Our interpreters bring their professional experience and expertise to our clients. Many are highly qualified in the medical field, legal, financial, customer service, insurance and banking. Others are professionals in the social service area. Although it is not a pre-requisite, a majority of Direct Access Interpreting Services interpreters are qualified Medical Doctors and/or hold licenses in other fields as well. Most importantly, all of our interpreters have the concern and dedication to provide assistance to members of their communities. The Executive Director of Direct Access Interpreting, Dr. Osman Ahmed, is a Medical Doctor who has been actively involved as a patient advocate for the past ten years. As a patient advocate, Dr. Ahmed has had first hand experience in dealing with the effects of unqualified interpreters who ultimately end up presenting false and harmful information to both the patient and doctor. In many cases this results in medical complications for the patient based on misdiagnoses by the doctor because of not obtaining accurate interpretations. Our goal is to decrease the occurrence of misdiagnoses as a result of unqualified interpreters by employing and training qualified interpreters who are under the supervision of Dr. Ahmed.Before being given any interpretation assignments, potential interpreters must go through a process of screening and interviewing. Direct Access Interpreting officials assess their qualifications and experiences to ensure that all interpreters are competent in both subject and target language (English and the Limited English Proficiency-LEP), as well as ethical standards and guidelines for interpreting.