Medical translation - ForeignExchange Translations

Why aren't there more medical translation conferences?

Written by ForeignExchange Translations on Thursday, January 15, 2009

While on a conference call with the organizing committee for the next Medical Localization Roundtable, I was wondering why there are not any additional medical translation-related conferences and seminars out there. It seems that the twice-annual Localization World events and sporadic events organized by the medical division of the ATA are all that's out there.

Could it really be that there is no demand for this?

Maybe. After all, medical translation is a small niche in a small industry. Few freelancers and translation companies specialize in the field. And in many drug and device companies, translation responsibilities are usually assigned to marketing, clinical, regulatory, or engineering staff on top of there core job.

Nonetheless, I would think that the thousands of medical translation practitioners would be looking for opportunities to learn, exchange ideas, develop new approaches, and socialize. What do you think? What medical-translation events do you currently attend or would you be interested in attending?

4 Comments:

Titia Meesters said...
January 15, 2009 3:09 PM
Last October I attended the very interesting "International Translation Conference on Health Sciences" in Lisbon, Portugal, which was organized by TRADULÍNGUAS. For reports see the Conference website:
http://www.tradulinguas.com/conf-med/
where it is also possible to order the CD ROM with all abstracts. Opportunities to get together with other specialized medical/pharma translators are rare indeed, so this was a very useful meeting that deserves to be repeated!

bonnjill said...
January 16, 2009 11:24 AM
I organized the first (and only) ATA Medical Division Mid-Year Conference in Cleveland. It was a lot of work, but it was top-notch, with physicians from the Cleveland Clinic giving presentations in their fields. We only had around 100 attendees and barely broke even. Attendance at the Medical Division event at the annual conference is also abysmal. Unfortunately the interest simply isn't there, which really dumbfounds me.

Suzanne Couture said...
January 16, 2009 1:48 PM
There is a definite need for more educational opportunities like those mentioned. I attended the ATA Medical Division conference and the half-day seminar on medical localization at the Localization World Conference, both of which were very worthwhile. As a freelancer, cost and travel distance play a factor, but given the rarity of these events, it's worth the investment.

Foret Monique said...
February 27, 2009 5:59 AM
In Europe, we have several opportunities, mostly organised by translator fora belonging to ITI f.e. or German associations as well as some events organized by universities. These events are quickly sold out and always very interesting both from the informative as from the social point of vieuw.