Looking Out for the Good: WSU student develops app for Navajo patients

SALT LAKE CITY – A Weber State University student plans to create an app to help Navajo elders communicate with healthcare workers.

Kendra Ellison said it will help people like her father who speaks only Navajo.

“There’s very little interpreters and the experiences of when we go to the ER, they’re just kind of like ‘ok, let’s go off his vital signs, his blood work or his imaging,’” Ellison said.

Ellison is working on her Associate of Applied Science in Radiography. She encountered the language barrier gap while doing her clinicals at a hospital in her hometown of Shiprock, New Mexico.

She believes an app with short phrases like “sit still for a moment” or “please lie down” could help patients feel more comfortable.

“Having that welcoming environment of encouraging people to speak Navajo. I think it will be a change in how we see medicine honestly,” Ellison said.

Ellison came up with the app idea while attending a women’s entrepreneurship program. She is working with a Utah company to get her app up and running. She already has interest from smaller tribes in Arizona, who would like to utilize the app in their native language.