Language Scientific Dedicates Clinical Helpline Practice That Connects Clinical Trial Sites and Study Sponsor Teams in Real Time

Clinical helpline gives global clinical trial sites real-time access to a study's clinical team in more than 215 languages

BOSTON, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Language Scientific today announced that it has established its clinical helpline as a dedicated practice. The helpline is a 24/7/365 service that connects clinical trial sites and trial participants worldwide with qualified interpreters and study sponsor teams on real-time calls so that urgent questions can be resolved quickly and in the caller's language.

The clinical helpline gives callers a single, always-on point of contact. A trial site or participant anywhere in the world can call a local number at any time, and a Language Scientific operator will answer, triage the request, open a documented ticket and bring a medically trained interpreter on the line, typically in less than 30 seconds. Language Scientific then reaches the study's on-call physician or medical director and stays on the call until every party is connected, and delivers a written contact summary within 15 minutes for the trial sponsor's records.

"In multinational clinical studies, the greatest gaps are often the ones between a site coordinator's urgent question and the sponsor's answer, including different languages and time zones," said Sharon Blank, CEO of Language Scientific. "Despite these gaps, the coordinator still needs an answer while the patient is in front of them. Having a live, interpreted line available to the study's clinical team means questions can be resolved right away."

Unresolved questions drive measurable costs in global clinical trials. Questions about patient eligibility and informed consent require prompt, accurate answers to preserve data quality and uphold patient safety standards. Financial stakes are also high, with one estimate showing that each day lost in a drug's development represents approximately $500,000 in lost revenue.¹ That cost is on top of the overall cost of running trials and bringing a new drug to market, which can be roughly $1–2 billion.²

"For a long time, real-time language access in clinical trials was treated as a nice-to-have. But when sites can't reach a study's clinical team quickly and in the right language, the whole trial feels the impact," said Blank. "Real-time access to a study's clinical team is now something that trials are built around, and making the clinical helpline a dedicated practice will allow our team to focus solely on getting sites the answers they need."

The clinical helpline reflects the model Language Scientific has built its business around, pairing subject matter experts with advanced degrees in medicine and science with professional linguists in high-stakes clinical settings. The helpline is staffed by professional interpreters from the company's global network, many of whom also translate clinical documentation. With clinical subject-matter and language expertise spanning more than 215 languages, the helpline moves at the speed a global trial requires without sacrificing accuracy.

Language Scientific now operates four dedicated clinical trial practices – linguistic validation, endpoint adjudication, plain language summaries and a clinical helpline – ensuring that language never compromises the quality, consistency or timeliness of clinical data. The company linguistically validates patient-reported outcomes and clinical outcomes assessment instruments so they remain equivalent across languages and populations. It also translates source and event documentation that clinical endpoint committees rely on to adjudicate trial outcomes.

To learn more about Language Scientific's clinical helpline, visit https://www.languagescientific.com/on-demand-phone-interpreting-clinical-helplines/.

References:

1. Smith ZP, DiMasi JA, Getz KA. New Estimates on the Cost of a Delay Day in Drug Development. Ther Innov Regul Sci 58, 855–862 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-024-00667-w
2. DiMasi JA, Grabowski HG, Hansen RW. Innovation in the pharmaceutical industry: New estimates of R&D costs. Journal of Health Economics 2016;47:20-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.01.012

About Language Scientific, Inc.^®

Language Scientific, Inc.^® is a US-based medical and scientific translation company serving pharmaceutical, clinical research, and medical device organizations running global clinical trials. For more than 25 years, its translations have been performed by subject-matter experts with advanced degrees in medicine and science, supported by proprietary language technology, and delivered under the company's LS Certified™ standard in over 215 languages. Language Scientific maintains four specialized clinical trial practices: endpoint adjudication, linguistic validation, plain language summaries, and the clinical helpline. For more information, visit languagescientific.com or email [email protected].

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ISO 9001:2015
ISO 17100:2015
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SOURCE Language Scientific