Find yourself daunted by complex terminology used to describe medical conditions and prescriptions? You could be one of the 90 million Americans receiving inadequate health care because of language barriers or a lack of understanding of medical terminology, according to a new study conducted by the Institute of Medicine.

"Language barriers can affect the quality of a person's health," said Ravi Nemana, MBA and senior advisor of information technology at the Health Technology center in San Francisco. "If you don't speak the language then you can't understand instructions, making it harder to follow up and to maintain health. There are a wide variety of effects of language barriers, and this is one of them," he said.

For both native and non-native English speakers, medical terminology is confusing especially when confronted with terms like hypertension, endometriosis and retrograde menstrual flow, confusing terms most commonly mentioned according to the study.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is an organization whose goal is to improve the health care of all Americans. According to information from the foundation's Web site, there are currently 100 million Americans who suffer chronic health conditions, a number that will only increase as society continues to age.

Kamal Harb is a health educator in the Health Center at SF State. He says students at SF State make up a very small portion of the number of Americans who suffer from chronic illnesses, however, he has dealt with the presence of language barriers first hand. "SF State is aware of this issue which is why we keep [health education] handouts on a very elementary level," Harb said.

As an example he mentioned one pamphlet describing how to use an asthma inhaler. The document keeps the terminology very basic and has pictures for clarity. "There is a disparity in the types of medical treatment received in general. We know that minority groups do not receive the same quality of medical care as Caucasians, even if they have money," he said. "This is why we have events to reach out to different populations."

Harb spoke about some of the reasons for miscommunication in the doctor's office, where the presence or absence of language barriers can make or break a typical session.

"People tend to nod at instructions even though they might not fully understand what has been said. There are also time limitations," he said, explaining that general appointments typically run 15 minutes long and allow little time for questions and clarifying what has been said. Generally, special appointments such as women's services and OBGYN appointments can run from 30 to 40 minutes long.

Nemana noted that when bilingual health care providers are available there are not usually enough to meet the demand.

"I would simply say that there are not enough of them," Nemana said. "The training is for staff who need to be trained on how to interpret for non-English speakers. It is very possible to do more damage than good when you deal with health information."

Even for native and fluent English speakers, understanding complex medical terms can be a process worthy of an interpreter, some say.

"This problem is not unique to non-native English speakers," said Dr. Karen Johnson-Brennan, associate director, of the nursing program at SF State. According to Johnson-Brennan, students in the nursing department are specially trained in providing "culturally competent care."

"Recently, our faculty participated in a one-day workshop to refresh and reinforce "teaching diversity and cross-cultural competence in health care" across the curriculum," Johnson-Brennan said.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation outlined what the benefits are when health care facilities meet the challenge of prodiving care that reaches out to an increasingly diverse community. "Improved quality of patient care, reduced costs by decreasing unnecessary procedures, reduced risk of errors due to poor communications, and increased patient confidence in their care and satisfaction with their providers."