The University of South Florida’s (USF) Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM), located in Tampa Bay, leads the nation in academic medicine. Ranking as No. 47 on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of top educational medical institutions, the school additionally reported 100 percent of their students matching to residency programs and 93 percent of students conducting research while enrolled in the program in the 2019-2020 academic year. 

With a population that is becoming increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse, it is critical that academic institutions provide their scholars with the support and tools necessary to work effectively with language-minority patients. Since 2014, Canopy Innovations, Inc. has partnered with USF medical students, offering up to 12 months of Canopy Learn: Medical Spanish course access for Latino students in an effort to provide current and future healthcare professionals with the language tools needed to provide patients of Spanish language backgrounds with the best care. As a region with a significant Spanish-speaking population, representing 23.2 percent of the state of Florida’s population, it is critical that medical students are equipped with tools that allow them to effectively communicate with patients of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and service them to the best of their ability. 

As a result, the school uses Canopy’s online instructional tools to create a hybrid course that is professor-led, open to second, third, and fourth year USF-MCOM students. Fostering a patient-centered vision of integrated care, USF-MCOM values and seeks opportunities that promote integrated clinical skills in a community-focused environment for its medical students. Further, the course relies heavily on Canopy’s telenovelas to facilitate in-class learning. 

Canopy’s course offerings are further utilized to aid in improving bilingual students’ competency, and, ultimately, enhance its diversity and inclusion, a core value at MCOM. Further, USF and Canopy share a common goal aimed at raising awareness in the healthcare community about the communication barrier, equipping frontline clinicians and administrative professionals alike with highly effective tools, and ultimately elevating the quality of care for the underserved communities.

Canopy Learn: Medical Spanish courses are tailored for medical use and developed for the busy schedules of healthcare professionals. Medical topics have been spread across all three levels, covering major medical treatments of both physical and mental health as well as general knowledge to various medical specialties. 

The wide spectrum of medical topics is the perfect learning resource not only for Medical students or Nursing students, but also healthcare professionals in different specialties including Medical Doctors (MD), Doctor of Osteopathic (DO), Physician Assistants (PA), Registered Nurses (RN), and Pharmacists.

Canopy looks forward to continued collaboration with the university and hopes to improve and augment its courses to equip healthcare professionals to better serve LEP populations throughout the United States.