According to the US Census, approximately 68 million Americans speak a language other than English at home. Many of these people need interpreting services to communicate effectively in English and av...
An optimized, proactive language access plan (LAP) provides a competitive advantage in today’s multicultural environment by helping you reach people where they are. The U.S. population is growing more...
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare in the United States. But studies show that the caliber of healthcare individuals receive varies...
This article was originally published in January 2021 and has been updated. Patients from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds experience health disparities and adverse health outcomes co...
This article was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated. Since it launched in 2008, Spotify has become a leader in the music streaming scene. Over 50 million paid subscribers use the s...
This article was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated. When the now-defunct Braniff Airlines released an ad targeting its Spanish speaking consumers in 1987, it likely couldn’t hav...
This article was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated. Brazil, once home to an economic boom, has been in a recession since 2013, and consumers have opted to hold onto their well-ear...
This article was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated. Airbnb, the home-sharing service that amassed nearly $47 billion in gross booking value in 2021, is accessible in virtually e...
This article was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated. In 2018, Facebook received strong criticism for an embarrassing translation mistake triggered by its algorithm. After a 6.9 m...
This article was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated. Terminology management is a critical and key component to ensuring optimal translation quality for all localized content. It...
Effective communication is a vital part of many aspects of modern life. When a patient's health and well-being—and maybe even survival—is on the line, effective communication can be the key to a succe...
Back in 2016, a survey found that just 4% of Americans were able to correctly define all four terms that determined how much they would have to pay for medical services and drugs under their health in...
As the impact of the pandemic is still very much affecting everybody throughout the globe, it has generated profound disruption across the digital health sector. Although COVID-19 has created change i...
Innovation is the ability to see change through an opportunity. It's the true driving force that sits behind the medical device industry, and it's what saves more and more lives each and every year. M...
Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment, more commonly known as ECOA, revolves around the procedure of capturing data electronically in clinical trials, as opposed to on paper. Many state that eCOA is ...
In today's world, consumers have a constant expectation to receive things instantly. Whether this is through Prime on Amazon, or free next-day delivery from the billion stores on the web - digital tec...
Throughout the numerous lockdowns that the COVID-19 crisis induced upon us all, remote personal interaction became the new normal. It's what reduced potential exposure for everyone around the world, b...
Medical devices are a vital healthcare innovation. They exist to monitor, replace, or modify anatomy or physiological processes, and improve patient outcomes throughout the means. However, if not adeq...
In the third and final webinar of the series with Ronald Boumans, senior consultant for regulatory affairs at Emergo by UL we learned on the importance of Summary of Safety and Clinical Performance (S...
If you are anything like us, you’ve experienced steady changes with the continuously evolving MDR requirements. In 2020, the new European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) was rolled out. These guidelin...
European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) is continuously evolving, making it difficult to keep up with all of its requirements. It is important to understand these guidelines to ensure that your medic...
It has now been a year since the European Union’s new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) enforcement. It may seem like a long time ago, but there is still work to be done and regulations to understand so...
We are repeatedly told that communication is key, yet many businesses overlook a common communication barrier: language. Language barriers are challenging for everyone involved because they cause misu...
As we round the corner into 2021, the spotlight continues to be on health and healthcare. We know that a healthy diet, physical exercise, and routine check-ups can keep us in tip-top shape, but what i...
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a spotlight on the systemic inequalities and lack of access to health care for patients and members with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Across the care continuum you...
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits healthcare providers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. There are sp...
According to the U.S. Census, the 2018 midterm elections attracted the highest voter turnout in four decades—fifty-three percent of the citizen voting-age population. This represented a higher turnout...
Telehealth has proven to be an incredibly effective response to the stay-at-home orders incited by the COVID-19 pandemic. The telehealth services industry is expected to grow nearly 65% in 2020 as dem...
Happy Data Privacy Day! Do you know how your data is being used, and by whom? The systems we interact with and use every day can compromise sensitive data and leave us vulnerable to phishing schemes a...
Translating legal documents can be a challenging endeavor, especially for translators unfamiliar with the industry. Overcoming legal translation challenges requires a combination of creativity and acc...
Our digital world is changing multilingual communication and the way we localize for global markets. At this year’s LocWorld40 “Go Global, Be Global” conference in Estoril, Portugal we uncovered insig...
Healthcare accessibility is a challenge facing millions, and an issue ULG is dedicated to working to improve. At this year’s “Paving the Way to Healthcare Access” conference sponsored by UMass Memoria...
ULG achieved HITRUST CSF certification in 2019 as a means to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to protecting sensitive information and managing data risk. HITRUST is a non-profit authoritative body t...
Smart watches. Smart homes. Smart cars. Smart...pacemakers? The prime example of the Internet of Things (IoT): smart devices. They have permeated the global market in recent years and are steadily gro...
It’s nearly the one-year mark for the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we’re starting to see enforcement already. Most notably, of course, is the $57 million fine to Google for violations....
Consider that 41% of adults and 55% of teens are using voice search every day and voice searches make up 20% of all mobile searches on Google. These numbers are only going to increase as voice recogni...
Numbers are numbers, right? A zero is a zero in English the same way it is in Arabic or Mandarin. But what about everything surrounding the numbers in a financial document? What about financial contex...
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world’s leading quality control organization that sets standards related to manufacturing, product labeling, and safety. Many companies ...
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), 40% of digital transformation initiatives will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) services by 2019 and 75% of enterprise applications will use AI b...
For organizations undergoing an international merger & acquisition or considering one in the future, it is imperative that all parties involved understand the terms and conditions of the deal and ...
According to the Mayo Clinic, "hundreds of thousands of people" are injured by medication errors every year in the United States. Some of those errors are caused by doctors prescribing the wrong medic...
Manufacturing is an industry that is constantly changing in terms of the technology used, the industrial and consumer products created, and the countries where the factories are managed. A recent stud...
The European Union’s new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) will begin being enforced in 2020. It seems like a long way off, but it will be here sooner than we think. The regulation, which represents a s...
According to the Center for Disease Control, in the U.S. alone there are 990.8 million physicians’ visits and 267.1 million emergency room visits or hospital outpatient visits in a year. The patients ...
While HIPAA compliance might complicate your life, the goal of the regulation is really the same as yours: protecting patients. You’re looking out for their physical well-being, while HIPAA is safegua...
What makes quality healthcare? The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or HCAHPS, looks to answer that very question, and has been used since 2006 to gauge patients’ pers...
Published on May 11, 2018 In recent years, the European Union has introduced various measures to improve data security and protect citizens’ personal information. To this end, the EU Privacy Shield wa...
How good can Machine Translation (MT) be? Very good, according to Microsoft. Earlier this month, the tech company announced it had created an MT system that reached “human parity” in translating Chine...
Medical professionals are increasingly noting the correlation between patient health and health literacy. The more people are able to comprehend and understand about their healthcare, the more effecti...
With the GDPR deadline rapidly approaching, organizations are taking the final steps toward ensuring compliance for their data security systems. In Articles 33 and 34, the GDPR outlines the specific p...
Scientific and medical advances are often dependent on the results of research involving human subjects. This research requires significant ethical and safety considerations, and clinical trials invol...
On May 5, 2017, the European Commission released the new Europe (EU) Medical Device Regulations (MDR) in an effort to create a more unified and transparent system for medical devices. The MDR will bec...
May 11, 2018 To understand HITRUST, it’s best to temporarily forget everything you know about HIPAA regulations, compliance and audits. Why? Chances are you view HIPAA as a challenge or an obstacle, w...
May 11, 2018 With just a few months left until the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect, consumers should feel good about stricter rules for the handling and storage...
May 11, 2018 As companies expand their global reach, they encounter greater opportunities to interact with consumers from different countries, learn more about their clients’ interests, and adapt thei...
The New Year brings new resolutions, goals and strides toward self-improvement. In 2018, it also welcomed a new regulation into the financial world. The Packaged Retail and Insurance-Based Investment ...
In 2017, mobile apps were downloaded by users more than 197 billion times. Over the last few years, apps and mobile marketing have represented a large percentage of the marketing mix, with companies u...
Government agencies – specializing in anything from education to international diplomacy – often encounter many of the world’s 7,000 languages, making access to translation and interpreting services i...
With the resurgence of dangerous diseases such as whooping cough, malaria, and cholera, the need for clinical trials spanning the globe is stronger than ever. Diseases affect people differently depend...
The terms “hack” and “data breach” elicit a great amount of fear in today’s ever-connected world. Hackers are a tremendous threat to any large corporation, something that major companies like Equifax ...
The final versions of the European Union’s new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR) were published in May of 2017, representing major changes to the EU’s medical d...
The misuse of prescribed medication can lead to serious health problems. Policy makers in the United States are working to implement legislation that will help put an end to the ongoing opioid crisis,...
Executives are busy. It's difficult for them to devote time to new training. And taking an eLearning course may require them to use new technology, adding to the perception that it will be especially ...
So, you’ve identified a need for language services. Maybe you’ve got a big interpreting project that needs to be done, or an assignment that requires hundreds of pages of Mandarin to be translated int...
Having trouble learning another language? A glass of beer might help. That’s according to a study published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. It found that those who had consumed alcohol...
Editor’s Note: Claudio Federico is ULG’s Managing Director of OPI Services and has worked in the interpreting industry for several years. Here he details some experiences he’s had in the industry with...
There’s a lot that goes into a successfully localized software application or website. After you’ve translated your source materials, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure your content will ...
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996. It's been the law of the land for 20 years, and even people who don't work in the healthcare industry are aware of ...
Imagine this…. In a typical translation process, the client sends the content to be translated to the translation vendor. Then the translation vendor sends the data to the individual contractor doing ...
Open enrollment planning is more important than ever. With the global pandemic and systematic racism health equity is being considered for every strategy - including OE and Annual Enrollment Period. H...
A visit to the dentist isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. In fact, dental checkups cause some people so much anxiety, it stops a number of them from obtaining care. A 2012 study found that UK resid...
New research indicates there is yet another reason to learn a second language. A study published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition suggests children who grew up bilingual have an easier time lea...
On Saturday, Sept. 30, translators from all over the world will have reason to celebrate. The date marks International Translation Day, which gained official recognition from the United Nations in May...
The translation industry is seeing a boom in Machine Translation (MT), both in use and technology. As these MT technology uses and applications evolve, a standardized MT scoring method is desperately ...
Despite its size, the language industry is most likely not well known to those who aren’t directly involved in the field. Niche terms like LSP (Language Service Provider) or “Post Editing,” probably d...
Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) has risen in popularity as the technology becomes more readily available in the courtroom, hospitals and during international conferences. According to a recent reader ...
Here at United Language Group, we often emphasize the importance of language translation and interpreting in the medical field. For us, there’s a clear-cut rationale behind language access in healthca...
The past week has been tragic for residents of Houston and the surrounding area as they look for relief in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Meanwhile, in India, monsoon rainfall has ravaged the country a...
There are more than 3.5 billion internet users in the world, and roughly 1.2 billion websites live on the internet. In 1994, there were less than 5,000 websites up and running. When that number reache...
In many ways, the translation process is like a large, complex game of telephone. You have linguists, project managers, clients and designers all trying to effectively communicate with one another to ...
Technical translations might not be thought of as the most glamorous localization projects – IFUs, data sheets, and user manuals aren’t many people’s idea of “exciting.” But they’re important, and no ...
WHAT IS A TRANSLATION GLOSSARY? A translation glossary is an index of specific terminology with approved translations in all target languages that is used by a company and their clients. Glossaries ai...
Digitization has permanently changed many industries over the past decade, and restaurants are no exception. To keep up with technologically savvy consumers, many restaurants have started to offer dig...
A study shows that companies with localized apps saw 128% more downloads within just the first week of adding more languages. Global consumers want to use apps that are available in their native langu...
Machine Translation (MT) can be a daunting subject with its multiple training approaches and long list of terms. Those new to MT can easily get confused when words like Curated MT, bleu scores, corpus...
Inevitably, when a new real-time translation earpiece hits the market, media outlets gobble up the news, putting out article after article referring to the new device as the answer to breaking down la...
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) less than a year away, any company that does business in the EU will soon need to ensure that they’re following regulations on secure customer inform...
If you’re looking to promote your brand across the globe, creating compelling multilingual materials is just one side of the digital marketing coin. Successful international businesses effectively uti...
Over the years, Latin America has become a prime spot to conduct clinical trials. Countries within the region share several key features that give clinical researchers a lot of reasons to look to thes...
Let’s examine a hypothetical: You’re creating a global branding scheme for a new product. You need to create foreign language content in order for your materials to resonate in local markets. How do y...
Both writing and completing a Request for Proposal (RFP) can be a meticulous and time-consuming process. Regardless of the industry, ensuring you ask all the correct questions to find out as much as y...
Max Schrems nudged himself into the international spotlight in his early twenties. The Austrian law student and privacy activist was not yet 25 when he filed a complaint against Facebook, arguing that...
The translation industry has seen dramatic growth lately, and it’s only expected to get bigger. GALA predicts the market will be worth more than $40 billion by 2020, and at the rate global business is...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to translate materials as well as human experts in less than 20 years, according to a recent study that surveyed specialists in the AI field for their take on...
The Regulation on Medical Devices (MDR) and the Regulation on in-vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices (IVDR) went into effect in May of 2017, effectively replacing decades-old legislation and creating new...
Social media round-up for October 21, 2016 This week on the Common Sense Advisory blog, Arle Lommel asked us all if we could be missing business opportunities because we might be targeting in the wron...
Website localization has become a heated topic in Illinois government as of late. Recently, some lawmakers in the state had pushed for an amendment to HB 695, also known as the Legislative Information...
Healthcare is understandably one of the most regulated industries in the US today. A long list of laws and regulations ensure that language barriers don’t keep people from accessing healthcare. But st...
The fictionalized robot, Hal, made his debut in 2001: A Space Odyssey nearly 50 years ago. More than four decades later, it doesn’t seem like we’ve reached the level of super intelligence that was por...
Most people will walk into a popular chain restaurant and already know what’s on the menu. Restaurants stick to what works, usually focusing their menus on insanely popular, yet predictable meals for ...
May 02, 2017 United Language Group gained new insights into the needs of telehealth clients at this year’s American Telemedicine Association Telehealth 2.0 conference in Orlando, Florida. In particula...
There’s been a lot of talk about healthcare lately. With a new administration in the White House and “Obamacare” tenuously hanging in the balance, the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is uncert...
As with many industries affected by the technology boom, eDiscovery is predicted to grow in economic stature and complexity in 2017, creating both new obstacles and opportunities for legal teams. The ...
April is National Minority Health Month, and this year's theme is "Bridging Health Equity Across Communities." But right now, in too many communities, health outcomes are anything but equitable. Here,...
Recently, the European Union’s (EU) need for Irish interpreters has been thrown into the spotlight, as they struggle to find qualified candidates to fill those job vacancies. Although only spoken by a...
This post was published in April 2017. More and more, law firms are using multilingual eDiscovery tools to sift through foreign language documents in legal cases. Often times, legal teams need to exam...
Anyone who’s completed a major translation project knows that it can be a costly, time-consuming process. But those with experience in the language world also know there are ways to streamline workflo...
This article was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated. Machine Translation (MT) and its applications continue to gain traction as one of the hottest topics in the language industry,...
One of the most prevalent mistakes made by designers of international websites is the use of country flags to represent different languages within a site’s language selector. While flags are tempting ...
Domesticated animals were one of the first “technologies” humans employed for survival -taming, training, and breeding different species for different purposes. We domesticated horses to carry us long...
As clinical trials have emerged in the global marketplace, Pharmaceutical Organizations and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) need to be more cognizant of the challenges that can come with transl...
In the world of global marketing, localization is king. Through a well-planned and researched localization process, brands can travel all around the world. While many think of localization as a large-...
A foreign business trip is a daunting undertaking for anyone. The fear of not understanding workflow, customs, business etiquette, and communication styles can present seemingly insurmountable challen...
Spending hours, sometimes days, at a time fine tuning the phonetics, grammar, verb tense and vocabulary of an invented language probably isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. But for “conlangers,” thi...
An ambitious new language learning campaign has dedicated itself to the promotion of bilingualism in the United States in response to a growing need for multilingual speakers. Lead With Languages, a m...
Your website is designed perfectly! It’s got appealing colors, intuitive content layout, and quality content. But more than likely, your website is built for a single culture—your own. Will that same ...
Although we still have four months until the new year hits, 2018 will be here before we know it. And in less than 10 months, businesses around the globe will need to be compliant with the European Uni...
Translated content needs to be tailored to the target audience it’s meant to reach. And validation processes throughout a localization project ensure global materials are not only linguistically corre...
In a global economy built on competition and efficiency, it's imperative that you avoid the pitfalls of legal translation. Misused phrases, misplaced hyphens and poor syntax — mistakes as commonplace ...
Need to view the White House’s website in Spanish? No problem. A global Language Service Provider (LSP) has started a campaign to add Spanish language content to the site. The translation company has ...
Yahoo. eBay. Target. Sony. Home Depot. What do these companies have in common? They are among the many organizations that have been affected by a major data breach, resulting in millions of personal r...
Acronyms and abbreviations are one of the trickiest localization items to handle. While shortening words and phrases can make life easier when writing in your local language, translating acronyms can ...
What do all successful localization projects have in common? Proper planning. One way to start your project off correctly is by defining your expectations with the help of a “localization kit” or chec...
So, you want to learn another language? We can’t blame you. There are so many benefits to becoming bilingual (or trilingual and beyond) that relate to the brain, personal development and business oppo...
A study published last week found that Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Latino patients are less likely to adhere to medication regimens for type 2 diabetes than white and English-speaking Latino pat...
Translation errors can be embarrassing – sometimes extremely so. Coke once learned this the hard way when an advertisement on its vending machine inadvertently said "Hello, Death" in Maori. Lucky for ...
Sorting through documents in a legal case is a task in itself. Finding relevant materials for trial can mean sifting through thousands of pages of records in order to find documents that are pertinent...
Learning a language is a fun and easy way to exercise your brain. Whether you’re retired, curious, or just want to practice your existing skills, it’s never been an easier endeavor to undertake than i...
In the medical device industry, regulation is a big deal. Proper training for internal operations staff, and consumer and professional end users, needs to be done effectively in order to ensure patien...
Electronic Labeling (e-labeling) has the potential to be hugely beneficial to medical device companies creating Instructions For Use (IFU), labels and packaging information. But at the same time, the ...
In 1980 Willie Ramirez was taken to a Florida hospital in a coma. His family members explained to doctors that the 18-year-old was “intoxicado,” in Spanish, meaning poisoned. An interpreter misunderst...
When English speakers learn to read and write, we’re taught words and letters flow from left-to-right. That’s because we’ve learned a language and an alphabet based on Latin languages (e.g. English, F...
A new study suggests using English as the “lingua franca” in the scientific community has severely impeded the transmission of ideas. A paper published last week in the journal PLOS Biology argues tha...
It will be a highly competitive year at the 89th Academy Awards across many of the top prizes, including the award for best foreign language film. There are 85 submissions from all around the world, a...
A faulty translation can lead to embarrassing, and sometimes dire, consequences. Companies are at risk of suffering severe damage to their reputations when global content is translated incorrectly, an...
Undoubtedly, the digital age has fundamentally changed how people both buy and sell. To counteract these radical shifts, a business’s global marketing strategy has to quickly adapt to these changes. A...
Technology is beginning to keep pace with globalization to help us connect like never before. Whether you’re traveling abroad, living in a multicultural area where your primary language isn’t spoken o...
Although the United Kingdom voted itself out of the European Union in June of 2016, it’s still unclear what the effects of Brexit will be in Britain, the EU as well as the rest of the world. And that ...
There’s a lot to learn in the translation industry. Keeping up with technological trends, regulations and industry standards can be a daunting task, especially if you’re new to the business. Add to th...
In this day and age, there aren’t many excuses for companies that don’t tap into foreign markets. The Internet has made global marketing more of a necessity than an option for business. With over 3 bi...
Have the machines taken over yet? These days, sometimes it sure feels like it. And Google’s announcement last week that the company has devised a new machine translation method that’s purportedly almo...
Translators are connectors. They connect people, places and ideas with their ability to speak more than one language. They’re not only bi- or multi-lingual, but they’re also experts on the culture tha...
Silverware or cutlery? Highway or motorway? Sidewalk or pavement? If you’ve ever been an American in the United Kingdom or a Briton traveling in the United States, chances are you’ve had to learn each...
Canadian Hiring The debate over whether machines will replace humans in the translation industry has again come up in the news – this time the controversy surrounds a new vetting system for hiring fre...
This article was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated. The process of one person translating from one language into another, especially when it involves corporate and legal docu...
This article was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated. Technology continues to improve, making many tasks easier and more efficient. This is especially true in the world of tran...
It seems like every time I read the Wall Street Journal, I see those four dirty words that make global corporations cringe: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). According to The FCPA Blog, 87 compani...
By Maurizio Suppo, Principal Consultant, Qarad Good old days will be gone forever – the new EU MD and IVD regulations are coming fast! The European regulatory framework for MDs and IVDs has been drive...
Operating in 72 countries and territories with more than 20,000 locations, Starbucks has unprecedented global brand recognition. The white cup with the green logo and brown sleeve is on the forefront ...
As the international language of business, science, and academia, English is the most studied language in the world. There are 1.5 billion English language learners and 527 million native English spea...
According to Altman Weil's 2015 Chief Legal Officer Survey, law department leaders are taking an increasingly strategic approach to rein in costs. The 2015 survey found that 40% of law departments pla...
After recent updates, Google Translate now includes more than 100 languages, including Hawaiian and Kurdish. According to Google, this means the online translation tool, which is about to celebrate it...
