GLOBO helped set up a multilingual telemedicine kiosk in a Utah community center

At a community center in South Salt Lake, Utah, people in need of low-cost healthcare can now pay $3 to get a quick telemedicine consultation through a kiosk the size of an iMac.

Why?

Well, in a town of 25,000, where some 40 languages are spoken and where 2,000 refugees have been resettled, an English-only service would have limited impact.

With help from Wyncote, Pa.-based GLOBO, the kiosk — born of a joint effort between healthcare provider Intermountain, American Well and the United Way — is the first of its kind to offer translation capabilities in 250 languages.

The Intermountain Connect Care Kiosk comes fitted with a few diagnostic tools (a blood pressure cuff, otoscope, thermometer and such) that patients can self-operate to provide physicians with information. GLOBO’s on-demand translation platform handles language-barrier issues.

“The great thing about this is it’s exactly at the core of our mission,” GLOBO founder and CEO Gene Schriver said. “Providing access to healthcare to those more vulnerable in our society.”

Schriver said the company’s live translation capability adds a “real-time human touch” to healthcare.

GLOBO is under a business-to-business model: it offers healthcare providers with a pay-by-the-minute, cloud-based video interpreter solution. So far, it sells its platform to health systems, insurers and financial institutions.

A similar kiosk isn’t yet available in Philly. GLOBO, which in 2015 secured a five-year translation services contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said if there were interest for a local iteration of the kiosk it would “love to help them make it a reality.”

Earlier this year, GLOBO got a Mexico office after it acquired Houston-based language service provider CTI.