There may be other translation services that are difficult. But no translation service is more important than medical translation services.
To some, the idea that a medical translation company can save lives might sound farfetched. But in fact, medical translation is vital throughout the treatment chain from drug testing to patient care.
Importance of medical translation services For your Business
Clinical Trials
Drug testing and trials rely on the accurate recording of data. If this data is all in one place, and there is consistency across the records and measurement, then the data quality may be high. However, these days many drug trials are spread out across different locations around the world. The designers of the trials who wrote the Protocols may be in one country but the actual testing done in one, or more, other countries. It’s the job of medical translation services companies to reconcile all this data. They need to become ‘data detectives’ with Sherlock Holmes type skills.
Like a detective, they must be able to decipher local differences looking for clues in patient records and reports to ensure they understand the true meaning of what is being described. They must work from a glossary of terms deciphering this code and try to record it accurately so their translation is consistent.
Also Read : importance of medical interpreting services
Patents and IP Protection
A different, though equally important, skillset is required by medical translation services teams working with Patents. These medical translators must be subject matter experts as well as expert in the technicalities of patents. Medical translators must be able to describe technical drawings of medical devices in language so tight that teams of lawyers can’t find a way around them.
Labelling and Inserts
Medical translation services companies are the people who make sure the correct dosage is on medicine labels. This may seem simple stuff and is something that many people take for granted, but it would prove disastrous if wrong.
Translated labels and instructions are read by doctors and clinicians. The instructions are read by patients too —including busy mothers who might be distracted and worried by their sick child. In the mother’s distracted state she needs to read the label quickly. More importantly, she needs to read the label correctly.
Medical translators make sure the contra-indications are correct too. Keeping patients safe once again.
Medical Research Papers
Medical translators translate research papers into multiple languages so knowledge can travel round the world, potentially changing the lives of millions of people. The language the translators choose is what gets lodged into the brains of scientists to be used, added to and improved upon as they create life-changing treatments and cures for disease.
Marketing material
Pharmaceutical translation services companies also help doctors and clinicians discover new drugs and medical devices.
When life-saving new drugs are invented that’s just the beginning of the process. They have to be discovered by the clinicians who prescribe them or if they’re Over The Counter medications, discovered by the patients themselves.
The marketing materials that a medical translation services team translate must be compliant with local and international regulations and at the same time be faithful to the messaging of the healthcare brand that manufactures or distributes them.
The medical translator must be familiar with regulation AND be creative too. That’s a combination of skills not often found in the same person!
Medical translations services companies also translate websites.
This may not sound a particularly heroic job. However medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare websites are important tools for keeping people safe. Scientific websites spread news about the latest research to clinicians.
Training Materials
Pharmaceutical websites can host training sessions in multiple languages that can be watched by doctors and clinicians around the world. The knowledge they pick up watching those training sessions is used to save people’s lives.
Medical websites by organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) spread information to millions about outbreaks of diseases and viruses so people know how to recognise and treat symptoms.
These public service websites are replaced offline by posters and leaflets distributed around the world, that are translated by, you guessed it, medical translation services teams.
Medical translators are also responsible for ensuring that medical textbooks are accurately translated into other languages. So medical translators’ attention to detail is important because it helps train the next generation of life-saving doctors.
Medical Interpretation
At conferences medical translation services teams can do multiple versions of keynote speeches so visiting delegates can understand the speaker and disseminate that information in their own country.
In one-on-one situations, medical translators interpret patient doctor interactions when the patient and doctor don’t share the same first language.
Translators also decipher and transcribe patient records of refugees to help them get the correct treatment in their new country.
Government Policy
Some of the most needy sections of the population in many countries don’t speak the language of the majority. For these people medical translators provide a vital service in helping them receive important information about their health to protect themselves and their families.
Language
Unlike authors who just have to think about their audience, medical translators have to think about the author of the material they are translating AND the audience of the translated work. There will be differences in culture and word choice use and meaning. The translator must fully understand the meaning of the original text and then craft an accurate, audience appropriate translation that delivers all the meaning and nuance of the original.
Translators who work for Medical Translation Services must speak more than the pair languages for their project. They must speak the toughest of all languages. The language known as ‘Doctor’ —that strange mix of medical jargon and acronyms; they must explain complicated symptoms clearly and concisely, even when they weren’t written clearly and concisely.
When you work for a medical translation services company it’s not enough to translate the words on the page, you have to read between the lines as well.
Deadlines.
On top of all this, pharmaceutical translation service teams are frequently working to extremely tight deadlines, especially when translating clinical trial documents.
In summary
Next time you hire a medical translation service team you’ll hopefully have a little more understanding of the challenging, yet hugely rewarding, job these unsung heroes do.
