Who is the MISA for?
For Employers: To assess the language fluency, anatomy and general medical terminology knowledge, and medical interpreting skills of their bilingual employees for documentation of their qualifications to provide services and/or interpret in both languages.
Experienced interpreters: To prepare for job interview or to prepare for interpreter testing, or national certification exams.
New interpreters: To have an assessment of their baseline skills in both languages in order to decide on the appropriate training based on their proficiency level.
Who evaluates the candidate?
Healthcare Professionals: Physicians, nurses, physical therapist, nuclear medicine technologist who speak the language pair and who have received a Professional Clinical Interpreter Certificate.
A healthcare professional may partner with a CMI/CHI who speaks the language pair, and/or with another healthcare professional who speaks the non-English language to evaluate the fluency and accuracy of the candidate's rendition.
What report will I receive?
Bilingual Employee Testing: The report includes:
Anatomy and medical terminology Exam: Knowledge of diseases, procedures, treatments, and patient education materials in both languages.
Fluency: Presence of hesitations, self-corrections, and long pauses. Correct pronunciation of terms in both languages.
Accuracy: Ability to convert the original message into the target language completely without omission, addition, editing, summarizing, or changing the meaning of the message.
Comprehension: Ability to restate the source message into the target language using knowledge of the target message's sentence structures and grammatical rules to produce a coherent message equivalent to the original.
Analytical Skills: Ability to listen to a brief discussion of a basic medical topic and ability to answer basic questions about the topic with fluency and accuracy in both languages.
*Testing of knowledge of specialty areas may be arranged with additional fee: Labor and Delivery, Diabetes, Cancer, Emergency/Trauma, ICU/CCU, Pediatrics, etc.
Detailed Report on the Skill-level of the candidate and recommendations:
Level 1: Beginner Interpreting Skills: May interpret in non-clinical setting, for example, working front desk, appointments, etc.
Level 2: Intermediate Interpreting Skills: May interpret in office and clinic settings, community or public health, general medical-surgical and outpatient setting.
Level 3: Advanced Interpreting Skills: Candidate has advanced language skills, clinical knowledge and has demonstrated adherence to interpreting standards and code of ethics. May interpret in office, clinic, community or public health, outpatient and acute care medical-surgical setting. May interpret in critical care areas where candidate has documented clinical experience.
Description of Test
The assessment is designed, developed and administered by healthcare professionals with knowledge, education, and background in medicine or healthcare and who have high levels of fluency in English and another language, and have advanced medical interpreter training. Our evaluators include physicians, registered nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, speech therapists, and nuclear medicine technologist.
The test has three sections:
- General Knowledge of Medical Terminology and Anatomy (English) 20-30 minutes.
- Sight Translation of Medical Documents 20-30 minutes.
- Consecutive Interpreting (English to the target language or vice versa) 20-30 minutes.
During the sight translation portion, the participant reads aloud a document in English and then verbally interprets the document into the target language.
During the consecutive interpreting mode, the participant listens to pre-recorded English language utterances and interprets the sentences into the second language for which the test is being taken (target language) and/or target language answers into English. The participant listens to the sentences and interprets after each pause.
The recording of the interpretation is evaluated by a healthcare professional evaluator who speaks the same language pair. In some cases, an evaluator may partner with another qualified interpreter in evaluating minority language interpretations. Minority languages are languages for which no national certification or established training exists. For example, Mayan languages, Itneg, etc. Fluency, accuracy, and comprehension are evaluated.
Before taking the exams, the candidate would take the brief online orientation so they can practice the exam formats. They are given at least two weeks to complete the testing and they may log in at any time during office hours to take each section of the exam. Some candidates may need more time than others, depending on their prior training, language proficiency, test-taking skills. etc.
(This exam does not include assessment of knowledge of Standards for Medical Interpreting, Code of Ethics and Role Boundaries of Interpreters. We offer a Comprehensive Assessment that includes Standards and Code of Ethics and Role Boundaries for trained interpreters.)
Fluency: Presence of hesitations, self-corrections, and long pauses. Correct pronunciation of terms in both languages.
Accuracy: Ability to convert the original message into the target language completely without omission, addition, editing, summarizing, or changing the meaning of the message.
Comprehension: Ability to restate the source message into the target language using knowledge of the target message's sentence structures and grammatical rules to produce a coherent message equivalent to the original.
Participants must score at least 80 percent on each section in order to pass.
Scores are reported within 15-20 business days.* Expedited review may be requested (additional fee of $50.00 per person) for reports requested within 7-10 days. (Expedited review may not be available for ALL languages. Please contact us for availability.)
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Corporate discounts are available for twenty or more employees. Please contact us.
*Languages tested:
Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese.
The exams will be evaluated and results are reported within 15-20 business days.
For other languages:
Chinese Cantonese, Japanese, Farsi, Turkish, Armenian, Amharic, etc. The first two assessments are completed first, and the rest of the assessments will be completed after 5-7 days to allow time to prepare the exams for the language-specific components of the exam. The exams will be evaluated and results are reported within 20-30 business days.
Refund Policy:
Once the candidate receives access to the online portal orientation, there is no refund. There is no refund for incomplete exams, or for failing the exams within the testing period. For candidates sponsored by an organization, substituting another employee may be allowed in some cases, based on previous agreement.