Medical Translation Insight

We have been involved in Localization World and its Medical Localization Roundtable since the very beginning. If you are not familiar with the roundtable, it's one of a handful of events on the day before the actual Localization World begins. It is a unique opportunity to learn about medical translation issues and interface with representatives from medical device manufacturers and medical translation service providers.

The next event will take place in Berlin from June 8 to June 10, 2009. Based on the program, it will be a great conference!

The Medical Localization Roundtable is divided into 3 sessions:

"Introduction to Medical Localization" (session P10) is ideal for clients and service providers who are new to medical translation. Topics include regulatory requirements, types of work, and quality requirements that are specific to this field.

The roundtable itself (P2) run concurrently and is aimed at experienced medical translation clients and service providers. Viewpoint and solutions
are shared and best practices defined.

In the afternoon, "Readability and Usability Testing" (P4) is a hands-on workshop that will provide insight into different QA methods for testing patient information for drugs (readability testing) and for medical devices (usability testing).

It would be great if you could join us in Berlin!

So you have done the math and decided that the answer to making your documentation processes more efficient) is Extensible Markup Language (XML). While the benefits of XML can be substantial, it is wise to be prepared for the problems which may arise during and after implementation.

XML implementations can fail for all kinds of reasons, from unrealistic overall goals to mishandled technical decisions. Interestingly, though, the most severe problems often stem from the interpersonal aspects of introducing and enforcing XML's controlled authoring model, rather than any technical problems with XML or a content management system.

Moving to XML means a significant change in the roles and interactions of staff members. As some medical device and pharmaceutical companies have found out, these fundamental changes are met with resistance or even hostility. Writers may find their work becomes less interesting, and some employees will be unwilling to accept the stringent controls that come with an XML system.

For all of these reasons, you may experience an increased turnover in staff during the transition. It is vital that you properly train and prepare staff for the coming changes. Make them part of the process and obtain buy-in by helping them understand the benefits that will come with XML.

It can be a daunting task to structure, index and tag with meta data all of your existing content. However, it is important to do so. If writers have problems quickly finding the text they need, chances are they will simply write a new version.

Perhaps the biggest challenge lay in choosing an XML-based messaging standard. Currently there are more than 100, and that number is growing. The standard you choose will determine how easily you can communicate, both within and outside of your company.

One solution is to define a message format that works well for your business and stick with it, translating in and out of that format as necessary. The alternative, trying to maintain a database of documents in dozens of other common formats, would represent a massive amount of work for a limited return on investment.

Whatever path you choose, embrace the XML world!


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A couple of months ago, Eye on FDA had a good post about how translation issues are hampering FDA's inspections of overseas drug and device companies.

A lot of folks are concerned about this issue because it has the ability to negatively impact the safety of drugs and devices sold in the U.S. Two years ago, USA Today observed:

The United States still has the safest food and drug supply in the world, but the need for a new approach is necessitated by the dramatic changes in the nature of the food and drugs arriving in the USA from other countries. FDA processed 15 million shipments of goods in 2006, up 60% since 2003. Products arrived from more than 230 countries and more than 300,000 manufacturers. More and more drugs, especially generics, get their raw material from China and India, where local controls are weak. Against this, FDA has about 625 inspectors for foods and 260 for pill-type drugs.

And indeed, FDA faces a daunting challenge in its quest to improve the quality of imported drugs and devices. Resource shortfalls, outdated technologies, and surging international trade all contribute to the problem.

Last year, draft legislation has been put forward which would require FDA to inspect foreign manufacturing plants every four years. The bill also outlined the establishment of a permanent overseas inspection force. And FDA moved quickly: Over the past six months, the agency opened offices in China, India.

But the situation doesn't appear to have improved much. FDA inspectors are still ill-prepared for their overseas duties. Many do not understand the nation's culture as it applies to language and to business, let alone speak the country's language. While FDA is increasing its international presence, health care safety advocates are pushing for FDA to receive additional funding and resources, so that the agency can properly fulfill its mandate and avoid the public's distrust and concern about drugs and devices coming from emerging countries.

And that distrust is pretty wide-spread. Speaking about the legislation last year, Representative Dingell said: "For example, if it comes from Great Britain, you're going to assume it's pretty safe. If it comes from Canada, it's probably pretty safe. If it comes from China, you're going to say, 'Holy cats, we better watch out.'"


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The recent European Commission Conference on Literary Translation and Culture included authors, publishers, academics and literary critics, as well as theater, cinema, and music professionals. The event aimed at encouraging more translations to help Europeans get to know each other better.

According to a euronews report of the event, Europe spends 1% of its budget on translation and interpretation, or more than one billion euros every year.

That is a huge amount of money! But according to Leonard Orban, European Commissioner for Multilingualism, it is money well spent. He was quoted as saying

"European translation has made a decisive contribution to the consolidation of the European idea. It has made it possible to reconcile discovery of and respect for diversity with the awareness that we have a common cultural heritage. It symbolises opening up to what is different".

Translation is a key instrument of understanding and communication between different languages and cultures. It is nice to see this importance recognized!

The following collection of bad translations comes to you via Ippe's blog. Enjoy!




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A couple of months ago, Corinne McKay posed the question: Is LinkedIn useful for translators?

The post generated a good dialog but little data. Basically, commentators who already saw the value of doing marketing said "sure, it's useful". On the other hand, those folks who probably aren't doing much "traditional" marketing also didn't see much value in these new-fangled tools.

So, we decided to run a bit of an experiment. During the months of February and March, we tracked how many visits originated from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. First, the results, then some observations...

During February and March, we tracked 1,208 referrals from the three social networking sites. They break-down as follows:



Now, when seeing that more than 90% of the social networking site referrals came from LinkedIn, one might be tempted to conclude that the other two sites are not valuable.

However, two important factors influence this:

1. 73% of the LinkedIn referrals came from news content that we uploaded to various groups. In other words this wasn't so much social networking as public relations.
2. We didn't use an actual Twitter account. The links that originated from Twitter came from other people posting about our blog.

But even taking these factors into consideration, the baseline assessment has to be: social networking sites are a very effective tool to promote a translation business like ours. And that's not even talking about how these tools could be used for customer support, recruitment, and market research.

So, if you are new to the world of online social networking, take a look at these tools and spend some time learning about how you can use them in your business. Here are some resources to get you started:

• Online Social Networking provides a lot of good information
• Harnessing the Marketing Potential of Social Networking Sites offers a lot of hands-on, actionable advice
• Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day - the title of this highly recommended book pretty much sums it up

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It isn't glamorous, and usually it isn't considered a core competency. But in the medical device industry, software validation often consumes a huge portion of the budget for new software products, even when that wasn't the original intent.

Unfortunately, software testing methods haven't kept pace with innovations on the product development side. Just as we look to new and improved ways to complete software development and handle software localization, medical device companies also need to be looking for new and improved ways to validate their software.

This being the medical device industry, there exist a variety of standards and different elements for risk-based software validation for medical devices:

ISO 13485 requires that companies establish documented procedures for the validation of the computer software used in production. The intended application of computer software in monitoring and measuring devices must be confirmed before initial use.

IEC 62304:2006 is the latest international standard for medical device software according to the software life cycle process model. Jointly developed by FDA and industry, the standard covers software development and maintenance, risk management according to ISO 14971, partitioning and safety classification of software items, as well as software process management.

IEC 62304 has enjoyed broad acceptance. One of the reasons is that it addresses the special concerns of risk management that are unique to software development. These issues apply to production control software for medical devices as well as the device software itself.

UPDATE: See our article What's the fuss about ISO 62304? for more details on this topic.


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Localization Institute is launching a series of TRADOS training seminars:

April 27 -- XML in TagEditor
May 18 -- Workbench Settings
May 29 -- Terminology Management
June 2 -- DTP file formats
June 3 -- Checking features in TagEditor

Each of these sessions can be taken individually (registration costs $149) or bought as a series (10% discount applies). Events are 1.5 hours long (1 hour lecture with 30 minutes for Q&A) and are presented by industry expert Angelika Zerfass.

For more information and to register, visit the Localization Institute web site.

MD&DI's Guide to Outsourcing contains an interesting article on some of the challenges faced by medical device manufacturers in Japan.

When the "new" Pharmaceutical Affairs Law went into effect in Japan in 2005, it introduced new requirements for regular quality management system (QMS) audits. Administered by Japan's Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), medical device manufacturers can be subject to paper or on-site audits. Without a good understanding of Japanese regulations and culture, device companies could fail to get their products registered.

The article highlights some of the challenges around on-site audits:

• SOPs for the manufacturing site are a key element and are regularly examined. Rather than simply handing over Japanese versions of the documents, it is advisable to prepare summaries in both English and Japanese.
• The same thing is true for product application dossiers and other QMS documentation: Manufacturers will have prepared Japanese versions of these documents but should also have English versions for their own use.
• Manufacturers overlook cultural issues at their own risk! Auditors are used to receiving the respect of the companies they visit. And because they enjoy wide leeway in interpreting regulations, it is wise to show plenty of respect.

It pays to be fully prepared for a medical device registration by fully understanding the QMS auditing process in Japan!


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for regulatory submissions, labeling, and safety reports - in Japanese and dozens of other languages. Contact us to find out more.
 
 

First, there was the LISA QA model. Then came along SAE's J2450 standard. After EN 15038:2006, we thought, "OK - now everybody has had their say". But not so fast, apparently more needs to be said on the topic.

Compared to the theoretical approach in EN 15038, the U.S. standard ASTM F 2575-06 takes a more real-world approach to guide service providers and clients. The overriding theme of ASTM F 2575-06 (Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in Translation) is one of cooperation between client and provider. The writers of the standard understand that quality in translation is a collaborative process. The document is filled with explanations and definitions of industry-specific terms and practices, as well as practical tips for working together with a vendor to build a foundation of quality.

If you are interested in learning more, check out next week's audio conference on ASTM F 2575-06. It will provide an overview of the standard, dissecting its different sections, determining its applicability to certifications and testing, pointing out ways clients can use the standard to work with their vendors to achieve the highest level of quality and discussing the differences between ASTM F 2575-06 and EN 15038:2006.


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The folks at GlobalSubmit have posted some great eCTD resources.

Many global agencies have mandated the eCTD as their preferred format. The site contains a good summary of eCTD status for major health authorities, including FDA, Health Canada, EMEA, and ASEAN.

Knowing the status of eCTD implementations is helpful for regulatory affairs staff but moving towards the eCTD requires a clear understanding of the processes and best practices to ensure success. Check out their best practices section for valuable "lessons learned" that could help smooth your path towards eCTD readiness and adoption.


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Our recent post on back translations generated a lot of questions on how to identify discrepancy in meanings - and what to do about them.

In the pharmaceutical industry, differences in the back translation and original English such as "dose" and "dosage" are common as are the terms "adverse effect", "adverse event" and "adverse reaction". In these instances, it is the reviewer's responsibility to research the terms and find out whether or not the meaning is different enough to warrant a change to the original translation.

When the source language is English, there is often discrepancy in the meanings between the original source and the back translation. Spanish, for example, has a notably smaller vocabulary, and many words that are used in English simply do not exist.

Below are a couple of examples of issues that arise in back translation (in this case, English into Spanish, and then Spanish into English). In each case, the meaning of the term in the back translation does equal the meaning of the original source.

English source: aches and pains
Spanish translation: rigidez
English back translation: ache

Two separate nouns for "aches" and “pains" do not exist in Spanish, resigning the first translator to use only one noun: "rigidez". As such, the back translator, with no access to the source, is unaware that there are two nouns exist in this text, and translates simply "ache". A comparison of the back translation and the source will reveal a missing noun, which will only become evident at the review stage.

English source: to impair
Spanish translation: afectar
English back translation: to affect

"Afectar" means not only "to affect", but "to harm, to influence unfavorably". The distinction is important, particularly when referring to drug effects. This kind of example seems on first review of the back translation to be a mistranslation, and must be clarified with the translator during the review.

Back translations are tricky business. They can point out clear-cut errors like the above example. But the purpose of a back translation is to show a native speaker of the source language how the message is being delivered to the target audience. The real work of deciphering any discrepancy in meaning comes in the next step - the back translation resolution process.


Why do leading medical device and pharmaceutical companies entrust their Spanish translations to ForeignExchange Translations? Our process allows for known translation quality in the shortest amount of time. Ask us how!
 
 

As anybody who has ever compared translation quotes knows, there is no standard for pricing translation services. Various translation service providers in various parts of the world charge by word, by character (with or without spaces), by line, by page, by hour - and all of these can be expresses as either source or target units.

All of these approaches make it difficult to compare competing proposals, in part because the conversion depends to a large degree on the language combination. For example, converting per-word to per-line rates for a language that contains a lot of long words should be different than converting prices for a language with generally short words.

The German-language Über-Setzer-Logbuch blog pointed out a great solution: the FeeWizard tool from AMTrad. It currently can be used for converting translation rates between 11 European languages. Check out the FeeWizard - it's a very useful tool!

Are you familiar with FDA's draft guidance on Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) in clinical research? How well do you know the elements of the guidance that may affect your PRO strategies?

invivodata put together an informative FDA Guidance Quiz to test your knowledge of the draft guidance. Answer 10 questions, hit "submit", and see how well you know FDA's draft guidance!

If you find that you need help in understanding what's what with the draft guidance, check out articles by Applied Clinical Trials or invivo's informative white paper Answering Questions about FDA's Draft Guidance on Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs).


For your next linguistic validation project, be sure to obtain a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange Translations, the leader in medical translation.
 
 

Israel is the largest device market in the Middle East - US$885 and growing at an annual rate of of almost 5%. The country has an extensive medical network and high doctor-to-patient ratio, both reflected in a low infant mortality rate and high life expectancy. Distribution of medical conditions and trauma is comparable to the EU and USA.

Export.gov maintains a good summary of Israeli device regulations. All medical devices, including biologics, must be registered with Israel's Ministry of Health (IMOH). From a translation perspective, medical devices must have Hebrew labeling stating country of origin, name and address or the manufacturer, name and address of the Israeli importer.

Israel is also home to some 900 life science companies, ranging from medical technology start-ups to generics powerhouse Teva Pharmaceuticals. Because of the country's small size, most of these companies are totally focused on exports. Quoted in an article on ISRAEL21c, David Grey, CEO of device company Truphatek & Veinomed, said that the country's strength in development comes from its "ability to mix and match various engineering and medical science disciplines to produce 'uniquely clever ideas.'"

Want to learn more?

• The Israel Healthcare & Medical Device Industry blog is a resource for company news out of Israel.
• Our audio conference Medical Device Research and Regulations in Israel provides a good overview for medical device manufacturers.
• The 300-member Israel Life Science Industry is the voice for the country's medical device, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies.

ForeignExchange Translations provides medical device companies with specialized Hebrew translations. Contact us to learn more.
 
 

The current issue of ASTD's T+D publication contains an article on the importance of cultural analysis in the development of effective global e-learning efforts.

This is one of those deceptively simple things: Everybody knows that they should design training modules so that all trainees, irrespective of their culture, are able to learn the same materials with a similar amount of effort. However, it's also one of those areas that's hard to do.

e-learning courses are notorious "cultural artifacts", full of cultural references and values. And this is about more than just language. Cultural "gotchas" often are more subtle - religious, moral, and educational influences all come to bear.

But while cultural challenges transcend language, translation issues are often the most obvious manifestations. As with many forms of writing, the main culprit is usually ignorance. "I didn't know that this course would be translated" usually results in a course that is hard to translate.

This same attitude usually leads to localization difficulties as well. Americanisms and date/time formats are hard enough but for drug and device companies, e-learning courses often deal with very specific subjects. Course designers need to anticipate local differences in laws, financial standards, office setups, work rules, etc. etc. etc. when developing materials for multi-cultural teams.

As biopharma and medical device companies are looking to their global staff to do more with less, they are realizing that culture is a critical limiting factor to the success of their e-learning efforts.


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The local operations of 62 U.S. medical device and in-vitro diagnostics companies have launched an association to promote their mutual interests in Japan.

The American Medical Devices and Diagnostics Manufacturer's Association (AMDD) will act as a unified voice in the members' efforts push for faster approvals of new medical devices in Japan.

As reported by DeviceTalk, the groups says it will work to provide Japanese patients with greater access to advanced medical technology, using global best practices and maintaining a close collaborative relationship with the U.S. government and the U.S.-based industry association AdvaMed. It will also collaborate with the Japanese government, academic societies, and other industry organizations.

The 62 members of AMDD include a who's who of the medical device industry, including Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Boston Scientific, Cardinal Health, Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, Edwards Lifesciences, and Zimmer.


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for regulatory submissions, labeling, and safety reports - in Japanese and dozens of other languages. Contact us to find out more.
 
 

A common perception about quality is that it is expensive. To increase quality, you need to add to the project process steps. The common approach has been to add process steps and quality checks to improve on delivered quality.

How much value are additional linguistic steps adding? How can this be quantified? Is an editor adding or detracting from the quality? Why are so many errors being caught at the tail end of the project, and how can a language-service provider (LSP) systematically reduce these and drive quality upstream? How do you know the quality of the products being delivered, other than knowing that standard translation processes have been followed?

We've been able to realize a savings of 23% and more in cost and turnaround time by utilizing a measured quality system called METRiQ. The data generated from METRiQ is used to identify improvement needs, and to measure improvements and efficiencies. Improvement opportunities are identified both from a corporate level, down to the account and project levels.

Read more about how measured translation quality works at our web site.


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It's not exactly "medical" translation, but different date formats come up fairly frequently on medical translation projects. Many of our U.S.-based clients are unaware of the different formats around the world.

ISO 8601 is a standard orders from the largest (the year) to the smallest (the second), which is rarely followed.

International Standard ISO 8601:2004(E) specifies numeric representations of date and time. This standard notation helps to avoid confusion in international communication caused by the many different national notations and increases the portability of computer user interfaces.

According to ISO 8601, dates are ordered from the largest (year) to the smallest (second), as follows:

2009-04-12T13:45:29

Dates and times can be a medical localization nightmare. Often political, geographic and religious factors have come into play.

ISO 8601 is a good solution because it is a standard designed for computer data transfer and developed by a standards body. It is also a good choice because it is compatible with the calendar system used by businesses around the world. Finally, it is a good choice as it forces API users to think about the decision they make if they require non-ISO calendar systems.


UPDATE: The original post contained a couple of mistakes, as Gonzalo pointed out in the comments. (Thank you, Gonzalo.) Also, for a copy of the ISO 8601 standard, see this PDF file.

About a month ago, it was widely reported how a mythical beast known as the "grass mud horse" has become an Internet phenomenon in China. Children's songs, mock TV news shows, and cartoons about the beast have drawn millions of viewers on YouTube and elsewhere.

In China, the grass-mud horse is an example of something that passes as subversive behavior. This is because "grass mud horse" in Chinese is a homonym for an unprintable but widely used phrase. Both the phrase – "F*** your mother" – and the name of the mythical animal are pronounced as caonima, although using different tones.

Interesting enough but Slate looked at the issue from a different angle and posed the question: Does every culture use the suggestion of maternal incest as an insult?

As the article details, the invocation of maternal incest is ancient and wide-ranging. In America, its usage is more recent. Check out the late, great Bernie Mac for a treat on the subject.


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized Chinese translation services to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Contact us to learn more.
 
 

Due to the success of our audio conference program, we have recently expanded our effort. Our team now produces three live events every week!

For March, the top five events were:

1. Beyond Global Feasibility: An Evidence-Based Approach to Creating Realistic Development Timelines


2. Hazard Analysis for Medical Devices Under IEC60601 and ISO14971


3. The Pre-IND Program: 12 Steps to a Successful IND Filing


4. Improving the Readability of Your Patient Information


5. EU Labeling for Medical Devices
   

If you have any suggestions for audio conference topics, send us a note!


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More than ever, translation and interpreting support are hot topics in hospitals across the United States. Some states are just getting around to mandating bilingual support across their healthcare systems. And while concerns about inadequate language support are widespread, most hospitals today proactively look to provide appropriate sign- and foreign-language support.

Following are three videos on the topic of multilingual healthcare. The first one is a New York Times report on the state of affairs in Minneapolis. (Click on the link - no preview is available.)

Older immigrants face particular difficulties due to cultural and language issues. The following video discusses some of the challenges faced by Chinese-American seniors:


And finally a report by KOMU on how Missouri healthcare organizations support Spanish-speaking patients:


Thanks, Megan, for the idea!


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Anybody doing translation work related to clinical trials knows that so-called "back translations" are a fact of life - most drug companies rely on back translations as a QA tool by comparing the back translation and the source to one another.

However, any translation that is done well will depart from the semantics and structure of the original source language. Grammar is inherently diverse across different languages, and the translator will retain the meaning of the translation, rather than the original grammatical properties of the source text.

Not surprisingly then, there exists a healthy debate on the use and usefulness of back translations.

In our experience, the usefulness of back translations is highly dependent on the content that is being translated. In the context of informed consent forms, the consensus is that back translation should be performed to ensure that the language is a correct translation of the original, i.e., the meaning was not changed but also that the readability of the text has not been affected through the translation process. Additionally some Institutional Review Boards have made back translations a necessary step in the approval process.

For patient reported outcomes, back translations are a necessary part of the validation and cultural adaptation of the instrument for specific markets. The process includes conducting two back translations and harmonization with the original translation to accommodate the findings of the back translation.

Other content, for instance technical material or advertising and marketing material, may be better suited for an in-country review or an additional copy edit or adaptation step.

The bottom line? Use back translations with caution. It is not a silver bullet, and it can be a time-consuming and expensive task. But when employed correctly, back translations are a highly effective validation tool.


For more on the case for - and against - back translations, take a look at the following:

• Darren Clayson explains the intricate (and mandatory) process for back translations in Translation & Linguistic Validation of PRO Measures
• Back translations - tackling discrepancy in meaning highlights some of the linguistic challenges involved
• Our own Hilary Davies presented the terrific Best Practices for Back Translation as a QA Tool

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That's the question that the Wired2Lead blog posed yesterday. Knowing the answer to this question is important for any business.

The point is not to keep every customer, at any cost. Rather, you want to determine which customers are the best fit for your service offering and then focus your efforts on winning and keeping these customers. Given the loooooong sales cycles in the medical translation space, we use it to guide our marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

Over the years, we have refined the definition of what constitutes an "ideal client" for our company. We use this as a tool to determine which sales opportunities to pursue and which clients to invest in. Our clients have benefited from this, as have we.

In some instances, we were no longer an appropriate supplier for a particular client. Referring them to a translation company that represented a better fit was the right thing to do. For those clients that we have retained, we were able to serve them better, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and higher profit margins.

Every supplier in the translation supply chain will have a different definition of "ideal client" and "lifetime value of a client". The trick is ask "What is your customer worth?" and then build your business around your answer.


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The folks over at the Localization, Localisation blog recently posed the question Who's responsible for Localization in your organization? With the post talks about terms like globalization, internationalization, localization and even "glocalization", it struck me that 99% of our contacts in the medical device and biopharma industries would have no idea what these terms mean.

Usually, when terms like "localization" crop up in client requests or RFPs, it is a sure-fire sign that they have been talking to a software localization vendor. Just recently, we responded to an RFP for clinical-research-related translations that contained several references to localization and internationalization. Sure enough, when asked to clarify what kind of software was being used/localized, the company replied "none, we require translations for informed consent forms, protocols, protocol amendments, and patient recruitment materials."

For service providers and clients alike, it is important to not get caught up in translation jargon. While the use of some jargon is inevitable, it pays to be conscious of the fact that the other party may not be familiar with a particular expression. Clear communication begins before any translation is done!

Have you always wanted to know how to say "I hate your sausage toes" in Danish? Open Culture to the rescue!

In addition to off-beat items like this one, Open Culture offers a comprehensive list of totally free resources for anyone looking to learn a language though audio files (mp3 files, downloadable to your computer or personal audio player).

As Lifehacker points out, "organized alphabetically by language, Open Culture's list of free foreign language lessons includes links to each lesson series' iTunes site, podcast RSS feed, or basic web site to get you downloading and e-nun-ci-a-ting immediately.

It covers a whole lot of languages you might have no idea there were freely-available tutors for, and the variety of lesson types is intriguing. If straight-up repeat-after-me audio lessons get tiresome, many language areas also have humorous amateurs offering some local color, or the language's mother nation's news, read extra slowly to help with vocabulary and comprehension.

The Coding Horror blog started an interesting discussion around the use of English by programmers around the world. Most commenters seem to agree with the use of English, in part because programming environments often don't accept accented/special characters.

While there are some non-English-based programming languages, most are more-or-less US-centric (i.e., to make sense of keywords, standard library functions, etc., you really need to know at least some English to make sense of it).

An interesting adjunct to this: Is English a "good" choice? Many people argue that as one of the more difficult languages to learn, English is less than ideal as a global programming and business language (Language Log has a good article on the comparative difficulties associated with learning English).

As one of the comments on Coding Horror points out:

The problem is that the native speakers of English are both numerous and wealthy. The only languages in the same league in numbers are Spanish and Chinese, and the acquisition problems for Chinese are worse than English. If we're talking about nonnative acquisition, then Chinese is worse, in that few non-native Chinese speakers speak a Sino-Tibetan language, while many non-native English speakers speak Indo-European languages, so the proximity is better. Of course, Spanish is an Indo-European language too, and is a language that has lots of native speakers, and is much easier to acquire than English.

If we were to switch, (New World) Spanish is the only language that can seriously be argued as a better option as a world language.

So, what do you think? English, Spanish, Chinese or maybe even Finnish, which, I was surprised to see, is supposedly one of the easier languages to learn?

March is officially done. Time to look back at the most popular posts over the past 31 days:

1. 100% text repetitions: To review or not to review - This is the top topic for the 2nd month in a row. It seems to have hit a nerve :-)


2. Periodic table of typefaces - The kind of thing that only a real translation/DTP geek would like. The good news is, there are a lot of them.


3. Free CTD/eCTD templates - Everybody loves cost-nix, and free CTD/eCTD templates are very timely.


4. Why measure translation quality? - Everybody TALKS about quality but who actually delivers quality?


5. glossifier helps you understand medical articles - This and Treasure trove of medical glossaries pulled evenly. A lot of people are looking to improve their medical know-how.

Happy reading and happy weekend!

One of the thing that's fun about driving around Boston is that you can't go far without passing a medical device manufacturer, research facility, hospital, or biopharma company.

This hasn't gone unnoticed over at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103. Their high-stakes name-calling campaign Stop Biotech Looting has recently placed this billboard right smack in the middle of biotech country in Cambridge's Kenmore Square:



Across the Charles in Brighton, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center strikes a more positive note with this sign:



The image is reminiscent of the now-famous Obama Hope poster and tries to tap into the cultural and political Zeitgeist.

I look forward to get into my car tonight and see if a new sign has sprouted!


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The current issue of tcworld, tekom's newsletter, contains an article on outsourcing practices. I don't really agree with the premise of the piece.

The author basically says that the selection of suppliers is all about quality and look what can happen when you choose incorrectly - he lists recent quality issues with toys, clothes, milk, and toothpaste as examples. He then goes on to say that to avoid these, companies need a strong quality system so that they can be sure to satisfy their customers' needs.

To be sure, I agree with all of the elements. In a service business, client satisfaction is hugely important. Similarly, a robust quality system is a basic requirement for providing medical translation services. And because so much production work is outsourced multiple times along the translation supply chain, appropriate supplier selection is of paramount importance.

My skepticism stems from the fact that these pieces don't add up to an effective outsourcing model. You can implement the letter of any quality system based on ISO 9001, TQM, or any other philosophy mentioned by the author yet still regularly outsource work to "wrong" suppliers.

Similarly, customers being satisfied with a translation supplier's work doesn't mean that the supplier was appropriate. In fact, it doesn't even mean that the supplier provided good quality. (Ah, but that gets us into what is translation quality and how to prove the existence of quality. We'll leave that discussion for another day.)

All of this doesn't mean that outsourcing is an island to itself. More than anything, outsourcing practices in the medical translation space require robust processes to determine customer requirements, effective pricing/negotiating strategies, and, ultimately, a company-wide strategy that they support. Yes, quality and customer satisfaction are important. But without these additional elements, outsourcing is just another word for spinning your wheels.