“Open your mouth” in Haitian Creole is “ouvri bouche ou,” and Walter Distinguished Professor of Medicine Daniel D. Federman ’49 is working to make sure even doctors who don’t know Creole can talk with Haitian patients.

Communicating well with patients is crucial for physicians, says Federman, who has spent the last four decades introducing students to the moral and personal side of medicine.

Under his guidance, a series of medical phrase books for Haitian Creole, Cantonese and Spanish were produced and sent free to hospitals throughout the country. The demand continues to be so great that Federman and Associate Dean for Alumni Programs and Special Projects Nora N. Nercessian plan to publish them on the web to keep up.

“The goal is to make medical care accessible to people who do not speak the same language as the doctor,” Federman says.

The booklets are only one of the topics he will address today in his Class Day speech, “Translations,” for Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

His address is the fourth Harvard Class Day speech he has delivered and the second in three years. Colleagues point to his deep bond with students—he introduces them to their first clinical experience with a patient—and his eloquence as reasons for his popularity in the student voting for class day speaker.

“He’s the quintessential doctor and medical educator. The art and science of medicine come together in him,” says Nercessian. “He cares deeply about students.”

Translations in Medicine

Literal translations in medicine are not the only kind that Federman plans to discuss. He says he will speak on the value of translational research—that is, taking advances in the basic sciences and using them to improve medical care.

Federman’s own specialty is endocrinology, and he is well-known for his 1967 book Abnormal Sexual Development.

He has published scores of articles in medical journals, many of them in his scientific area of expertise as well as articles stemming from his vast experience in medical education, which for him began when he matriculated at Harvard Medical School (HMS) over a half century ago.

Federman graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1949, after concentrating in social relations, a mix of psychology, social anthropology and sociology. After taking a class in physiology, he decided to go into endocrinology. His early interests in human interactions stayed with him through his medical work.

“I hope to represent the morality of medicine and the personal side of it,” Federman says.

That human side relates to the third type of translation that Federman will discuss today, one of the most difficult and personal for doctors and patients.

“Another meaning of translation is when the doctor has to explain what’s wrong with you,” says Federman.