Educational Sessions

10:15-11:45am
Medical Interpreters as Advocates
Holly Mikkelson, Cynthia Roat, Jane Kontrimas, Karin Ruschke, Shiva Bidar-Sielaff

1:45-3:15pm
End of Life and the Rise of Palliative Medicine:
Issues and Terminology
Rafael Rivera, MD, FACP

3:30-5:00pm
Understanding the Power of a Medical Interpreter
Zarita Araújo-Lane and Vonessa A. Phillips

Coordinated by ATA's Medical Division.

6:00-7:30pm
Language and Healthcare in Crisis

A national forum will be held to discuss the life and death issues surrounding medical translation and interpreting.

A panel of experts in language, medicine, legislation, and public policy will address the cost in lives and injuries from the nation's chronic shortage of interpreters and the use of unqualified interpreters (including patients' children and other family members forced into service as impromptu "interpreters") and the legal struggle at the state and federal levels over funding and support for language services in healthcare.

Federal Executive Order 13166 mandating foreign language support for patients will be reviewed, as well as state legislative initiatives and efforts toward interpreter certification, standards, and qualifications.

Sponsored by the American Translators Association and the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. Coordinated by the ATA Public Relations Committee.

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