SCPS Hosts Seminar on Medical Interpreting

The Department of Foreign Languages, Translation, and Interpreting in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies co-sponsored an all-day medical interpreting seminar, entitled “Language Access for All: Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Practice,” on Oct. 19 in the School of Law’s Lipton Hall.

The seminar brought together some 100 health professionals, language service providers, and trainers, as well as civil rights and immigration activists from more than 45 institutions as far away as Arizona to listen to and network with leaders in the field of medical translation and interpretation. The event closed with a town hall meeting and discussion with legislative policymakers, hospital representatives, and language access providers.

The seminar was co-sponsored by Pacific Interpreters, a Portland, OR-based company which is one of the largest providers of telephonic medical interpreting services nationwide, and New York-Presbyterian, the University Hospital of Columbia, and Cornell universities. This is the second installment of the event, which is intended to assist health care institutions in setting up and running their offices of language services, as required per NYS regulations as of September 2006.