Think Different Do Different DO IT
Via Randolph Fritz, a very interesting article about how extensive the pharmaceuticals ghostwriting industry is:
The plan
I used to think that political scientists were lucky, in that no-one cared enough about what we had to say to try to suborn our reputations via dubious endorsements. And then I read about the Gadaffi and political science scandal …
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Willpower is everything but you can improve it: go to a nutrition doctor to have your diet adapted to your needs, get a personal trainer to care for your needs. The best is to have a friend doing the same thing with you, this way your willpower will rock!
Does your National Agency for Medicines not control Pharmacovigilance? Are people not aware that they should report any adverse effects not listed in the medication leaflet to their doctors or pharmacists, which, in turn report them to the National agency?
This is the way it works in my country and in all EU – I am part of that network and have already reported three different situations; one report and the medicines is recalled from the EU market for further testing.
It is very real and makes me have a trip to the hospital. One of my children is allergic to peanuts, I discovered that one Christmas after she was born, she was going to be one year old and I saw her eating a peanut and get very red, not being able to breath and with a big skin rash. I rushed to the hospital and I was so lucky I had seen what the allergen was, otherwise she probably would not be alive. Through the years, I always paid special attention when we had meals out and I made her very conscious of her allergy and always ask about peanuts in the food. Fortunately, I only went to the hospital two more times after that first one, for the same reason.
In Portugal, other than asking your pharmacist, is calling the National Agency for Medicines or the Pharma company directly, they will give all the information.
Everybody snores if sleeping on their backs, it is human anatomy. Some people snore more than others do and in any sleep position because they night have sleep apnea.
One good product is the Breathe Right nasal strips that last one night; it does reduce snoring although nothing can be done if the person has sleep apnea.
Both; if you are an appreciator of wine and are drinking it for the pleasure of it, not just to drink, with the right glasses, then it is excellent conversation with excellent wine.
Wine is to be appreciated, I do not drink so-so wine, it is not worth it. Please don’t think that excellent wine means expensive wine because it cannot be further away from the truth.
If you are willing to openly share with group and go out of your way to help others, you are a good candidate.
If you are willing to listen to advice, work with peers, and try new things, you are a good candidate.
If you are not sure you already know it all, you are a good candidate.
We choose this way our BNI chapter fellow members.
I don’t have impossible dreams. As I have often said in this forum my father taught me that “nothing is impossible, everything is possible, everything is difficult” – if you try hard and believe in your dream it will come through. My dreams, so far, seemed impossible, but I made them all possible because I wanted and I was ready to face all the “impossibles” with hard work, tenacity, and ability to be punched by many people and many things that strove to make it “impossible”.
I would say like Lisa, it becomes addictive, especially the Q&A – I started answering questions because I had insomnia and later I realized I liked it, it is my relaxing moment of the day. I log in twice or three times per day, answer my messages, look at questions and group discussions – that takes me about 15 minutes twice and a longer period at night, never more than one hour.
I don’t rely so much on these tools, it would be a pity if I lost my LinkedIn connections because so many are already friends too, but I have a great offline network too, family and friends, so I think I would survive.
“I came here to drink myself to death.” - Ben Sanderson (Nicholas Cage) in “Leaving Las Vegas”(1995)
I don’t know about the companies, I think the parents should be the first ones to tell children they will not do their job for them, it is supposed to make children know the value of work and money, now how can they learn it if they have their parents doing their job?
No, it does not and although I am a big fan of QR codes, I fail to see the point when applied to my church?
I have not experienced what you described but this week I was astounded with one of my BNI chapter fellow member. We are not supposed to be absent from any of our weekly meetings, if we do not go for more than 3 times we can be expelled. That is the principle. However, we can have a substitute for those occasions when we simply cannot make it, and I mean situations of real illness and not that many more.
There is this guy, that seems to be above this rule; in the period of two and half months, since I joined this chapter, he was present in maybe 3 meetings; all the others he either was absent or was absent and sent a substitute, to the point of being the substitute making the 10 minute presentation of his business, something that I cannot understand at all.
Last meeting he went, and as it was the first day without visitors, we were a bit less formal and decided to randomly do each other’s elevator pitch. The point was to test how well we knew each other’s business, as that is determinant for the BNI concept.
He had to make the elevator speech of another translator woman there. He knows her for quite a while, that was not the problem, but he started the speech asking us all if we knew what translations were? I had to say that I did. He insisted with the same question, I insisted with the same answer, and we proceeded until someone else spoke my elevator pitch. I told that person to pay attention. I am a technical translator.
It seems it was awkward for me to say that, but I was extremely disappointed – that person did not know me after two and half months sharing the same chapter with 20 people.
This, kind of works, as “the Mother of all Breakdowns” – if he does not know, what am I doing there, or what is he doing there. I am still thinking about it.
[[posterous-content:pid___0]]
Easy to say, not so obvious to do. My country need to export products; without that we can never get out of the economical crisis.
I do look for tags and prefer Portuguese products, but they also need to be within my budget…
Nowadays, the vast majority of my “buying” is supermarket and there yes, I look for Portuguese made. Even if I try to buy something else made in Portugal, I will have great difficulty finding something entirely made in Portugal, global means it may have been “assembled” I Portugal, not made.
I wish there were more things we could say are “made in Portugal”.
I believe in continuous training, I am always updating for more innovation and technologies. I never treat clients in the same way, each is unique and I can go out of my way to source new ideas and approaches to deliver an ongoing quality service and products. BTW, I learn so much right here in Q&A.
No fear in my case; I prize my privacy as if it was gold. I have a very active life, I meet many people daily, but my private life is nobody’s concern but mine and of those, I chose to share it with. There were times when I could not have my privacy as I wanted it to be and I remember enough to know I did not like it. It is not the internet that takes my privacy away, it never did; do you know the kind of people that thrive living other people’s lives? I want those ones far from me.
Permanent as synonym of secure job is disappearing. There are too many unemployed people ready to work for peanuts, despite having skills and qualifications to earn a decent salary. I agree with Joost F. Boers – “ people need to be more entrepreneurial”; it is happening more and more in Portugal and many other EU countries, we need to go entrepreneurial to make ends meet.
If you mean the work in a company, it belongs to the company, most times docs need to be signed by the boss, but then you are hired to do that job, not to sign it. If you mean creative work that can be a bit different but generally it is also stated in the contract that all you do as long as working for that company belongs to the company. I worked in a multinational where young engineers did all the work and supervisors took the credit, but then it worked as Kenneth Larson said “Recognition takes many forms - some quite subtle - look for them”.
I would promote the usage of a great US technology that seems to be a hit in Europe, the 4G. Ironically, I have asked about this in many of my groups and US people don’t know about it. It is designed to measure with great and astounding efficacy why two teams in the same organization, doing the same work have complete different results, to the point that team A is an all time winner and team B is a total failure. Why should it be so? 4G has the perfect answer.
I always make someone responsible for a specific process or action – it is team work and teams do not work if, when mistakes happen, “nobody knows!”. This way I check if everything is running smooth, and if there is a mistake the team meets and there is no chance of “nobody knows”. I do this ever since I started working, and it has always proved to be a good “approach”. I have often seen that doing this is also good for the team spirit, people trust each other’s work, and understand that they all need to be responsible to make a good work, as a team and individually.
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Medical device growth is outpacing pharma industry. Europe accounts for about 30% of world revenues for medical equipment, the regulations for translation of medical devices in the EU affect a large portion of global device distribution; there are challenges in translation and communicating science in a multilingual world dominated by the de facto language of English. The EU alone has 23 mother tongues.
Since more and more clinical research and drug manufacturing are being done in multiple countries and in multiple languages, quality language services can help bring a drug to market faster, and can help streamline the clinical trial process. Translation may be required at many stages, including clinical research, regulatory submission and review, production and marketing. Moreover, expansion of the EU block into new member countries is also driving increased demand for medical and pharmaceutical translation services.Technical translation is an art and a scientific process. Not understanding the crucial role of a technical translator is running blind in terms of competitive advantage; this person will be the ultimate responsible for the company’s bottom line – without a proper translation, no drug or medical device will have Marketing authorization.If you do not understand, you cannot translate.
“The hallmark of a good scientific translator is intellectual honesty and a sixth sense to realize that something is amiss.”(Henry Fischbach)
Knowing a foreign language alone is simply not enough. The plain truth of technical translation is that if the translator does not understand the original text, Gordon Gekko’s “there ought to be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence kid” (*) does not apply.
Index: Directive 2001/83/EC (**); Costs; Metric Conversions, Diacritical Marks;Patent Effect; Cross-Cultural Communication
Directive 2001/83/EC (Guideline on the readabilityof the labeling and package leaflet of medicinal products for human use)
Article 5 -requires that the particulars to be included in the labeling shall be easily legible, clearly comprehensible, and indelible
Article 59(3)- provides that the package leaflet shall reflect the results of consultations with target patient groups to ensure that it is legible, clear, and easy to use
Article 63(2) - requires that the package leaflet must be written and designed to be clear and understandable, enabling the users to act appropriately, when necessary with the help of health professionals. The package leaflet must be clearly legible in the official language or languages of the Member State(s) in which the medicinal product is placed on the market.
Each country has specific legislation about the legibility of product information with particular relevance to the correct translation of all foreign terms, including data resulting from clinical trials. Some countries allow for a second “helping” language exception, under special circumstances.
Costs
Developing a new medicine is a costly and long process. A faulty translation can result in market delay or lead to product recalls. Inaccurate translation of medical devices means they will not get in the market, or are defective and must be withdrawn.
The associated costs are too huge to portray. The Portuguese national agency for medicines, INFARMED, sends an average of four daily mandatory recalls to the pharmacies; 60% of those recalls come from inaccuracies due to bad translations affecting the leaflet and/or package labeling.Metric conversions, Diacritical marksIt is especially important that any software used in the translation process supports internationalization functions.Any drug leaflet or medical device needs translation into the local language including special characters and metric conversions. TheSI(“Système international d'unités”) is the world's most widely used system of measurement and any good translator needs to know how to convert units of measurement, especially because English speaking countries still use thesystem of Imperial units that is not accepted or understood in other countries.NASA wrote specifications for a launch vehicle in metric units but the subcontractor implemented them in Imperial units. When they tried to launch the vehicle, it exploded.Diacritical marks, such as the acute (´) and grave (`) are often called accents.The correct usage of diacritics can be difficult at first for people who are only familiar with English spelling, but they are essential because the same word may have three different meanings, such as Portuguese “a” (the); “á” (at (hours)); “à” (to(place)).Addresses and telephone numbers have different “readings” in different countries; in The Netherlands, a valid postal code includes four numbers followed by a space and two letters (e.g., “2714 GE”). Many software applications would reject such an entry as invalid, and thus make the address field unusable in that country.Patent Effect
The majority of medical devices have new patents and oftentimes the instruments have bizarre names that have no clear connection with the device.
Cross-Cultural Communication
Good translation is all part of successful cross-cultural communication. Idiomatic phrases are a particular problem, as they differ dramatically between cultures.
The word ‘protocol’ has different meanings in different languages, to the extent that the committee preparing the ISO 14155 standard had to use the term ‘Clinical Investigational Plan’ instead, to facilitate translation to many languages.
It takes two to Tango – cost cutting and underrating the work of a good technical translator is just as saying “We’re on a road to nowhere, come on inside, Takin' that ride to nowhere ,we'll take that ride.” (**)
(*)Wall Street - American drama film
(**)Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community Code Relating To Medicinal Products for Human Use, amended by Directive 2002/98/EC, Directive 2004/24/E and Directive 2004/27/EC.
(***)Talking Heads – “Road to Nowhere”
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| 1 Comments |
 | cgtradmed 02/16/2012 12:37:24 PM EST Thank you, Ms. Falçao! It's a real pleasure to see that the role of medical translators is recognized, at last! I've been specializing in medical (clinical medicine) and pharmaceutical translation for 30 years, and I can say without the slightest hesitation that without us, the medical translators, the huge advances in pharma would have been impossible to make. Medical translators not only allow drug/device manufacturers to get marketing authorizations, but they also allow scientists, researchers and physicians to share their ideas and findings. Medical translators must have a deep knowledge of languages and an equally deep knowledge of Medicine. It's a crucial prerequisite for high quality medical translation. Catherine Guilliaumet - Medical Translator EN, ES, PT>FR. cgtradmed@free.fr |
I have been introducing the book “Business Networking and Sex” by Dr. Ivan Misner, co-authored by Hazel Walker and Frank De Raffeleamong my LinkedIn connections with great success, thank you for such a delightful insight on networking I love it! I will certainly leave a review for it at Amazon.com and will try to join the conversation on Facebook!
Well, I am pleased to say that I have been spreading the word about BNI on LinkedIn. Many people do not know BNI and I am talking about it, about the Givers’ Gain philosophy, and I am glad to say that I have already directed four persons in Israel, US, UK to their nearest chapters. I answer many questions in the LinkedIn Q&A, and lately I have had the chance to talk about BNI. Some people can hardly believe they do not have to pay for referrals at all! I can see why, because I am invited, everyday, to join international Referral Networks, where one pays for the referral. In 2012 International Networking Week, I am connecting people, as usual, and connecting them to BNI too. I belong to a Lisbon (Portugal) chapter, BNI Líder.
Yes I do, trough my BNI network. The concept is the Givers Gain philosophy, the more referrals you give to generate business to your fellow chapter members the more you gain.
I have given dozens of referrals, personal ones and received many too; that is why I joined BNI, you do not pay for referrals and you do not have a commission on a business deal that came trough because of a referral you gave. People are always looking to help others first and because everyone does that, everyone is a winner.
The simple fact that you are on a website for networking, a UGC (User Generated Content) website, makes you, I, and all of us self-promoters. The boundaries to self-promotion are for each one to decide; if it affects or not our online reputation is something I suppose we are all old enough to realize and manage the way each of us wants. I think the idea behind social/professional network is also to make business and how are you going to do that without some kind of self-promotion? When you advertize your products/services anywhere or by talking to people what are you doing if not self-promotion? Does self-promotion only exist online and specifically on LinkedIn?
I have no plans for Valentine’s Day by my express wish – I never liked special days to show love affection or to have fun (Carnival). I am sadly convinced it is no more than a way to sell some horrid little gifts (sorry but what I see in the store’s windows frightens anyone) for which I have no use and I can hardly believe in love letters or words that are given on this specific day.
Anyway, to reciprocate your lovely video here is a poem, for those that love reading and poetry, by a known Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. It is works of art please don’t use machine translation or you will lose the beauty of love in its utmost simplicity. And be aware of Brazilian translation too. There is a song too.
“Por quem foi que me trocaram
Quando estava a olhar pra ti?
Pousa a tua mão na minha
E, sem me olhares, sorri.
Sorri do teu pensamento
Porque eu só quero pensar
Que é de mim que ele está feito
É que tens para mo dar.
Depois aperta-me a mão
E vira os olhos a mim...
Por quem foi que me trocaram
Quando estás a olhar-me assim?”
Fernando Pessoa
"Dois e Dois são Quatro" Como dois e dois são quatro
Sei que a vida vale a pena
Embora o pão seja caro
E a liberdade pequena
Como teus olhos são claros
E a tua pele, morena
como é azul o oceano
E a lagoa, serena Como um tempo de alegria
Por trás do terror me acena
E a noite carrega o dia
No seu colo de açucena - sei que dois e dois são quatro
sei que a vida vale a pena
mesmo que o pão seja caro
e a liberdade pequena.
Matemática
Ferreira Gullar
“Por quem foi que me trocaram
Quando estava a olhar pra ti?
Pousa a tua mão na minha
E, sem me olhares, sorri.
Sorri do teu pensamento
Porque eu só quero pensar
Que é de mim que ele está feito
É que tens para mo dar.
Depois aperta-me a mão
E vira os olhos a mim...
Por quem foi que me trocaram
Quando estás a olhar-me assim?”
Fernando Pessoa
If you look well you see that they are identical – critical thinking must be creative and creative thinking must be critical, so both are important.
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