Whitepapers

	From High School to St.Peterburg (November 2011) As the value of eastern European business has increased over the past years, so has the importance of Russian business, language, and culture skills. There is a great demand from both business and government for excellent communication with Russia or Russian speaking countries. That requires experts on these subjects. But these experts don’t grow on trees, and the interest in Russian or the culture has drastically decreased since the fall of the Soviet Union. Through government sponsored programs this trend is meant to be reversed by getting the youth involved and training the potential future experts for both business and government collaboration.
	The Ukrainian Language Policy (October 2011) Russian and Ukrainian history has always been tightly interlinked. This is reflected in the languages spoken in today’s Ukraine, with almost half of the population speaking Russian. The strong neighbor Russia has had a strong influence on the people and culture, throughout history, very often forcibly integrating the Ukraine into its territory. Today, a strong movement has developed in the anti-Russian Ukrainian government, which seeks to reinstate the Ukrainian language as the only official language in the country and slowly push the importance that Russian plays in the daily life of the Ukrainian people back. But this political push is experiencing fierce opposition, not only from politicians, but also from the Ukrainians themselves.
	Learning to Speak Iowan (October 2011) Until recently the issue in many U.S. cities has been addressing language and cultural barriers between American doctors and immigrant patient populations. With greater numbers of foreign doctors being encouraged to work in rural America, new communication barriers have arisen. The cultural gap between foreign doctors and the communities that they are asked to serve is further widened by the fact that both parties are unfamiliar with each other’s culture. As a solution, some rural hospitals are making it mandatory for foreign physicians to complete cultural adaptation and training programs.
	Russian Language in the Post-Soviet Space (March 2011) In the two decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union and advent of non-Russian successor states, the issue of Russian language and Russian-speaking minorities living abroad has followed a complex trajectory, encapsulating social, cultural, and political dimensions. The diffusion of Russian language is a result of complex historical events including the preference of Russian as the language of governance under the USSR, and the long-standing Soviet relocation program to move ethnic Russians to the outskirts of the empire to build infrastructure, manage local bureaucracies, and educate native populations. As a result, when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, 25 million Russian speakers suddenly found themselves living outside of the Russian Federation in foreign countries.
	Germany’s Biotech Industry Going Strong (November 2010) Germany is now one of the leading nations, after only the US, in biotech research and manufacturing, and the leading nation in Europe. Research in the field of medical biotech includes microsystems technology, information and communication technology, nanotechnology, molecular and cell biology, regeneration technology and pharmaceuticals.
	Biotech in France: An Update (November 2010) The French biotech industry is ranked third in Europe after the UK and Germany, and has become a major player in the European biotechnology sector over the last two decades. France has a diversified industrial base. There are about 400 biotechnology businesses in the country, employing around 6000 people. French biotech companies, such as Bio-Alliance, Nicox and ExonHit are at the front-line of research in the field.
	Prescription Labeling and Language Barriers (July 2009 ) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 50 million Americans speak a primary language other than English at home. Among those, 22.3 million have limited English proficiency (LEP). Over the past ten years, the number of LEP individuals in the United States has increased dramatically. Major cities such as New York are experiencing the greatest impact. With continued growth in LEP populations there is a greater need to overcome language barriers and maintain quality health care, and recent studies indicate that language problems should not be ignored.
	Translation of Investigational Medicinal Product Labels (IMPs) (November 2008) The successful completion of a clinical study largely depends on a patient’s adherence to protocol; therefore the labeling and distribution of clinical trials supplies must be well controlled in order to ensure their validity. Conveying accurate dosage, treatment schedules, and other specifications is a major factor affecting patient safety. Therefore, translating labels into a patient’s native language is the best way to ensure patient safety and compliance.
	The Return of the Sea Turtles to China: the tides of biotech are shifting (October 2008) Returning ‘sea turtles’ or ‘hai gui’ (a Chinese expression for returning Chinese-born, foreign-educated scientist) are bringing their Western expertise to the Chinese biotech industry and helping to bridge the gap between China and the West. They are providing an incentive to Western companies already taking advantage of China’s lower manufacturing costs, to expand their biotech investments into research.
	Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Offshoring in Puerto Rico (June 2008) Puerto Rico is well established in offshoring due to low-cost, low-tax opportunities for manufacturing. Along with significantly lower labor costs, geographic proximity to the U.S. and coinciding time zones further distinguishes Puerto Rico from other developing nations currently emerging as new locations for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Despite English proficiency among much of the Puerto Rican population, language barriers among manufacturing employees must be considered.
	Clinical Trials in Asia: Double-Digit Growth, Multi-Lingual Challenges (March 2008) The number of clinical trials in Asia has risen tremendously over the past few years. In addition to significantly lower clinical research costs, the region offers the advantage of a genetically diverse population of over 4 billion. Despite the advantages, outsourcing to Asia introduces new complications that must be addressed, including differences in regulatory procedures, infrastructure, medical practices, language, and culture.