Spain Chapter

Bárbara Navaza is the IMIA Spain Chapter Chair

Bárbara Navaza works as a medical interpreter since 2006. She studied at Universidade de Vigo (Spain) and at the School of International Interpreters at Université de Mons (Belgium). She specialized in Public Service Interpreting and Translation at Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain). She works at Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal (Madrid) and collaborates with several universities. She is a member of RITAP (Network of Interpreters and Translators of the Spanish Public Administration) and participated in the creation of the White Paper on Institutional Translation and Interpreting. Her publications and research mainly focus on interlinguistic and intercultural mediation in the health realm.

The COMUNICA NETWORK is an active body fighting for the recognition of the profession. It is a group of researchers from the different regions of Spain. Its main purpose is to become a Permanent Observatory on Cross-language and Cross-cultural Communication in Spain, with a focus on public service interpreting and translation, and providing a critical and committed approach.

A summary of the current situation of public service interpreting in Spain will shortly be posted on the Comunica Network webpage.

Allowing for communication between healthcare professionals and patients from different cultural backgrounds.

An information portal informativo on intercultural mediation and medical interpreting, with multilingual info and cultural data.

IN THE first seven months of this year nearly 2,400 medical consultations in Málaga province have been conducted using the telephone interpreter service provided for non-Spanish speakers by the Andalucía health service's Salud Responde programme.

Lluís Baixauli-Olmos