This year we were part once again of Tradusa: Brazilian Meeting of Specialized Translators in the Health Area, an annual event that took place in the city of São Paulo- Brazil. 

This event aims to contribute to the training and professional development of medical translators and interpreters. As well as translators who work with healthcare and related fields. It seeks to promote the exchange of information and knowledge among these professionals. 

Our Business Sales Manager from Brazil, Luiz Lorenzetti, and our Brazilian Portuguese Language Lead, Marcella Pacífico, were part of a round table at Tradusa to discuss the current situation of the translation industry. These are some of their reviews about this topic. 

The current scenario for translation companies 

The translation industry has experienced some dramatic changes due to the global pandemic of COVID 19. It was an opportunity for some companies and translation agencies to think about new possibilities of performing and to rethink the services they offer. For example, interpretation over-the-phone started to become increasingly demanded.  

According to Luiz Lorenzetti, “this unique moment in our history affected the entire world and changed the course of the economy. However, even during the pandemic, all sectors tried in some way to continue working and minimize their losses. The translation industry was not different, there were losses, the flow of work decreased, the market shrank, but it is in the face of difficulties that opportunities arise, and that is what I will talk about now.”  

For Marcella Pacífico, “at this moment, the translation industry experiences a workflow reduction in some segments, such as traveling and leisure; however, many areas are flourishing rapidly, such as e-learning, web conferencing tools, e-commerce and so on. We can also see an increase in the translation of websites and mobile apps, which allow companies to stay connected with their customers during this social distancing times.” 
 

How has the pandemic affected the medical translation industry? 

In the middle of the crisis the medical segment started to had new demands. There was a record growth of this whole industry. As Luiz explains, “many companies in this sector, which were running in the local market, saw the opportunity to develop products and services related to the sanitary emergency. This encouraged the translation industry to meet complex projects in the medical area in record time.” 
 

For Marcella, due to the pandemic, “the medical field went through an increase in translations related to coronavirus, which needed to be constantly updated, considering new information is discovered every day about the disease and how it affects the world population.” 
 

This context particularly affected medical interpretation, because of the need of communication with patients who do not speak the same language as the doctors. In many cases, over-the-phone interpretation is needed. Most language interpretations are done remotely, which doubles the length of a medical exchange. For this reason, as translation and interpretation agencies we must keep improving our services.  

Translation agencies committed to collaborate in situations of emergency 

Companies must be prepared to offer qualified linguists in the medical field. Events such as Tradusa become a fantastic opportunity to think how the sanitary emergency affects our industry and how we prepare our resources and companies to overcome it. 
 

Congresses and events such as Tradusa strengthen the translation industry not only in Brazil, but also throughout Latin America. They are a great opportunity to exchange experiences, share insights about the industry and see how other professional linguists and agencies work. They are also an excellent occasion to find the best professionals from each field.