Conference interpreting is required for a wide variety of occasions. Organisers in the pharmaceutical and medical industry rely on experienced conference interpreters with specialist knowledge for congresses, international GMP conferences and pharmaceutical and medical conferences with foreign participants.

Conference interpreting: Definition and examples of assignments at pharmaceutical and medical events

Definition: Conference interpreting is a special form of simultaneous interpreting for specific occasions, which is mainly used at conferences, congresses, seminars, trade fairs, specialist events or events with a large number of listeners. Trained and qualified conference interpreters in the fields of pharmacy and medicine have a trained memory and are well versed in medical and pharmaceutical terminology. In addition, they have mastered note-taking techniques that are indispensable for conference interpreting. To categorise the language skills of the conference interpreter, a distinction is made between category A, B and C languages. For a native German speaker, German is considered a category A language. A B language is a foreign language in which the conference interpreter has a written and oral command of at least level C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Finally, the C language is understood by the conference interpreter, but not actively spoken fluently. For A and B languages, the conference interpreter can interpret in both directions, whereas they can only interpret from, but not into, the C language. A concrete example from the pharmaceutical & GMP sector serves to illustrate this: A Russian GMP inspection is carried out at a German pharmaceutical company. In order to ensure unambiguous communication between the German employees and the Russian GMP inspectors, a pharmaceutical interpreter with Russian as the A language and German as the B language (or vice versa) should be used. In addition, a translation of pharmaceutical documents from English may be requested in advance of the GMP inspection. It is therefore advisable for pharmaceutical interpreters and GMP translators to have English as at least a C-language in their portfolio.

One specialist event in the field of medical technology is the DMEA, a trade fair in Berlin that is all about digital health. If, for example, foreign-language specialist presentations on medical products are to be interpreted for a large audience, this is usually made possible with qualified conference interpreters in an interpreting booth.

What makes conference interpreting at pharmaceutical and medical technology events so challenging?

Conference interpreters have to master difficult situations time and again. Even if the speaker might be difficult to understand, a conference interpreter must be able to interpret stringently and clearly. Another typical challenge is a confusing dialogue situation in which the participants speak at random. Speaking very slowly or very quickly is also a difficulty that a professional conference interpreter has to deal with. Trained and qualified conference interpreters in the pharmaceutical and medical fields should therefore have excellent concentration skills and master various sophisticated interpreting techniques. With the help of these skills, the medical and pharmaceutical conference interpreter can stay on the ball even in difficult conversational situations and ensure that speeches are translated correctly and unambiguously. But it's not just about the technique - professional conference interpreting in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sector also requires the interpreter to be familiar with specialised pharmaceutical and medical terminology. Furthermore, it is an advantage if medical or pharmaceutical interpreters are also well versed in the related field of technology.

Is conference interpreting the right type of interpreting for your medical or pharmaceutical event?

For events with a large number of participants (e.g. pharmaceutical symposia, GMP symposia or conferences, medical congresses), simultaneous interpreting is usually used - the most demanding and challenging form of interpreting. The interpreter translates from the source language into the target language with virtually no time delay. However, this requires special conference technology, as the interpreter usually sits in an isolated booth and speaks the interpretation into a microphone. This signal is transmitted to the participants' headphones so that they can hear the translation of the pharmaceutical or medical lecture in real time in their native language. But a small technical detail must be taken into account: Due to the extremely high cognitive load, two experts must be used for simultaneous or conference interpreting, taking turns every 20-30 minutes.

If there are only one or two participants for whom simultaneous interpreting is required, so-called chuchotage (or "whispered interpreting") is often used. This is usually the case for shorter interpreting events which is why just one interpreter is required. In whispered interpreting, the interpreter is positioned diagonally behind the recipient, who is dependent on interpretation.

For smaller events, e.g. a meeting with medical technology or pharmaceutical business partners or a contract initiation meeting, consecutive interpreting or conversational interpreting (also known as "liaison interpreting") is more suitable. The translation by the medical or pharmaceutical interpreter is not done simultaneously, but with a time delay. Only when the speaker pauses or has finished speaking does the interpreter start translating. In this way, the conversation is translated in sections. Highly trained and qualified consecutive interpreters are also proficient in a specially developed note-taking technique that allows them to correctly render even longer sections of speech and complex content that is frequently communicated at medical and pharmaceutical events in the respective foreign language, such as Russian or English.

Why should organisers of medical and pharmaceutical events rely on qualified conference interpreters?

As a rule, only trained and qualified translators/interpreters have all of the above qualifications. Organisers of pharmaceutical conferences or GMP events with international participation should therefore only book conference interpreters who have completed training as state-certified interpreters or a relevant course of study and ideally also already have experience as pharmaceutical and GMP translators or medical interpreters. Contact GMP-inspection.com for highly trained and experienced medical or pharmaceutical interpreters for your medical or pharmaceutical event fluent in English, German and Russian - you're on the safe side with us! If you require interpreting services for other languages, we will be happy to help you with the professional language experts from our extensive network. Let the letters of recommendation from our renowned customers from the medical and pharmaceutical world convince you of our service so that you can concentrate fully on the content of your professional event.

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