Laura C. Collada Ali

She is a Medical Writer and Translator with extensive experience in delivering multilingual authoring and translation services for leading research organisations, pharmaceutical companies and government groups. She served as Public Relations Officer from 2013 to 2015 for EMWA and is now leading the Translation Section of the Journal.

Contributions

Medical writing in Italy in 2024: Results of the first Italian business and compensation survey - Volume 33, Issue 3

In Italy, little is known about the roles, activities, and compensation of medical writers and scientific communicators. A survey, tailored to local aspects and regulations, was conducted to capture a contemporary snapshot of the medical writing…

Post-market clinical follow-up insights - Volume 31, Issue 2

The EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) brought about new post-market clinical follow-up (PMCF) requirements for medical devices. Whereas complaint monitoring and literature searches were often sufficient under the Medical Devices Directives (MDD),…

In the Bookstores - Volume 31, Issue 1

As the authors of this book, Koen Cobbaert and Gert Bos, state “software joins the dots, by connecting patients with healthcare professionals and breaking down the boundaries between everyday objects, medical devices, and medicine.” As a medical…

Medical Devices - Volume 29, Issue 4

The Medical Devices Regulation (MDR 2017/745) has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and will now take effect on May 26, 2021.1 Some manufacturers may regard this as a slight breather, but there are still enough obstacles to overcome.…

New documents required by the medical device regulation - Volume 29, Issue 3

This article introduces four documents associated with the new Medical Device Regulation 2017/745: the clinical evaluation plan, post-market clinical follow-up (PMCF) plan and PMCF evaluation report, and the summary of safety and clinical…

When less is more: Medical writers as guardians of curated content - Volume 28, Issue 3

In this data-driven era, the type and format of publicly available medical and scientific information is significantly changing. Medical writers can serve as guardians of the information entering the public domain by ensuring accuracy and…

Gained in Translation - Volume 28, Issue 1

I think going from actual medical writing to translation or vice versa is not a one-way street but an avenue. On a personal level, I think that translating goes hand in hand with being bilingual, or trilingual as I am now with Spanish, English, and…

Medical writing and medical translation – two crossing paths - Volume 28, Issue 1

Transitioning from medical writing into medical translation and vice versa is one of the many opportunities professional writers and translators may encounter in their career path. In this article, we present two personal experiences in doing so. We…

Revision: Parameters and practices within the translation industry - Volume 27, Issue 3

In this article we look at what it means to revise a translation, the parameters that should be taken into account, and the various challenges posed by the process. We also explore how the quality of a translation affects the revision stage, and…

Gained in Translation - Volume 26, Issue 2

Medical translation training around Europe It’s been said a thousand times, yet, many are still not fully aware of the importance that translation has in our daily lives. Rather than merely supplanting one form of words with another, the translator…

Gained in Translation - Volume 25, Issue 3

Welcome to the Translation Section editorial! The Italian word Itangliano means Italian that is very much influenced by the English language and most of all it refers to the great presence of English words that are not adapted into Italian.…

Gained in Translation - Volume 25, Issue 2

Editorial We may pose many questions about translation, but the most frequent in the specific literature is “why translation matters?” In my opinion, however, the question should be rephrased as, “For whom is translation important?” The answer…

Gained in Translation - Volume 25, Issue 1

Editorial Who is qualified to author a medical translation? This is one of those topics that we often read about on professional translation forums and discussion groups. It is, indeed, a never ending discussion.

Gained in Translation - Volume 24, Issue 4

Editorial Welcome to the Translation Section editorial! What we call ‘lay-friendliness’ is a key characteristic of Patient Information Sheets (PIS), which are tightly regulated on a European level to guarantee a comprehensible document that…

Profile: An interview with Dawn Bentley: How personal branding can advance your professional career! - Volume 24, Issue 3

According to Wikipedia, coaching is ‘training or development in which a person called ‘coach’ supports a learner in achieving a specific personal or professional goal’.1 While on the other side, ‘personal branding’ is defined as ‘people and their…

Gained in Translation - Volume 24, Issue 2

We often write articles to satisfy two states of mind: pleasure and curiosity. In my case, this means the curiosity to delve into some of the intricacies of translation on the one hand, and, on the other, the desire to work together with colleagues…

Lingua Franca and Beyond - Volume 24, Issue 2

It is my real pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of Lingua Franca and Beyond, a regular feature of Medical Writing for non-native English speaking medical writers. As soon as I'd written those words, I realised that this section should not…

Profile: An interview with Ingrid Edsman on why attending EMWA conferences is so rewarding! - Volume 24, Issue 2

Ingrid Edsman, with 17 years of increasingly senior clinical research positions in the Pharmaceutical Industry, is an expert in the preparation of regulatory and clinical documents. She obtained a Medical Degree at the Karolinska Institute in…

Profile: An interview with Art Gertel on the Budapest Working Group - Volume 24, Issue 1

Art Gertel (AG), with nearly 40 years of increasingly senior management level positions in the pharmaceutical industry, is an expert in the preparation of large, complex corporate and regulatory documents and is thoroughly familiar with relevant US,…

Profile: An interview with Esther Moreno Barriuso: On some fundamental concerns of medical interpreting - Volume 23, Issue 4

Interpreting has had a fundamental role in the history of medical knowledge – it calls directly on such concepts as cultural displacement, originality, and orality.

Profile: An interview with Fernando Navarro on the brand new platform ‘Cosnautas’ - Volume 23, Issue 3

Some people may still not be aware of the big news last summer in the Spanish medical translation and writing world: Fernando Navarro's Libro Rojo (translated as ‘Red Book’, one of the most authoritative English to Spanish dictionaries of medicine)…

EMWA social media team - Volume 23, Issue 3

As most of you already know, EMWA is currently using social media to interact with its members on a daily basis, to share information and promote discussions. Social media are not just sources of information but also ways of interacting with…

Profile: An interview with Laura McMahon on the role of clinical research coordinators in Italy - Volume 23, Issue 2

Clinical research coordinators (CRCs) – a CRC is not a clinical research associate but one is frequently mistaken for the other – have a fundamental role in clinical research. Their work involves a wide range of activities and responsibilities in…

Profile: An interview with Karina Ruth Tabacinic on some fundamental concerns of medical translation - Volume 23, Issue 1

Medical translation has had a fundamental role in the history of scientific knowledge – ancient, past, and modern. It involves a larger array of working parts than is commonly brought to bear upon the study of other semantic activities. It calls…

Software for translators - Volume 23, Issue 1

In recent years, a myriad of software has revolutionised the translation sector. This article presents a series of translation tools commonly used in the translation industry, depicting their main features and the way they have transformed the…

EMWA social media team - Volume 23, Issue 1

Social media are instruments of two-way communication. Social media are not just sources of information but also ways of interacting. EMWA is currently using social media to interact with its members on a daily basis, to promote discussions, and…

Profile: An interview with Dr Gustavo A. Silva on the concept of public health in medical writing and translation - Volume 22, Issue 4

We often tend to consider the different branches of medical translation as unique islands of knowledge. We may imagine translators specialising in single areas such as oncology, ophthalmology, gynaecology, and so on. Nevertheless, there are indeed…

Profile: An interview with Blanca Mayor Serrano on the state-of-the-art of health literacy in Spain - Volume 22, Issue 3

There seems to be a move towards ‘patient-centred’ health care as part of an overall effort to improve the quality of health care and to reduce costs. Individual patients and providers have to work together to ensure effective communication.…

In the Bookstores - Volume 22, Issue 2

While other guides focus on how to write scientific papers, What Editors Want advises on preparing them for publication. Its authors, Philippa Benson and Susan Silver, identify their target readers as writers, senior researchers, and teachers of…

Your professional association: A great way to expand your skills and advance your career - Volume 22, Issue 1

Many medical writers and translators are not members of professional associations. While online networking is clearly accepted as a key element for success in business, the benefits of joining associations are still not obvious to all, even though…