vide genetic counseling in a language other than English, including Spanish (169/364) and French (44/364) (NSGC, 2018). Since there is a dearth of bilingual GCs in North America, the use of medical interpreters is common in order to provide health care to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) individuals and to bridge “patient-provider linguistic and cultural differences” (Dysart-Gale, 2007). Genetic counseling-specific resources for GCs providing services to patients in a second language and for medical interpreters have historically been limited. For example, only a few printed French- English medical genetics glossaries exist; however, none are specific to the field of genetic counseling. As such, they lack many of the terms relevant to the profession and do not encompass the breadth of a GC's scope of practice. Given these known barriers to care and based on an exploratory study (Vanneste, Fitzpatrick, & Russell, 2008) as well as anecdotal evidence, four bilingual Canadian GCs (MC, JH, GS, and RV) recog- nized the need for a language tool that translates English and French terms related to genetic counseling. In 2008 they wrote a proposal for an online language tool “Lexigene®” with the following three goals: (1) to enhance the training of GCs, whether they train in a primarily French or English program, by giving more students and new graduates an opportunity to counsel in French or English as *These authors contributed equally to this work.