It is a must for any health professional wishing to communicate better with their Spanish-speaking patients.

As the author of an English/Spanish dictionary I am interested in Spanish learning resources generally and have been following Joanna Rios and team's work for nearly 30 years. The recently published 4th edition of their Complete Medical Spanish Self Study Program represents a remarkably ambitious undertaking in which they offer just about everything the student of medical Spanish could want. In addition to lessons in constructing the sort of phrases health professionals will want to use and understand, there are sections devoted to Spanish pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (including COVID-19-related vocabulary), regionalisms, and usage, including warnings regarding terms that could be considered vulgar. Illustrations make the material easy to digest and exercises with an answer key reinforce what has been learned. Subjects given special attention include women's health, mental health, pediatric behavioral issues, nursing, physical therapy, complementary and alternative medicine, and more. Commonly used tools, such as the GAD-7, ACE, CAGE, OASIS, and MoCA questionnaires are included. This is an exhaustive work and I would give it 6 stars out of 5 if I could.

Critical to my practice. Patients are much more trusting and open when you directly communicate with them.

Great CME course and book, extremely valuable. I highly recommend both.

I can provide better care since learning to speak Spanish. The Rios group provided a fun and informative learning experience.

I have learned a tremendous amount at each of the three Rios workshops  that I have attended over the years. I have given Medical lectures in Spanish in México, Argentina and Chile. Many thanks to Rios Associates - they do a great job!

Anyone that works with Spanish speaking patients would greatly benefit from this program.  The combination of medical Spanish and cultural information presented is invaluable for all healthcare providers.

Rios Associates is without a doubt the most useful medical Spanish CME course.  Dr. Rios is a true professional at teaching language and culture pertinent to enhancing the patient-provider interaction.

Excellent medical Spanish CME training!  I loved the class so much that over the years I have taken two more refresher courses to continue to expand my skills.

Rios Associates offers a method of learning that quickly teaches you how to develop a vocabulary and effective method for constructing sentences and is easy to use with your patients. Having the opportunity to participate in the immersion course in La Paz was a wonderful experience!

I really enjoyed my medical Spanish course and was very fortunate to have individualized, specialty specific instruction.  The addition of cultural details of language and medical practices really helped.  Instead of just memorizing words, a context was provided that helped me to internalize the ideas being expressed.  

The Rios Associates trainings not only teach medical Spanish, but offer a true immersion into the culture!  Special situations and the essentials are taught enthusiastically to medical providers.  The textbook is extremely beneficial and complete.  Indeed a worth while course for all specialties and levels of Spanish speakers.

I found your La Paz, Mexico course to be extremely valuable to my work as Medical Director at a Federally Qualified Health Center here in Fredericksburg, Virginia. My understanding of my patients’ complaints has greatly improved and they respond more positively to instructions they receive directly from me in their own language.

I highly recommend the online intensive with Rios Associates.  Our instructor Tamara was terrific: Sharp, attentive and accommodating with plenty of examples and tips relevant to my practice.  Even with the online format, the course was engaging and highly interactive.  I could not be more pleased with my experience and have recommended Rios Associates to multiple colleagues looking to develop their medical Spanish skills.

The Denver Medical Society has partnered with Rios Associates to offer Medical Spanish & Cultural Competency classes to our members for two decades and we have always received nothing but the most positive feedback.  The fact that many of our members have returned to take additional classes as their skill level advanced speaks to the value and effectiveness of their teaching methods and excellent faculty.  Bringing that expertise to online platforms is now meeting the changing needs of our medical community.  We look forward to continuing to partner with them to offer the highest quality instruction to our physicians and their staffs.  

Rios Associates has delivered medical Spanish language courses online and in person to our primary care providers for over thirty years.  Our members love the practical terminology and cultural humility skills covered in a high energy and fun learning environment.  

The self-study CME program through Rios Associates is excellent.  The book is really well designed.  You can start as an absolute beginner and easily learn a basic working foundation of medical Spanish.  Meanwhile, those with some existing knowledge of Spanish can get a solid boost in their conversational ability.  There is a high yield of CME, which is a huge plus.  The live personalized one-on-one training online is a really productive option.  With Tamara's help, I was able to create my own "mini-curriculum" to refine specific aspects of medical Spanish on my terms.  I would highly recommend Rios Associates.  The courses are helpful and practical at all levels from total novice to expert.

Rios Associates' medical Spanish immersion program provided our physicians at Kaiser Permanente a wonderful jumpstart to learning medical Spanish to better interact with Spanish speaking patients and their families.  This program is excellently run, perfectly executed and with fabulous instructors who were knowledgeable, patient, encouraging and fun.  The amount of time balanced between subjects such as medical Spanish and cultural competency was great.  This is truly a wonderful experience.  Not only did our physicians strengthen their Spanish skills, they also gained a better perspective on treating Spanish speaking patients from different cultural backgrounds in Latin America.  I highly recommend this program, their instructors and curriculum!  A superb learning experience!

The Rios Personalized One On One Training for individuals is an excellent way for healthcare providers of all types to improve their ability to care for their Spanish speaking patients. I am a retired physician with some previous Spanish language skills, who is beginning to volunteer in a clinic with many Spanish speaking patients. I have been enrolled in the Rios program with Professor Fernandez for several months. During our hourly once a week sessions we have covered their book "Complete Medical Spanish" and these lessons have significantly improved my speaking and listening skills through some lectures, some role playing, and some conversational Spanish. I can recommend the Rios program without reservation for those who want to communicate better with their patients. You will improve your Spanish, your patient care, and you will enjoy it.

I came across Rios Associates online. While it looked great, I am always a little leary of signing up for online things with no reference. I called the phone number to get more information and even asked my clinic manager who is native Latina her opinion to make sure it wasn't a rip off.
After completing a virtual training class, I am happy to recommend Rios Associates for anyone wanting to learn medical Spanish! The first thing that stuck out to me was the genuine enthusiasm and passion that Dr. Rios has for teaching medical Spanish. You can tell it's truly from the heart and that her goal is to bridge the language and even more importantly cultural barriers between healthcare providers and Latino patients.
It's been over a month since I took the class, and the results have been immediate. I have felt a deeper connection with my Latino patients. My medical assistant is Latina and she said with a smile "Doctor, you are doing a much better job with my people".
As a beginner, of course, I still need an interpreter but am able to say some phrases in Spanish which the patients really appreciate. However, to me the best part of the Rios course was teaching the cultural aspects of Latinos. While there are some things I'm generally aware of like the importance of family, we covered in more detail how the cultural aspects affect the care and approach we as healthcare providers need to take.
The cultural awareness and sensitivity taught has been eye opening and a tremendous help with my patient care. I now have a better understanding of my Latino patients.
For those who are hesitant or afraid, Dr. Rios also does an excellent job teaching in a group setting participants with different foundations. I am a beginner, while there was another student who had taken Spanish before, it was seamless, despite the different levels of the participants.
Anyone thinking of taking medical Spanish should call/email Rios Associates muy pronto!

This course definitely moved me forward in my understanding of Spanish as a whole and even more in medical Spanish. I used the new vocabulary/sentence structures Tamara taught us immediately. She is on the pulse of medicine, so everything she taught was meaningful and immediately applicable. I had refused to do telemedicine visits with our patients due to fear of not being able to communicate well with my Spanish speaking patients over the phone, but Tamara went over that like she could read my mind. I then called a patient to give them lab results over the phone and it went so smoothly based on the cues from Tamara! Tamara is charismatic and she knows how to meet each individual where they are at in their learning journey. Her personality radiated through the screen. She made it very personalized even though it wasn't an individual lesson. This course was an immediate success and confidence booster for a student like myself. I will definitely take this course again.

I have worked as a PA-C for 7 years and now have taken 2 sessions of the 10hr one-on-one classes to further my medical Spanish competency. I have gotten to know Tamara Rios through the classes, and she is one of the most passionate, dedicated teachers I have ever worked with. She is patient, thoughtful and always a pleasure to meet with. I will continue to take the one-on-one classes and would highly recommend Rios Associates and their programs to anyone looking to further their medical Spanish speaking skills.  I have not been able to take a weekend course so cannot speak to this but the individualized lessons are extremely helpful. Also, incredibly you quality for 45 CME credits which is amazing as I need to keep up with my NCCPA license CME requirements. Rios Associates is legitimate and they are doing an amazing job.

I have attended both the live in-person classes and the virtual classes.  Both are exceptional and the Rios team does an amazing job of teaching real life medical Spanish that you can start using immediately with your patients.  If you have the time to travel, the in person classes are wonderful!  You will enjoy learning and practicing with your colleagues.  If the virtual classes are a better fit for your schedule, you will not be disappointed.  I always leave the CME course having learned something new and feeling better prepared to communicate with my Spanish speaking patients and their family.

I have completed both the live online intensive course and home self-study courses, and this has been one of the most productive and positive professional development programs I have experienced by far.  I began learning Spanish independently 3 years ago with no prior studies with the language.  These courses have been instrumental in helping me develop my proficiency and fluency.  The lessons are broken down in ways that make them accessible for beginners and more experienced students alike, and they are organized in a manner that allows for skills to be put into practice immediately.  I have progressed from a true beginner to being able to hold conversations and interact with my Spanish speaking patients with confidence, and I plan to earn certification as a bilingual provider in the very near future.  I am grateful to Dr. Ríos for not just helping me learn pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, but for teaching me the cultural contexts embedded within the language that are so important in communicating and connecting with my patients.