What is Medical Translation?

A borderless world like ours has created opportunities for people to receive medical care and treatment in other countries. However, the language barrier will always be an issue for people seeking medical treatment abroad. Before deciding where to seek medical treatment overseas, a patient would have to examine all the options available. Patients would need to read about the type of treatments available, the results of clinical trials, and other general medical information. Medical information that has been properly translated would assist patients in deciding what is best for them. Even healthcare professionals would benefit from medical translation as it would be easier for them to effectively and efficiently deal with patients, no matter what language they speak.

• There is less opportunity for mistakes in the diagnosis and treatment of patients as doctors would have a transcript of what is said in the patient’s language and another translated transcript.
• Patients will be able to get the care they need in a timely manner, as doctors no longer have to wait for an available on-site translator.
• Doctors can be sure that the questions they ask their patients are fully understood by the patients.
• Money saved from the need to hire a medical interpreter for foreign patients could be used for other more important endeavours such as medical equipment.

Medical Translation Services

We translate your or your business partner's medical document from practically any source language to any target language. Based on our DIN Standard Medical translations are done from native speakers following the translation, revision, reviewer model. Our translation ensures that not just proper grammar and terminology is used, but also appropriate lexis, styles and Locale are considered.

Our Medical translations are fast and reliable. We certainly also offer long-term support engagements for translation customers. For more information, please contact us.

Why to choose Globibo for Medical Translation?

• Globibo practices the ISO 17100 standards for Translation and Quality Management (ISO 9001) along with internal standards to ensure the reliability and quality of our medical translations
• "A-language" qualified translators / linguist with specific medical background or experience ("A-language" is a more refined definition in regards to "native" language skills)
• Fast delivery of Medical Translation due to utilization of structured Medical Template and Term-Databases

Medical Translation Linguists

The basic requirements for our Medical Translators are that the Medical translator requires either (a) an explicit professional degree in translation or (b) an equivalent degree combined with documented full-time localization experience. As such we do not just look at documented translation experience, but the experience has to be in a full-time capacity. The ISO standard puts further emphasize on the direction of translation. A translator qualified to translate Mandarin Chinese to English might not be qualified to translate English to Mandarin Chinese. While industry-standards are not very consistent in regards to translation direction, we developed an own set of standards to ensure quality. Therefore, our linguist working on Medical Translation Projects require not just the qualifications based on international translation standards like EN 15038 and ISO17100 / 11669 but additionally have to comply to our specific criteria that we found important for Medical Translations.

Our Medical Translators have access to the best Medical Translation Term- and Template-Databases that were established and optimized over thousands of projects with Hospitals, Healthcare companies and Medical Equipment providers. The Term- and Template databases have been consolidated for different medical disciplines and functional domains. We also create customer-specific Term- & Template databases to improve inter-company translation consistency. Those Term-databases give the linguist additional support to perform the translation faster with a higher quality level leveraging industry or company-specific terms. Lastly, dedicated Medical Translation Memories that include fully pre-translated segments from all our prior projects improve quality as well as reduce cost and turnaround-time for our clients. The segments from prior translated projects are weighted in regards to context and domain to ensure they fit into the new target context.

Medical Translation Process

Our Medical Translations follow global Translation standards like EN 15038, ISO 17100, ISO 11669, ASTM 2575, CAN 131.10 and J2450 as well as the Globibo Localization Delivery Model. The Translation Standards define the internal processes for the translation as well as the process with you as a Client.

Simple Medical Translation Process Steps:

• 1. Analysis: We will do a requirement documentation and feasibility analysis for your project (NDA can be signed before analysis, if required).
• 2. Quotation: Based on the analysis and feasibility study, you will receive a quotation and the underlying terms and conditions (including timeline and project team).
• 3. Confidentiality Agreement : Information about data protection and security are furnished to you and are available on the Website for your review. Non-disclosure or equivalent legal agreements can also be signed before the analysis phase (Step 1).
• 4. Translation: Upon your confirmation, we commence with the translation via the 6-steps process (4 mandatory steps and 2 optional steps).

Different Types of Medical Translation

Globibo medical translation management services includes different types of medical translation such as:

• Clinical Trial Translations
• Drug Labeling and Validation
• Medical Devices Translation like Instructions manual, user guides etc
• Medical Consent and Assent Forms
• Patient Instruction document

Guide to Professional Medical Translation

Medical translation is one of the most complex and delicate translation areas. Professional medical translation agencies need very high standards in regards to quality, consistency and reliability for each project. A good medical translation management system takes care of the following points for medical and clinical translation:

1. Gathering all the required information from client, including context and terminology database

2. Accept all types of document format for medical translation

3. Certified Medical Translations based on ISO 17100, ISO 9001 and ISO 27991

4. Use Medical translation memory and engines

5.Work with native industry-experts for medical translation

6. Consistent medical back-translation

7. Use comprehensive style-guide

8. Fast turnaround-time for medical translation projects

9. Zero margin for error

Medical Translation Technology

Professional Translation Service also means agnostic usage of Translation Management Software - for larger projects we will use the software that makes most sense to you, not what fits into the strategy of our associated software company.
We leverage Wordfast, SDL Trados and DejaVu as standard applications for Localizations. Furthermore, we keep Translation Memory and Terminology Databases by Client and industry.

1 - Medical Terminology Databases : We structure industry as well as customer specific Terminology Databases or Glossaries. The combination of those 2 types of Terminology Databases permits quick access to industry or customer-specific terms. Those terminology databases are aligned with your internal teams to ensure we match the best translations for your internal functions.
2 - Medical Translation Memory : Similar to Terminology Databases, we have industry- as well as customer specific Translation Memories. A Translation Memory is a database of previously translated segments (e.g. full sentences) that can be reused in subsequent translations. Translation Memories allow increasing quality and turn-around time while lowering cost.
3 - Medical Machine Translation : New MT engines permit leveraging neural networks as well as statistical models to reuse previously translated material for new projects. If our contract permits, we access different MT engines to facilitate professional processing of the translations.
4 - Medical Translation Management Systems (TMS) : TMS allow us to process translation projects in a faster and more coordinated manner. With combine our own internal management system with external applications to create the right blend of operational efficiency with access to world-class external tools.

Practical Reading (external links):
- Wikipedia : Translation Management Software
- Wikipedia : Translation Memories Explanation
- Gartner : Research on Translation Software
- ISO 17100
- Wikipedia : Translation Standards 15038


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