When hiring a translator or translation service it is important to first analyze what type of translation is needed. There are a wide variety of translation services available from judiciary, educational, to literary services. One of the most in-demand services is medical translation.
Medical Translation is considered a specialized field of translation. Translators in the medical field need to be adept at medical terminology, cultural distinctions, and colloquialism. Medical translators are different from medical interpreters. Interpreters work with doctors and specialists to provide immediate translation between caregiver and patient.
Translators are also used to transfer documents such as brochures and other medical materials from one language to another.
In medical translation it’s important to find translators who are also specialists in the medical field. This is because it is impossible to provide accurate translation without comprehension.
For example, the following sentence was taken from a pathophysiology text book:
The onset of hepatorenal manifestations may be gradual or acute. Oliguria and complications of advanced liver disease, including jaundice, ascites, and gastrointestinal bleeding, are usually present.
Understand what’s going on? If you do then you are probably a nurse, pre-med student, or doctor. Pathophysiology is a basic medical course necessary years before even entering medical school. A translator may be fluent and a native speaker of two languages, but without the right background they are ill equipped for medical translations. Any language translation should be done by someone with specific knowledge of the field he or she is translating for.
Medical translation can be provided by companies that specialize in translation services, certified free-lance translators, or automated translation services.
Gentry Reinhart is a writer/journalist living in Ogden, Utah. In addition to contributing to newspapers and magazine’s he writes about the translation and interpretation services industry for U.S. Translation Company.
Apart from the regulatory requirements imposed by the state, there is also another good reason for medical translations. They allow the local clinicians, patients, and government representatives to understand them. Most countries will also require medical companies to submit regulatory approval applications to the local health ministry and these applications must be written in the national language. Research documents needed to conduct clinical trials must also be presented in the national language.
Specialist Medical Translation and General Translation
A general translator is not able to Translate Medical Documents effectively. To prove a point, how much do you really understand in the following drug descriptions that were written in English?
“BIAXIN is available as immediate-release tablets, extended-release tablets, and granules for oral suspension. Each yellow oval film-coated immediate-release BIAXIN tablet (Clarithromycin tablets, USP) contains 250 mg or 500 mg of Clarithromycin.”
Or
“Oleum Terebinthinae is a thin colourless liquid having a characteristic taste and odour, becoming more intense with age and by exposure. Soluble in alcohol and glacial acetic acid. It readily dissolves resins, wax, sulphur, iodine, and phosphorus.”
If you find it hard to comprehend these texts in English, can you imagine how difficult for a general translator to translate it to another language so that the target audience would understand perfectly? Therefore, most specialist medical translators are themselves medically qualified or have a background in bio-chemistry and medical sciences. This ensures that they are able to produce translations that can be understood easily by the local practitioners and patients.
What medical materials are translated?
Medical translations can cover a range of areas including technical, clinical, medical devices, and drugs. The following is a non exhaustive list of medical materials that are commonly translated:
• Drugs patents • Medical machine patents • Application documents for regulatory approval • Clinical trial documents such as patient consent form, case report forms, trial protocols • Instruction manuals for medical equipment • Medical equipment operational software • Description label for drugs • Electronic training and learning programs for the doctors and medical staff • Medical websites • Drug explanation brochures • Medical equipment catalogues • Technical manuals for medical machines • Patient records • Research journals • Pharmaceutical research reports • Medical letters • Medical checkup reports • Health information leaflets • Government health notices • Doctors hand written records
Medical Translation Process
The original text will first be translated by a specialist medical translator. After that, another professional translator will proofread the translated text to make sure that it is accurate. Following that, an in-country medical expert will be hired to review the medical translations to ensure that it meets all the regulatory specifications and understandable to the local medica.
Steve Greenwood writes for Translation Agency Prime Languages. For a professionally translated Medical Translation, contact Prime Languages.
www.shrawanbhandari.com My name is Shrawan Bhandari and I am origionally from Nepal. I am a part-time freelance English to Hindi/Nepali translator/interpreter based in Christchurch, New Zealand. I am a fully trilingual health-care researcher, grown up in Nepali-Hindi speaking community. I have completed Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Nepal and MSc in Microbiology and Public Health from New Zealand. Currently, I am working full time at University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine, New Zealand. I am registered for PhD in Medical Pathology and I except to complete it by the end of 2010. Specializations: While I am happy to translate, edit or proofread general texts (Stories, for example), I mainly specialize in the field of Biomedical sciences and related areas. I have in-depth knowledge of Nepali, Hindi and English medical terminology. My fields of expertise include: 1) General Science; 2) Biotechnology; 3) Pharmaceuticals; 4) General Medicine; 5) Public health and 6) Veterinary medicine. Resources: State-of-the-art PC-hardware and -software equipment enable me to work with a wide range of file formats. The CAT-programs SDLX and Trados supplement the office software packages (OpenOffice 3.1 and MS Office 2007). A high-speed broadband internet connection guarantees constant availability and makes up- and down- loading of large files very easy. As I am a computer enthusiast, I have all my hardwares and softwares perfoming at the best. I have been living in New …
Medical translation is a highly specialized field in translation services, in which medical documents, product brochures and health reports are translated from one language into another. Most of these documents contain lot of medical terms that are beyond the understanding of non-medical translators. Hence it is important that the medical translation be performed by qualified medical experts.
Looking at the growth prospects and rising demand for the medical translation services, many translation companies have entered the market. However not all of them can manage to provide the high level of quality standards in service. As medical translation involves translating the documents that impact the health and safety of people, any mistake in translation can be dangerous and leave your business neck-deep in lawsuits. Due to this, it is very essential to selection a correct translation company for your translation needs.
How to go about selecting a right company for medical translation?
If you are planning to use medical translation service for the first time, you can get easily confused looking at the large number of companies that have started offering this service. If you are in this situation, use this checklist to get help on choosing the correct translation company for your requirements.
What do the old clients have to say about the concerned translation company? Has the company managed to deliver quality work? Could it handle the strict deadlines? Was it flexible enough to accommodate any changes in the requirements? What are the certifications awarded to the translation company? The company having certifications like ISO 9001 and EN 15038 is better geared to provide you with high standards of service, which is essential for medical translation. What are the credentials of the employees hired by the translation company? Are they qualified medical experts? Are they native speakers of the language in which you want to translate the documents? E.g. if you want to translate Japanese medical document, the company should hire Japanese doctors for the job. They are best qualified to give you most accurate results. Can you pay the translation company by your preferred payment method? If you want to pay by credit card but they insist on wire transfer, then the company is no right for you. Is the translation company open to providing translation on the platform of your choice? E.g are you looking to get the document in PDF format for Windows XP? Does the company provide such a service?
The key to selecting the correct translation company will depend on the positive answers to the questions listed above. Answer them and you will not go wrong.
Global markets consolidation has increased and so has the need for international communication. Global Argot was formed to meet these needs. In a demanding and revolutionary age, there is a growing need for businesses to remain on the cutting edge in order to be successful. We realize the value of communication in a global society and want to help you achieve this success. We focus on quality, timely and efficient product delivery. Each professional member of our team is current with trends in the industry and their specialty, be it translation, localization, interpreting, language training or audiovisual services. We strive for excellence in all areas and this has produced completely satisfied clients for us over the years throughout the US, Europe and around the world. Global Argot is fully equipped with translators, professional and qualified with all the tools necessary for a flawless translation. We pride ourselves in the translation profession and have all been formally trained at University level. We match the most appropriate, highly qualified and experienced professionals with your project thus ensuring the best service always. This level of professionalism extends to all our other services: Technical Translation, Legal, Scientific,Audio Visual Translation, Website Translation, Document Translation, Medical Translation, Medical Interpreting, Conference Interpreting, Simultaneous Interpreting, Consecutive Interpreting, Business Interpreting, Government …
Health is everyone’s most precious possession. Hence the international collaboration both in developing new treatment and in dispensing existing treatment.
Yet, international means across countries, which implies that knowledge has to overcome language boundaries. So medical documents have to undergo an in-depth scrutiny and precise translation by medical translators as they “cross the border”. This is called a “medical translation” and is best performed by MDs or by people who received a high level of medical formal education.
A mistake in a medical translation might have dramatic consequences, which is why it is best that at least two medical linguists work on each medical translation, one translating and one editing the translation.
Health is far too valuable to entrust it to an automated translator. When human translators perform medical translations, with no machine translation at all, it considerably reduces the risk to lose life-saving nuances.
This is especially important when the documents are translated between a latin language into a non-latin one such as Hebrew for example. The vast differences in the 2 languages logic and structure, such as exposed in our previous blog “Don’t get ‘Lost in translation’” are further increasing the risk of using automated translation for medical documents.
As medical translation are especially important for documents reaching a large number of people such as medications notices and such, BACK TRANSLATIONS and RECONCILIATION procedures ensures that the content of the original document is reflected exactly in the final translation.
Only a professional medical translation can guarantee that your health will not be put in jeopardy by something as seemingly harmless as a slightly inadequate choice of word.
We offer translation services for Hebrew in combination with most European languages. All translations are performed by professional linguists working in their mother tongue and in their field of specialization.
All translations are reviewed and edited by linguists other than the translators.
We cater for translation projects of all size and are able to provide notarization for certain translations.
Milatova is affiliated with ATA, ATC, EUATC, the Israeli Export Institute, the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce and the Israel-France Chamber of Commerce and is recognized by the French Consulate in Tel Aviv. Visit our website www.milatova.com
Medical translation bridges the urgent need of translation
Therefore medical translation is very crucial for a wide range of documents and reports. Medical translation normal deals with the translation of Multimedia medical applications, psychology papers, patient information papers, Medical texts, medical reports, User guides for medical staff and patients, Medical prescriptions, Clinical, toxicological, pharmacological and biological information, Medical equipment: instruction manuals, brochures and software, medical questionnaires, Equipment, packaging labels and medical terminology glossaries. Medical translation also involves patient information and history records, clinical study reports, patent applications, medical charts, hospital discharge summaries, general medical documents, product specifications, insurance claims, manuscripts and many other documents related with medical terminology.
Medical translator always uses the current and up to date medical terminology, essential brochures and medical books while translating. Medical translation is a highly specialized discipline and should only be translated by suitably qualified translators like qualified doctors who has a vast knowledge and experience in that field and have the good understand of source language and target language. Medical translation is given much priority among translation because it deals with medical field which comes under the essential subject matter which had to be dealt with much care and quick translation into different languages to meet the emergency need of the hour. Translating medical documents and medical terms cannot be entrusted to a translator who simply speaks the native language. The translators use the current medical terminology and slang, appropriate medical terms and culturally sensitive language to give the intended meaning of a medical text.
Medical translation is done by the native speaker who has mastered the language and is an expert in the medical field because certain medical terms and it’s meaning varies from region to region, some local terms are also generally used among them so keeping in mind all these a translator aims at giving the best result in the assigned work.
Medical translation requires very specialized knowledge; the wording should be very exact and can have no ambiguity under any case. Getting the translation of a medical document incorrect can cause confusion, frustration, undue delay and loss of human life. As medical subject deals with many branches of specialization, it is better to hire a translator who has working experience in that specified subject so that the total outcome of the translation is without a mistake. A medical translator always understand the importance of urgency and pressure given in the translation of medical document in the assigned languages and meets the need of quick and correct medical translation. Sometimes a medical translator should be available online to meet the doubts and clarification in the translated document. It is always advised to cross check the final medical translation by an expert before delivery of the document to the client. This will ensure a better quality and error free medical translation.
Meet the Directors of Veritas Language Solutions, the global leader in translation, interpreting and language-related services: dedicated to providing businesses and individuals alike with a deadline-driven, high-quality and affordable service. Video Rating: 5 / 5
