Date: February 10, 2026 – 10.00 a.m.
Location: Aula Miazzi – Plesso San Michele
Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries
University of Parma (Italy)

Abstract submission deadline: December 5, 2025
Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2025

Conference theme
The rapid digital transformation of healthcare – shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), telemedicine, online knowledge platforms, and automated linguistic tools – has profoundly reshaped healthcare communication. Medical English stands at the crossroads of these transformations, facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities in its teaching, translation, and popularization.

This one-day conference – “Vital Signs: Teaching, Translating, and Popularizing Medical English in the Digital Age” – seeks to explore how Medical English is taught, translated, circulated, and recontextualized in digital environments.

The conference is a key output of the research project ‘Serious games as a tool to improve translation and communication skills in the medical field,’ developed at the University of Parma, which aims to create a serious game to address the specific needs of students training to become specialized translators or health professionals, as well as practicing health professionals.

The goal of the conference is to promote an interdisciplinary discussion on how we can ensure clarity, accuracy, and accessibility in medical communication in this evolving landscape.

We invite scholars, educators, linguists, translators, terminologists, healthcare professionals, and communicators to examine the critical function of English in global healthcare contexts and to explore innovative solutions brought forward by digital technologies.

Suggested topics and areas of interest
We welcome 20-minute presentations on a variety of topics including, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Teaching Medical English (EMP/EAP) in digital contexts
• Integrating AI and Machine Learning into EMP curricula.
• The use of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and multimodal simulation in medical language training.
• Developing digital literacy and ethical awareness for healthcare learners and professionals.
• Corpus-driven approaches and the design of authentic digital teaching materials.
• New methodologies in online and blended learning for English for Medical Purposes.

2. Translating and Interpreting Medical English
• The impact and limitations of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) in clinical and pharmaceutical translation.
• Human post-editing and quality assurance in medical texts.
• Digital tools for terminology management and the creation of specialized medical glossaries.
• Challenges in translating patient-facing information, informed consent forms, and electronic health records (EHRs).
• Remote interpreting (VRI/OPI), and the ethical implications for patient-provider communication.

3. Popularizing and Communicating Medical English
• Health literacy and patient education across digital media (websites, social media, apps).
• Communicating medical research to non-specialists: challenges of clarity vs. accuracy (popular science, “infodemics”).
• The role of medical journalists and science communicators in mediating specialized English.
• Cultural translation and adaptation of public health messages.
• Ethical and linguistic challenges in communicating during global health emergencies across languages.

Submission Guidelines
• Abstracts: Submissions should be no longer than 200 words (excluding references).
• Submission Email: michela.canepari@unipr.it

Important Dates
Abstract Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: December 15, 2025
Final Program Released: January 26, 2026
Conference Date: February 10, 2026

Scientific Committee:
Michela Canepari
Micol Beseghi
Carlo Galli

Organizing Committee
Federico Bergenti
Elena Giovanna Bignami
Antonio Bonacaro
Massimiliano Demata
Riccardo Fassone
Ilaria Giordano
Virginia Vecchiato