On March 28, the Ministry of Education’s Degree and Graduate Education Development Center announced the results of the 2024 Thematic Case Project initiation. The School of Foreign Languages’ project titled Translating Medical Texts, Disseminating Health Knowledge, and Cultivating Translation Talents - A Case Study of MTI Talent Development Based on the Cochrane Simplified Chinese Project has been approved under the theme of “Healthy China.” Dr. Xiao Lin from our school serves as the chief expert of the project. This marks the first-ever approved project from our school and the first approved project in the field of translation at our university.

The project has selected the English-to-Chinese translation practice carried out by the Cochrane Simplified Chinese Working Group at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, led by Dr. Xiao Lin since 2018, as a typical case study. It examines the team’s workflow and unique features, summarizes translation techniques and strategies for evidence-based medical texts, develops teaching cases for translation education, and explores effective methods for health knowledge dissemination. This initiative aims to enhance translators’ competence and awareness of health communication, thereby contributing to the popularization of health knowledge under the “Healthy China” initiative. On the other hand, based on an understanding of the team’s case information and translation and dissemination theories, the project plans to transform these insights into research papers. This will further enrich relevant translation theories and explore pathways for cultivating high-level Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) talents.

It is reported that Dr. Xiao Lin’s team has been engaged in evidence-based medicine translation practice for six years. Based on this translation project, they have completed three projects, including provincial educational reform, provincial educational planning, and a translation research project under the MTI Teaching Steering Committee. They have also published four related academic papers and supervised eight MTI master’s theses, one of which was awarded the Excellent Master’s Thesis Prize in Jiangxi Province. The team delivered an oral presentation titled Cochrane Translation Project and Translation Capacity Building at the Cochrane Global Summit in Prague, a top international conference in the field of evidence-based medicine. They were also invited to give an oral report on Cochrane Translation Project and Talent Development at the Evidence-Based Medicine Branch of the International Academic Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare in China.

The development of case databases is a crucial measure to enhance the quality and excellence of professional degree graduate education. Thematic cases in the field of translation account for a very small proportion in the case databases of the Ministry of Education’s Degree and Graduate Education Development Center. The thematic case of Dr. Xiao Lin’s team is the second approved project in the translation field in Jiangxi Province, representing a significant breakthrough in the postgraduate teaching achievements of our school.

By Shi Liqin and Zhang Shanjun