AskMed in 7 languages

What the 7 languages cover

AskMed's seven languages are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Arabic, and in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps they cover every screen. Menus, buttons, the filters, the attachment sheet, setup, the loading steps, error messages and the home screen widgets on Android all appear in the chosen language. The app starts in your phone's language when it is one of the seven: a phone set to Mexican or Latin American Spanish gets Spanish, Brazilian or European Portuguese gets Portuguese, and Canadian French gets French; any other phone language starts in English. You can change the language at any time in Settings, and the welcome screen also has a picker, which lists each language by its own name, such as Français or 日本語, without flags. In Arabic the whole app is mirrored from right to left. In Japanese, text wraps between phrases rather than in the middle of a word, as Japanese readers expect.

How answers in your language work

Answers in your language work by following the question, not only the app setting. AskMed writes each answer in the language the question is written in; when the question's language is unclear, such as a single drug name, it writes in the app's language. Section headings in the answer always match the language of the answer. The search behind the answer still runs on AskMed's fixed list of medical sources, most of which publish in English, so the citations are often English pages even when the answer is in Japanese or Arabic. When a question in another language names a local medicine, AskMed searches national drug registries as well, such as those of France, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Japan, to identify it. The fixed reply AskMed shows when no medical source is found is translated into the app's language too. In the web app, the screens are in English, and Settings has an Answer language choice with the same seven languages.

When it helps

Seven languages help everyone who studies or works in medicine outside English, or in more than one language. A doctor in France, Brazil or Italy can use the whole app in their own language and ask questions the way they would ask a colleague. A nurse in Spain or Mexico can read answers in Spanish while still opening the English-language guideline behind a point. A pharmacist in Japan can ask about a product by its Japanese name and see it matched to its active ingredient. A medical student in an Arabic-speaking country can study in Arabic with a properly mirrored layout, then switch to English to practise exam wording. A researcher who reads in one language and writes in another can ask in either and get the same sources. Because the language can be changed in Settings at any time, people who learned medicine in English but live elsewhere can use whichever feels natural for the question.

Outside the US, guideline coverage matters as much as language; see Guidelines outside the US. Get AskMed on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, on Google Play for Android, or use it on the web.

Limits

AskMed's language support has clear limits. The apps are translated into seven languages only; a phone set to German, Turkish or Vietnamese, for example, starts in English, although you can still ask questions in those languages and the answer follows the question's language. The web app's screens are in English only, with seven answer languages in Settings. Most sources AskMed searches publish in English, so you will often open English pages from a non-English answer, and translated medical terms should be checked against the source. Answers are written by an AI model, which can choose an unusual translation for a technical term; if a term looks wrong, ask in English to compare. The App Store and Google Play listings are a separate matter from the app's languages. Drug names differ between countries, so check that a name in the answer is the one used where you practise, and remember that AskMed never gives doses in any language.