Medical Translation Insight

Translation service providers often work in a type of global wonderland: You interact with people around the world who are worldly and open-minded. Unless ones work involves animal testing or abortion or a similar topic, translators are unlikely to get political about their work.

But the world, it is a-changing.

We recently received the following email from a medical translator who has worked for a long-standing device client of ours:

"I'm not sure if you were aware, but there is a boycott in Mexico regarding travel, business, services, etc. related to Arizona and companies based there. It has come to my attention that [medical device company] is a company based in Arizona, U.S.A.

I offer my sincerest apologies, but I have to terminate my contribution to this project due to my collaboration with this boycott. My timing is highly unfortunate. I realize this will affect our working relationship. I hope you can understand that had I known this earlier, I would have informed you appropriately."

It's not like our team was living under a rock and hadn't heard of recent events in Arizona but we were nevertheless surprised.

What is your take on this?

Is it the right thing to do to quit work for political reasons? Or should you suck it up and separate translation work from politics?


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

With Localization World Berlinbehind us, it is time to look forward to future medical translation events. One that we are particularly excited about is Tremédica's VII Scientific and Professional Training Sessions.

The conference will be held in Buenos Aires, on October 15th and 16th, and will be conducted in Spanish.

The event packs a lot of punch for being just two days long. Some of the presentations on the agenda include:

• The Introduction of Foreign Terms in Medical Language through History
• English to Spanish Translation of Documents for Linguistic Validation Projects
• Is Medical Language Sick?
• Writing Scientific Documents for the Pharmaceutical Industry
• The Difficulties Faced by Medical Translators: Some History

Two panel discussions will look at the "language of science" and at medical interpreting, respectively. In addition, a hands-on workshop and lots of case studies round out the excellent program.

For more information, go to www.tremedica.org or email inscripcionesba [at] tremedica.org


For expert medical translations of regulatory, clinical, and marketing content in 40 languages - including Spanish - request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

A report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services on the globalization of clinical research is creating quite a bit of buzz. Unfortunately, it's not really the good kind of buzz...

Challenges to FDA's Ability To Monitor and Inspect Foreign Clinical Trials [PDF link] contains nuggets like:

We found that 80 percent of approved marketing applications for drugs and biologics contained data from foreign clinical trials.

And:

We found that in fiscal year 2008, sponsors relied heavily on data from foreign clinical trials to support their marketing applications for drugs and biologics.

These issues aren't really new [PDF link] - so what's the big deal? Why is this now "a very frightening and appalling situation"?

One reason for concern is that FDA inspected only 0.7% of foreign clinical trial sites, according to the same report. According to consumer group Public Citizen, the report "confirms some of the worst fears about the serious dangers of the escalating globalisation of human experimentation". Strong words indeed.

Drug manufacturers and CROs, on the other hand, argue that rising costs are a real issue and, anyway, it's too difficult to get trials off the ground in the U.S. There may be something to this argument: According to the report, the region that appeared most popular for conducting overseas trials was Western Europe. Central and South America was the favorite location when sponsors sought large numbers of participants per site.

The report contained three recommendations to FDA:

1. Require standardized electronic clinical trial data and create an internal database from which FDA can select sites for inspection
2. Monitor trends in foreign clinical trials not conducted under INDs and take steps as necessary to encourage sponsors to file INDs
3. Explore additional ways to expand the FDA's oversight of foreign clinical trials, including agreements with foreign regulatory bodies and inspections of clinical trial sites in countries not previously inspected

These sound like reasonable recommendations but as one of the commentators over at Pharmalot wonders: "If so much of future medicine is going to be based on genomic differences, what good will it do ... if the people who really will be buying those drugs are from very different ethnic groups and environmental experiences?"

Related articles:

• Clinical trials in Latin America
• Global clinical research - unethical or business necessity?
• Clinical research continues to shift east

ForeignExchange provides specialized medical translations for clinical trial applications, protocols, informed consents, patient diaries, INDs, patient recruitment, and health economic research - in Chinese and dozens of other languages. Contact us for more information about our clinical translation services.
 
 

Which language has the largest vocabulary?

While it may be a pointless question, it's still fun for language geeks to compare languages and argue about something as un-provable as "largest vocabulary".

It is interesting to note that most English sources say that English has the largest vocabulary but this is probably just self-aggrandizing or wishful thinking.

The Johnson blog over at The Economist dealt with this question yesterday. Counting words: The biggest vocabulary? uses the opportunity of Stephen Fry's proclamation

[English] certainly has the largest vocabulary ... by a long, long, long long, way. Rather as China is to the rest of the world in population, English is in the population of its words.

as a starting point for investigation.

After a thoughtful and detailed look at the question, the blog post comes to the obvious conclusion: Who knows?

It is impossible to compare the size of vocabularies in a way that everybody finds fair. But it makes for fun reading and learning about different languages.

Take a read through the Johnson article, and while you're at it, subscribe to the blog - it's terrific.

For more on the English language, take a look at these past articles:

• 10 reasons why English is so difficult to translate
• British English A to Zed
• English is toughest (European) language to read
• Sometimes English is not sexy but stupid

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

ForeignExchange recently had the opportunity to bid on work for a mid-size medical device manufacturer. The first project was going to be a test, to see how we do.

We had no problem with doing a test translation - that makes sense, and we said "sure, please send us the editable source file plus reference materials".

As it turns out, the client didn't want to provide any context or reference materials, fearing that this would dilute the accuracy of the test translation. Now, I understand that in principle. Ideally, you'd like potential suppliers to provide clean, unbiased test translations.

In practice, however, there are several challenges with this approach:

1. First and foremost, it doesn't mirror real-world situations. If this is supposed to be a real project (see #2), then clients should want to get a sense of how we perform in that situation. Getting reference materials and contextual information is not a silver bullet - it's difficult to start working with a new client.
2. This approach is less than ideal for a real, "live" project. Again, it's understandable that clients want to get a "two-fer": a test project that ideally can also double as a usable translation. The challenge is that there are different requirements for success, depending on what you're looking to achieve.
3. This approach can only result in failure for this type of text (a corporate image brochure) - for both the client and the translation supplier. At a glance, the brochure presented dozens of questions regarding what text gets translated, images to be localized, corporate terminology that is in place. Without meaningful input from the end-client, translators are simply stabbing in the dark.
4. Google is your friend - sort of. We can spend the time doing research instead of getting information from the client, but why? We won't know if the materials we found are viewed as good or bad, and we won't know that we found the right reference materials. More stabbing in the dark...

The company's reluctance to share information with us also raised other important questions:

• Do they even have good reference materials?
• Is HQ seeing eye-to-eye with overseas reviewers? The origin of their contact was that Asian offices are unhappy with the translations. It was unclear, though, what exactly caused these complaints? Mistranslations, style, branding/imaging, layout, turnaround times, something else?
• Do they view the context as obvious? This may be true in some cases, but in most cases it is just obvious to the client because her mind is "in the text".
• How engaged will they be as a client? Are they open to receiving questions, or are they the "throw it over the wall" type?

In the end, we decided to pass on this opportunity. That's too bad because the company is squarely in our target market, and I believe that we could have added real value to their international efforts. But, the power of having a tight focus and specialization is the ability to say "no, thank you" to non-ideal clients.

It's a fine line - I wonder if we came down on the right side?


ForeignExchange is fanatical about customer service. 99% of our medical translation clients say that they would recommend us to others - find out why drug and device companies rave about ForeignExchange.
 
 

We are in the midst of trade show season. From DIA to Localization World, medical translation providers have their hands full juggling work with travel.

Many medical translation companies struggle with not just this juggling of time but also with the question of how to make the most of these events. After spending significant time and money on travel, registration and food, how do you know that it was worthwhile?

If that sounds familiar, take a look at 100 Tips for Trade Show Lead Generation on Brian Carroll's B2B Lead Generation Blog. The underlying list was drafted for exhibiting companies but it is equally relevant for attendees and participants.

The general theme of the list, article, and reader comments seems to be:

• less is more
• if you're going to events, make the most of them

While these (and most of the other tips) aren't exactly revolutionary, they do serve as helpful reminders.

Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the basis. I'm always astounded by how many exhibitors and attendees "hide" from other people at the event. Take a look at #80, #88, and #96 - and enjoy your upcoming conferences and trade shows!


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

With the DIA Annual Meeting at a close, I realize that it's been a great conference, in part because retelling events and impressions has made it more "real" for me. (Take a look at my reports from day one and day two.)

The mood was a bit slower on the last day. Attendees and exhibitors were all dragging. Attendees have been attending back to back session; exhibitors have been pushing their wares, and all have been holding impromptu meetings and trying to keep up with normal business demands.

Breakfast meeting
I began the day with a 7:15 breakfast meeting with the Professional Training and Development SIAC. The guest speakers were from Kaplan EduNeering. The presentation was entitled "Learning Strategy: Connecting Content with Your End-user." Following the presentation, there was a demonstration of a three dimension eLearning program implemented at Merck. It was dazzling. The demo allowed the students to create Avatars and walk through a series of SOPs. Very slick (and, quite expensive, I imagine).

The DIA has a hard and fast rule that exhibitors cannot market their products or companies while leading a session. Kaplan might have been stretching this a bit. There were a lot of "we can do" versus "it can be done". This might seem like a small point, but it is meaningful.

A very comprehensive session
I attended a session entitled "An Overview of Drug Development for Emerging Professionals. It was comprehensive and understandable -- no easy task. I intend on sharing this information with my company at a later date. I'd be happy to pass this information on to anyone who is interested.

Instant access to complete label information
I stopped by Reed Technologies booth to see what they were offering. I was in for a treat. Reed has a tool named LabelDataPlus, which contains over 21,000 approved drug labels. It is easily searchable and is free to all users.

I tried it out with a prescription drug I take daily. I read the approved labeling for the drug in all its revisions. This could be a great tool for anyone who deals with drug labeling AND for all of us who take pharmaceuticals on a regular basis. I recommend you check this one out.

Another SIAC
I joined the Global Sourcing SIAC. I was introduced to it be Michele Gause from Bayer. Michele co-authored a session last year through her role in this SIAC, and it was pretty impressive. The mission of this SIAC is to enhance communication and networking among professionals from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

We will be focusing on best practices with regard to partnering between sponsors with providers. Sounds right up my alley! Tiffany Cherry, CEO of PharmCONTRAX, is the chair. I sat with Tiffany after a session and got a quick intro into the work we will be doing.

A final breaking of bread
For my final meal I went to Legal Seafood with a new associate of mine from a SIAC. The food was excellent and the quality was as sound as any of the Legal Seafood restaurants around my old home town of Boston.

I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings on the 46th DIA Annual Meeting. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing some of my experiences with you. Contact me at bmuzerall [at] fxtrans [dot] com at any time if I can be of service. Until next year in Chicago, happy trails!


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for clinical research - from patient recruitment to ICFs to diaries, ForeignExchange supports sponsors in 40+ languages. Contact us for more information.
 
 

Day two at the DIA Annual Meeting was as busy as the first day. Everybody seemed to be in high gear and mini-conferences and luncheon meetings were happening regularly. Today I'd like to comment on a few of the items I found of interest.

A very interesting session
I attended a Professional Development/Training session entitled "How to Use Web 2.0 in Training Programs". A Web 2.0 training program could contain social media such as You Tube and Twitter. The session chair made a compelling argument for it. Learning, it appears, is heightened when the student becomes engages in the process. It seems that interactive training is sweeping the training industry.

One of many SIACs
I am a new member of the Professional Training and Development SIAC. As the name implies, this SIAC is made up of individuals from medical companies who focus a good bit of their time on training. I joined this SIAC following last year's Annual Meeting and have been attending the monthly conference calls (mostly). Sitting down and meeting the group is a real pleasure. The members come from a wide range of companies including ALMAC, Centocor, Sanofi-Aventis and Medidata, to name a few. The group includes both North American and European individuals.

While I'm pretty new to the work of this SIAC, I know that they sponsor a student learning program for emerging medical professionals. They also act as a training resource to insure the many educational sessions are presented in a professional manner. This last aspect is a fairly new task for the SIAC and is expected to be increased for next year's annual event in Chicago.

What's in a name?
How about this for a company name: Duck Flats Pharma. What an interesting name! Duck Flats Pharma is an R&D consulting and contract firm with a specific focus on strategic drug development in both non-clinical and clinical areas. The company was founded in 2001 by Luana Pesco Koplowitz.

So, what's with the name? It seems that Luana purchased and moved to a farm in upstate NY after completing her work with J&J. The farm was named Duck Flats. Luana runs her company out of the refurbished farm, and it just made sense to keep the name. I like it!

I was struck by the uniqueness of their booth in the exhibit hall. While most booths are slick, stylish and modern, Duck Flat's booth has the old world charm of a country kitchen, with a gingham checked table cloth and home-made style baskets.

But enough of the fluff, what about the company? I interviewed Luana and learned that their success comes from leveraging a clinical pharmacology approach to "bridge the gaps between non-clinical and clinical needs." This approach has enabled clients to bring their drugs to market in a rapid and efficient manner. Luana's background covers multiple therapeutic areas, and her expertise extends to all aspects of the clinical process. Well done!

Don't forget the food!
Washington, DC, is known for its great restaurants. I had the pleasure of driving out to Germantown (way too far on an empty stomach!) with a few attendees last evening. We went to Sabai Sabai, a well known Thai restaurant on Central Boulevard. The curry and duck was excellent. And, the price was quite reasonable (my boss will be happy). Try it next time you get near our capital.

That's it for day two. I will have my conference wrap-up entry tomorrow.


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for clinical research - from patient recruitment to ICFs to diaries, ForeignExchange supports sponsors in 40+ languages. Contact us for more information.
 
 

We know that medical translation isn't for everybody. But among those translators who want to specialize in medical translations, the most common question is "How do I get started?".

Andy Bell of AAA Scandinavian Translations provided a great response to this question last year, on the There's Something About Translation blog. He provides realistic and specific pointers like:

I would suggest that if you’re planning to translate patient notes, medical records, surgical texts or journal articles then you might consider a course in medical writing/editing, read prolifically around the subject ("Medical Translation Step by Step" by Vicent Resurrecio and Maria Gonzalez Davies is excellent) or even consider working in a hospital on a paid or volunteer basis if you really want to get a handle on the language of medicine.

Take a look at the full interview - it's well worth the read.

Andy's comment that you "can't 'best guess' medical translation" identifies the crux of the problem faced by new-comers. Luckily, the book that Andy mentions, Medical Translation Step by Step, is a terrific tool to help beginner medical translators acquire insight and develop a suitable work style.

The book, which is published by St. Jerome Publishing, covers three main areas: medical writing, translation practice, and exploration of different paths to learning.

The 250-page book does a really good job of explaining the process of medical translation. Spread-out over seven chapters and two appendices, the book offers a comprehensive and practical textbook on medical translation.

For more information, take a look at the book review that appeared in The Journal of Specialised Translation. You can also get a sense of one of the author's experience and approach by reading The Acquisition of Translation Competence.

For other interesting books, take a look at:

• British English A to Zed
• Eats, shoots & leaves
• Another one bites the grass

ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translation services to biopharma and medical equipment companies.
 
 

As threatened, welcome to my DIA Annual Meeting updates! I hope you will find my ramblings helpful and somewhat interesting. I'll be posting an entry daily outlining my thoughts on some of the interesting sessions, exhibitors and events surrounding the meeting. Without further ado, let's hit it.

The venue
I love Washington, DC. It's a great city to visit and it has ample services for a large conference. The event is being held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, a large, fairly new and spacious facility. The negative is that the facility is really several large buildings, linked by walking bridges. I found many, many attendees roaming about the hallways looking for room 153A or 222B, etc. I suppose be the time we all leave on Thursday, we'll have it figured out. On the plus side, the conference center has plenty of helpers directing the lost souls find their destinations.

Interesting story: In speaking to young London-based ladies who were exhibiting their company, I was asked if Washington, DC, was part of the state of Washington. Hmm. Seems like a surprising question from two educated world travelers. However, I must admit that I might well have asked a similar question during my trips abroad.

The DIA
"The DIA (Drug Information Association) is a neutral, nonprofit, global professional association of nearly 18,000 members who work in every facet of the discovery, development, and life cycle management of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and related products. DIA operates as a financially independent nonprofit organization that funds itself from meeting and membership fees. The voluntary efforts of DIA members and speakers allow DIA to provide programs and publications to members at a reasonable, competitive cost."

How's that for an intro? My visit to the DIA Press Room was pretty interesting and the associates provided me with a fairly in-depth run down on the organization.

The event
DIA sponsors numerous conventions, webinars, training sessions, etc. throughout the year. The Annual Meeting is a classic. There are nearly 8,000 attendees and 550 exhibitors occupying over 750 booth spaces for the event. It started on Sunday and will end on Thursday, June 20th. I arrived bright and early on Monday, following a 6 AM flight from my home in Albany.

There are virtually hundreds of educational sessions during the convention. They fall into 25 areas of interest including Advertising, eClinical, Medical Communications, and Regulatory Affairs to name a few.

The exhibit hall
Talk about sensory overload! With 550 separate exhibitors viewing for business, this place reminds me of a marketplace I once visited in Morocco. The booth personnel fall into three distinct categories:

1. The sharks. The sharks roam the aisles around their booths and lure unsuspecting attendees with cheap trinkets and the chance to win an iPad (the iPad is this year's sought after item).
2. The hermits. The hermits are those individuals who were forced by their companies to attend. They tend to sit low in their seats, at the back of the booth, doing anything other than look up and actually converse with an attendee.
3. The pros. The pros are those talented sales professionals who are pleasant, engaging, open but not intrusive. They make eye contact, nod or smile and are open to conversing with any attendee who might stop by to chat. They provide clear answers to questions and are open and alert to help the conversation move to needs versus solutions. (I'd like to think I'm a pro when I man our booth, but I have caught myself slipping into the shark role from time to time.)

The sessions
All sessions are broken down into Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced level of difficulty. I stick with the Basic and Intermediate levels. I attend sessions on topics related to my business (translation and localization services). One such session on Monday was Electronic Regulatory Submissions/Document Management. The session chairperson was Nancy Smerkanich, VP Global RA from Octagon. Stephen Wilson, Director Division of Biometrics at FDA and Own Jiang, Senior Clinical Data Manager from PGxHealth were also speakers.

I found the session quite interesting. It focused on due diligence and how all aspects of the clinical process must take this into account. This is especially important now with the mergers, acquisitions, the selling of copyrights, etc. is so prevalent. Due diligence is often broken when these changes occur.

The SIACS
SIACS (Special Interest Area Communities) are a DIA sponsored groups where professionals can share common experiences and knowledge. There are 25 different SIACS. I belong to two of them – the Professional Education, Training & Development and the Global Sourcing.

Over the next several days I will be meeting with these two groups and will provide further information on them

The exhibitors
I'll be highlighting an exhibitor each day. Today we will consider Schlafender Hase and Partner, a software and communications company. SH (my acronym) integrates the Adobe PDF Library into their Text Verification Tool, enabling users to improve the quality and accuracy of their printed materials."

I found their tool fascinating. Picture this: You have a document that needs to be proofed against another version. The tool quickly highlights every instance where one deviates from the other. There are functions which allow some differences to be allowed, versus others which are not. The differences can be in word choice, punctuation, etc. And, the two documents can be in different file formats (Word, PDF, Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, etc.). Very slick!

Their tool views all text as characters and this means one can compare two multilingual documents for proofing. I see this as a valuable asset for translation post alignment projects.

Signing off
For those of you who couldn't make it to DC, I hope you've enjoyed update. I'll be back tomorrow with an update on day two of the conference. Until then, full speed ahead!


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for clinical research - from patient recruitment to ICFs to diaries, ForeignExchange supports sponsors in 40+ languages. Contact us for more information.
 
 

Over the past several months, media has been obsessed with four subjects: Economic stimulus, healthcare reform, Greece, and China.

But let's face it: How many times can you read about the end of the world before you start tuning it out? If, however, you combine three out of those four topics together, it becomes much more interesting.

The Chinese government's efforts to reform domestic healthcare offers just this kind of "mash-up".

In support of its goal of providing universal coverage to the 1.3 billion Chinese, the central government will invest RMB850 billion (approx. US$120 billion) on healthcare over three years. China is already one of the world's fastest growing markets for drugs and devices. This kind of investment is adding additional fuel to the fire, creating a bonanza for medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

And Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry points out that western companies see opportunities beyond 2011, the targeted end-date for the plan.

With plans to put at least one medical clinic in every village in China, it's understandable that manufacturers are learning how to sell, research, type, and translate in Chinese!


ForeignExchange provides specialized medical translation and localization services to medical device companies - in Chinese and 40+ other languages. For your next international marketing campaign, ask for a detailed proposal.
 
 

May has come and gone. Over the past 30 days, our educational calendar was filled with events around clinical research, regulatory affairs, medical translation topics.

The top five events for May were:

1. Recent Perspectives on Trial Design - Minimizing Patients for Oncology Trials
2. Off-Label Information for Medical Device Companies: Regulation, Dissemination & Enforcement
3. A Unified Approach to Complaints, Servicing, and FDA Reporting
4. Running Home-based Clinical Trials for Medical Devices and Diagnostics
5. Bridging the Linguistic Quality Gap: How to Measurably Improve Translation Quality

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

Interested in other popular educational events? Take a look at our top audio conferences for April, March and February.


For a detailed proposal on your next clinical, regulatory, or marketing medical translation project, contact ForeignExchange Translations.
 

Medical translators are well aware of the importance of safety for medical device. In the past, emphasis has generally been on the hardware and little thought was given to the software that is an increasingly crucial part of these devices.

That has changed, thanks to two events: the updated Medical Device Directive in Europe and IEC 62304 [PDF link].

While most of us are by now well acquainted with the revised MDD, clients mentioning and asking about IEC 62304 is still new for many medical translation service providers.

The June issue of European Medical Device Technology featured a nice overview of IEC 62304. Developing Medical Device Software to IEC 62304 shows that for medical device manufacturers, IEC 62304 is a useful complement to ISO 13485 and ISO 14971.

It is interesting to note that it is the device manufacturer's responsibility to handle the safety classification of the software. This classification occurs on three levels, based on risk management and the level of injuries that the software could cause:

1. No injury or damage to health possible
2. Non-serious injury possible
3. Death or serious injury possible

Compliance with IEC 62304 requires a quality management system (e.g., ISO 13485) and risk management (ISO 14971) - a low bar for any medical device company. Even better: Device companies do not have to reinvent processes for developing medical device software - ensuring that its practices are compliant with the standard is sufficient.

As we mentioned a year ago, IEC 62304 has enjoyed broad acceptance among medical device manufacturers. Now it's up to medical translation suppliers to catch up!

[Tip of the hat to Bob on Medical Device Software]

Want to know more about IEC 62304? Delve into the following:

• International standards and International standards and guidance that address guidance that address Medical Device Software Medical Device Software [PDF link] from the 11th annual GHTF conference
• FDA's Guidance for Industry, FDA Reviewers and Compliance on Off-The-Shelf Software Use in Medical Devices
• Localizing Android applications
• Regulatory strategies for IEC 60601

ForeignExchange's QMS is certified to ISO 9001, ISO 13485, EN 15038 and compliant with ISO 14971. For your next medical translation and software localization assignment, request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange.
 
 

Monday's preconference day at Localization World Berlin started with a number of very interesting sessions. As usual the preconference day at Localization World featured several parallel tracks. The morning session of the Life Sciences track contained the first-ever pharma session presented by Simon Andriesen of MediLingua and ForeignExchange's own Sandra La Brasca.

The session introduced the pharmaceutical landscape, who the clients are, and what regulations they face in the U.S. and E.U. There were detailed description of the clinical trial process and the resulting documents that most often require translations. For each type of document in the process, the speakers described the specific translation-challenges and timelines, types of resources, and so on.

The last part of the session was devoted to explaining the deployment of electronic system for submissions. The topic of PIM was of particular interest to the audience and many in the audiences participated in a lively discussion about the future of PIM.

The pharma session was well received, and all participants seemed to agree on one common conclusion: While our clients have to deal with an ever complex environment, as medical translation providers, we need to make every effort to stay ahead of the curve. By taking a consultative approach, medical translators can help clients navigate the complexities of the global pharmaceutical landscape.

The afternoon round-table session was kicked off by three client-led presentations covering creative outsourcing, controlling quality upstream, and controlling quality downstream, respectively.

The discussion about outsourcing from the client side sparked a lively discussion. Both sides of the spectrum were represented with some clients finding that more outsourcing led to increased cost savings while others have decided to revert to in sourcing, hiring large team of in-house translators. The discussion extended to translation suppliers who are also dealing with the same issue either using more freelancers or hiring in-house resources.

The presentations about quality demonstrated how the use of controlled language, terminology management, and automated QA tools greatly improves quality of the source resulting in a better translation output.

The remainder of the session comprised of three break-out sessions (best practices, client-vendor partnerships, and the value of outsourcing). The outcome from all three groups followed a common theme: A sense that clients and suppliers alike can benefit from improved relationships.

Investing in the education of the (sub)contractors with and staff will help translation suppliers deliver better service to clients. Additionally, a common theme was that it is up to medical translation service providers to develop expertise and support clients throughout the translation process.

All in all, another terrific medical preconference day at Localization World!


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for electronic as well as paper-based regulatory submissions. Contact us to find out more.
 
 

The Drug Information Association's annual get-together is arguably the biggest event on the pharma industry's conference calendar. It's a great place to learn new things, meet new partners and friends or reconnect with old ones. ForeignExchange wouldn't miss it for the world.

Next week, I'll be heading to Washington, DC, for the DIA conference. The program is chock full of interesting topics, from multi-regional clinical trials to the ethical debate over industry-supported education, and I'll be sitting in on as many sessions as I can. The exhibit hall is always fun to wander as well. I plan to blog daily about my experiences at DIA so check back here next week, Monday through Thursday, to see what I'm up to.

Of course, if you'll be attending the conference, I would love to meet and chat. Drop me a line at bmuzerall(at)fxtrans.com to exchange contact info and arrange a time and place to meet. Hope to see you in Washington!

Here is the official Website for the event.

-posted by Bob Muzerall, ForeignExchange's VP of Business Development

UPDATE: Conference posts are now available for day one, two, and three.


ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for clinical trial applications, protocols, informed consents, patient diaries, INDs, patient recruitment, and health economic research. Contact us for more information about our clinical translation services.
 
 

The most concrete outcome of our great showing in the Top 100 Language Blogs rankings is that our readership has taken another jump.

We are fast approaching 1,500 blog and Twitter readers here at Medical Translation Insight - pretty exciting ... and pretty scary to have so many knowledgeable readers!

It is always interesting to learn which of the our posts are receiving the most reads each month. Below you will find the most popular articles of the past month. Check them out to make sure you have not missed any.

1. Greek crisis hits drug makers; translation providers next? - Fear mongering or realistic threat? You decide!
2. Medical glossary in nine European languages - Another good terminology resource
3. We have met the enemy, and he is machine translation- In our survey, machine translation edged out crowdsourced translations as the biggest threat to translation service providers
4. Are low prices leading to poor quality? - Lots of translators have strong feelings about this topic
5. Medtronic wants to be your friend - Social media is slowly (very slowly!) becoming more acceptable among pharma and medical device companies

Looking for more good stuff to read? Take a look at our top articles for April, March, and February. Happy reading!

Translation professionals in the Upper Midwest will have to chance to hear how one of the top medical device companies in the world set up their translation program to achieve the highest quality results in their marketing, labeling and regulatory translations.

On Tuesday, June 29th, Inna Geller, localization expert and former Senior Localization Operations Manager for Medtronic, will be speaking at World-class translation management, made in the Twin Cities.

This event is the first in ForeignExchange's Multilingual Compliance Learning Series. It will be held at the Embassy Suites hotel in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, from 8:30 until 11:30am.

Inna will call on her unique expertise and extensive background to cover topics such as vendor selection, setting up translation process best practices, collecting quality metrics and in-country review. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions and interact with Inna and other translation industry professionals, and leave the workshop with practical tips that they can immediately implement at their own companies to start driving higher translation quality.

The Workshop is complimentary for device and drug industry professionals but seating is limited. Registration is required.

Take a look at our web site for more information about this event. See you in the Twin Cities!

Related articles:

• Terminology management at Medtronic
• 3 Steps to Successful Translation Management
• Medtronic: A Benchmark for Medical Device Translators
• 90% of in-country reviews are a waste of time

For a detailed proposal on your next clinical, regulatory, or marketing medical translation assignment, contact ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

Hey, we know that different words have different tastes but who can keep track of what different colors mean around the world?

If you use color on your website (and who doesn't?), then you need to be aware of how your audience views those colors. The cultural basis for color symbolism can be very powerful - both in a good and bad way.

Color Meanings by Culture on The International Business Edge blog is a terrific resource for everybody involved in creating multi-cultural web or print content. The color-coded summary is pulled together from five resources that are well worth a visit in their own right:

1. Vanka PhD, Surya. International Color Guide, Tektronix/Xerox.

2. Nicholson PhD, Mary. Graphic Design: Psychology of Color. “Lesson 13: Colors and Moods,” Bloomsburg University, 2001.

3. Kyrnin, Jennifer. Visual Color Symbolism Chart by Culture.

4. The Meaning of Color

5. Psychological Effects of Color, California State University Stanislaus

Pay heed to these meanings and make sure that your multilingual brochure or international website doesn't fail.

[Tip of the hat to Marian Dougan]


Localizing a web site? Get more details about ForeignExchange's expertise in translating pharmaceutical and medical device web sites.
 
 

Android is seemingly everywhere and medical devices are no exception. While Android creates less buzz than the iPhone OS and medical apps on the iPhone, Android is poised to play a bigger role in medical devices. For now, though, it's often difficult for localization engineers to find useful information on how to prepare, localize, and maintain multilingual Android code.

Linux Magazine has a good localization case study using the popular program "Hello World". The article contains a step-by-step overview and a sample Eclipse project.

Recommended reading for any device engineer!

[Thanks to Ilya Butenko's Localization blog for the tip]


Looking for more info on the multilingual mobile world? Here you go:

• Science journal Nature jumps on iPhone bandwagon
• When cell phones become medical devices
• Translation moves to smartphones

ForeignExchange's METRiQ quality system provides medical device and pharmaceutical companies with measurable, known software localization quality. To learn more, contact ForeignExchange Translations.