Barbara Nampitjimpa receives dialysis three days a week at Purple House in Alice Springs. But for the last six months, she's been regularly visiting the clinic for a second reason: she has been teaching a computer how to speak Pintupi Luritja, her first language.

Key points: Software has been created to translate between Pintupi Luritja and English

Software has been created to translate between Pintupi Luritja and English It is designed to empower dialysis patients and help them better communicate with medical staff

It is designed to empower dialysis patients and help them better communicate with medical staff It is hoped the app will lessen stress on patients who worry about being misunderstood or not understanding what is going on

Her work has led to the creation of a two-way real-time language translation app.

"Lots of our people from out bush; they can't understand English," Ms Nampitjimpa said.

"Now they can speak with doctors, nurses and their carers in Pintupi Luritja

… Because we teach them [our language] they can understand [us] better."

A western desert language, Pintupi Luritja is spoken by many of the patients at the Aboriginal community-owned Purple House.

This week the clinic launched Wangka Kutju, the first real-time English to Aboriginal language translation app, which is being used by patients and their medical teams.

Pintupi Luritja word "Wangka Kutju" means "one language that's spoken together".

With speech-to-speech capabilities, the app is able to translate spoken English into spoken Pintupi Luritja, meaning a patient does not need to be able to read in order to understand what is being said.

Pintupi Luritja becoming the norm

A translation program had been a goal of the organisation for several years, Purple House chief executive Sarah Brown said.

"Coming from a remote community, English being your fifth, sixth, or seventh language, and having to negotiate the health system, there's such room for miscommunication and misunderstanding," she said.

Sarah Brown, CEO of the Purple House in Alice Springs. ( ABC News: Samantha Jonscher )

"Our patients often talk about one of the biggest stressors of being on dialysis is being misunderstood, and [not] understanding what nurses and doctors are trying to say to you.

"It's about recognising the importance of their language and this place, the Purple House, as a place that's controlled and owned by the community, where people really value family and community, and make sure that things are done culturally appropriately."

Previously, when medical staff were not able to communicate in a language patients felt confident in, explaining complex medical processes and instructions for self care could be difficult.

Nurses often had to over-simplify a complicated process to make sure their patient understood, which could lead to misunderstanding, but the app was completely changing their work practice, Megan Croft, a nurse at Purple House, said.

"Before now we've been able to explain things, but only in quite simple terms, because we are trying to communicate it in English in a way that people can still understand what's going on with their health," she said.

"Now, if we can translate it into Pintupi Luritja for them, they can have the knowledge they need to look after themselves better.

"I can have a more in-depth conversation, do a really good assessment, which is safer for them medically. I can get to know that person a lot better."

App developer and linguist Brendan Kavanagh said the software put patients and their comfort first.

"It really shifts the conversation towards Pintupi Luritja," he said.

"People type in something in English, it comes out in Pintupi Luritja.

"It gets them thinking about how to communicate in Pintupi Luritja. It shifts everything away from English. It makes Pintupi Luritja the norm in the workplace."

Wangka Kutju is the first real-time, English to Aboriginal language translation app. ( ABC News: Samantha Jonscher )

Creating meaning

For six months, Mr Kavanagh held twice-weekly sessions with nurses and Pintupi Luritja speakers to teach the app not only basic phrases, but the very specific medical terminology that nurses at Purple House needed to communicate to patients.

"They are very firm on how they feel the language should be spoken," he said.

While there are linguistic variations between different communities, the team designed the app to reflect the language spoken typically at Purple House.

"There were some interesting decisions that we had to make, for example how do you say 'renal'?" Mr Kavanagh said.

"We could either explain it using Pintupi Luritja as a tool and create a meaning by combining different concepts, or transliterate the English and create the word that way."

They decided on renala, a transliteration of English.

Twice a week for six months, developer and linguist Brendan Kavanagh met with nurses and Pintupi Luritja speakers to finesse the app's translation of key medical ideas. ( ABC News: Samantha Jonscher )

'Showing the white fellas'

When a patient's kidneys fail, they need to receive dialysis three days a week.

For many patients in remote Aboriginal communities, this requires them to leave their country and culture behind and move several hundred kilometres away to a larger centre such as Alice Springs.

"They often talk about living on the fringe of Alice Springs, waiting for someone to come visit them, waiting for an opportunity to go home," Ms Brown said.

"Suddenly they had people that were asking their advice, and having this computer learn from them.

"I've seen their posture change — they are so incredibly proud."

Ms Croft agreed about the benefits of the process.

"It was a really good learning opportunity for us as clinicians to learn something from our patients," she said.

"A lot of the time it's the other way around."

A smile cracked across Ms Nampitjimpa's face when she described the process of developing Wangka Kutju.

"We were showing the white fellas," she said.

The app is currently available for Windows on desktop, and will next be adapted for iPhone and Android.