In June 2017 the United Nations published a statement on ending bias in health care settings (1). Bias or discrimination in healthcare is a wide-spread problem that has significant negative effects. Known examples include denial to certain healthcare services for certain individuals or patient populations, gender-based discrimination, “physical and verbal abuse or violence; involuntary treatment; breaches of confidentiality and/or denial of autonomous decision-making” (2) . Furthermore, both healthcare providers and receivers exhibit bias, comparable to the wider population. If bias slips into translation and interpreting in a healthcare setting, this issue can culminate in particularly poor outcomes for patients. And yet, bias is not always a wilful or conscious act. Hence, attentiveness for the setting, background, gender, ethnic origin etc. needs to be heightened to avoid unconscious prejudice and discrimination. In this talk we will point to some blind spots so that we all, as patients, members of the public, translators, interpreters and healthcare providers are more aware of our own biases and explore some tools to navigate and avoid them.

1 Cf. Website of the WHO, last accessed 14 May 2025
2 Ibid.

Speaker: Ulrike Nichols, PhD, MITI (United Kingdom)

Ulrike has been working as a translator for nearly twenty years and began to specialise in medicine and the history of medicine about fifteen years ago. After graduating in German and English/American Studies in Berlin and completing a PhD in German and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Michigan, Ulrike moved to the UK in 2006 where she shifted gears, left academia, and moved into translation. She completed her Diploma in Translation with the Chartered Institute of Linguists in 2009 and in 2013, she joined the Medical Network of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. A few years later, she joined the committee and eventually took on the role as the coordinator of the network from 2019 until 2025. During this time, she organised numerous workshops with medical experts from fields as diverse as pulmonology, radiology, plastic surgery, or dentistry. She has been successfully running the mentoring programme of the Medical Network and is also a member of the Anglo-German Medical Society.