Linguistic barriers continue to be a source of difficulty and inappropriate treatment in our healthcare system. Several studies have shown the importance of language concordance, which leads to increased trust and higher patient satisfaction. The aim of this is study is to determine patients’ satisfaction and comfort levels with sharing sensitive information in Spanish with either the health care provider or an interpreter, respectively, and to compare the results to find out if there is an option that patients prefer. There were two different groups of participants in the study. The experimental group was directly seen by Spanish-speaking student doctors while the control group was seen by English-speaking student doctors that had the aid of an interpreter. Several questions were asked to participants via survey in order to measure their comfort levels during the encounter. The results of this study demonstrate that having Spanish-speaking healthcare providers providing health care to Hispanic patients can raise patients’ comfort levels and satisfaction in contrast to having the aid of an interpreter. Providing second language training to student doctors can potentially improve patient care and reduce health inequities facing LEP patients. Given the small sample size of our study, future projects should expand the study to include more participants.

Tryptophan is one of few residues that participates in biological electron transfer reactions. Upon substitution of the native Cu2+ center with Zn2+ in the blue-copper protein azurin, a long-lived tryptophan neutral radical can be photogenerated. We report the following quantum yield values for Zn-substituted azurin in the presence of the electron acceptor Cu(II)-azurin: formation of the tryptophan neutral radical (Φrad), electron transfer (ΦET), fluorescence (Φfluo), and phosphorescence (Φphos), as well as the efficiency of proton transfer of the cation radical (ΦPT). Increasing the concentration of the electron acceptor increased Φrad and ΦET values and decreased Φphos without affecting Φfluo. At all concentrations of the acceptor, the value of ΦPT was nearly unity. These observations indicate that the phosphorescent triplet state is the parent state of electron transfer and that nearly all electron transfer events lead to proton loss. Similar results regarding the parent state were obtained with a different electron acceptor, [Co(NH3)5Cl]2+; however, Stern–Volmer graphs revealed that [Co(NH3)5Cl]2+ was a more effective phosphorescence quencher (K SV = 230 000 M–1) compared to Cu(II)-azurin (K SV = 88 000 M–1). Competition experiments in the presence of both [Co(NH3)5Cl]2+ and Cu(II)-azurin suggested that [Co(NH3)5Cl]2+ is the preferred electron acceptor. Implications of these results in terms of quenching mechanisms are discussed.