Every morning, the medical realm witnesses many developments around the world. Having in mind that knowledge is connected regardless of the differences among countries, the importance of medical translation lies in working across the aisle with various scientists around the globe. This will benefit the whole world and get more gains of this crucial translation field. Now, let’s get to know what is meant by medical translation and how important it is.
What is medical translation?
Medical translation is the process of translating various medical documents, periodicals, medications and pharmaceutical leaflets, medical sets manuals, clinical reports, etc. from their source language to other languages. Most countries ask their medical companies and institutions to translate their publications into the source language of these countries to be easily understood and dealt with. The medical translator is obliged to stick to the highest standards of quality in translating medical documents. These documents are so sensitive and any mistranslation, albeit a small mistake, can badly affect the patient’s life.
Types of translatable medical documents
The medical realm is full of many situations that need to implement medical translation either in dealing with the patients or in the hospital and healthcare centers. Medical translation can also be used in conducting scientific research and experiments. In this article, we numerate several types of translatable medical documents as follows:
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Medical reports and scans
Most patients, especially those with serious cases, tend to be diagnosed by professional physicians from all over the world. This urges the need to accurately translate medical reports and scans and conduct the correct diagnosis. It’s noteworthy that the translation of these reports has to be carefully done because it’s a very serious issue; namely, any unintentional change in a single word can lead to catastrophic medical aftermaths. Medical reports translation, thus, is one of the biggest challenges in medical translation.
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Patients’ information forms and medical consent
The importance of medical translation greatly lies in cases when the language of the patient is different from the one of the healthcare workers. The patients’ information has to be collected correctly and clearly and then translated into the patient’s language and the physician’s language respectively. The medical consents the patients give to the hospitals regarding serious measures or lifeline operations have to be accurately and meticulously translated. The patients have to be fully aware of the measures they will go through before giving these consents.
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Medications leaflets
The patients need to completely understand the contents of medications and pharmaceuticals. These leaflets show how the patient take his prescribed medication, the cases in which he’s not allowed to take it, the side effects, the flavors, the other medications the patient shouldn’t take with his prescribed one, and the other important guidelines that should be in his source language to understand them easily.
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Academic Content and medical researches translation
Medical translation helps to boost the exchange among medical experts from different countries. It also helps to spread out scientific research, medical journals, and periodicals all over the world.
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Medical sets manuals
Medical translation helps healthcare providers to know how to use the new medical sets and their specific and general guidelines.
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Patent translation
When there is a novel idea in the medical field, the need to translate its patent is highly recommended to spread it out into several languages and protect it from theft. The importance of patents translation lies in the time when there is an urge to submit the idea to officials from all over the world. This Idea may interest someone who can adopt, support, and spread it out.
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Clinical experiments forms
When the medications and pharmaceutical companies can have a certain product that can put an end to certain diseases, they tend, in the first place, to conduct a group of clinical experiments to make sure of its effectiveness. In this case, medical translation can be of great importance as there are some patients who may not be willing to accept having these experiments upon them without knowing the smallest details of the medication and the procedures that should be taken while conducting these experiments, so the translation of these documents to its source language can be great importance.
An additional (in-depth) type of medical translation that’s used extensively in the research sector is Cognitive Debriefing, also known as Cognitive Validation, which is different from the types listed above.
The importance of medical translation
Many reasons make medical translation very important to healthcare providers, so it’s essential to hire professional translators. The importance lies in the following:
- Helps the patients and the healthcare workers regarding the procedures taken in the treatment journey.
- Reduces the possibility of misunderstanding among the physicians, the nurses, and the patients because of language, culture, and knowledge differences.
- Mitigates the possibility of wrong diagnosis or improper treatment plans that can badly affect health problems
- Helps to exchange experts in the medical realm among different countries and languages, that’s why it boosts the chances of exchanging knowledge and scientific progress.
- Enables international healthcare organizations to provide high-quality healthcare services to patients around the world.
- Plays a crucial role in overcoming pandemics and international health crises as the fast and accurate translation of medical information into different languages helps to spread the medical guidelines and important information for disease confrontation and healthcare provided to the patients.
Medical translation steps
The translation process consists of several continuous phases to reach the desired result. It includes the following steps:
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Main information collection
The first step starts by discussing with the client to set the main general details of the translation project. The client, in this phase, understands the targeted audience demand, the document type, the word count, the used terminology, etc. the translator may have a first reading of the source text to get the gist of the document rapidly. He may make a list of the text’s terminologies and concepts and get in touch with the client to make sure they are all correct. He also may conduct general preliminary research on the topic at hand.
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Doing the translation step- by- step
After getting the gist of the source text completely, the translator begins to systematically conduct the translation process by choosing a part consisting of 5-10 words each time. This part is an inseparable coherent whole to maintain its meaning and preserve the translation accuracy.
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Double- checking the translated text to maintain its accuracy
What the translator does till now is a preliminary translation, but the next phase is to double- check the whole translated text and compare it to the source text. In this phase, the translator makes sure that he doesn’t explain, enhance, or interfere with the text by affecting its similarity with the source text and the used terminologies to have the same effect on the reader.
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Take a rest in the middle of the translation process
This step is very simple as the translator is requested to put his work aside for a while and then have a second look. It’s noteworthy that rereading the text so many consecutive times for hours or even days can tire the translator and his concentration will be lost. Putting the translation aside, for at least two days if it’s possible, can let the translator get back to work actively and get ready for the last phase.
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Final touches and complete revision
After the medical translator conducts his preliminary translation, revise it accurately, and make sure that there are no mistakes at all, such as grammatical blunders, punctuation marks, spelling, terminology misuse, or unclear and missing meaning. In this final phase, the translator will start to completely revise his translation without the need to compare it to the source document. His revision will focus on the expressiveness of words and sentences, the style clarity, and complexity. The translator should meticulously conduct his revision by searching for any ambiguous words, hard- to -understand ones, or misinterpreted ones. He also should embrace the client’s fear regarding the translation style and tone. Once he is done with these amendments, he will get a high-quality translated text.
What are the requirements and the characteristics of the medical translator?
Medical translation is a very important type of specialized translation as it should be conducted by experts in the medical realm. Having experts do the medical translation is a must as the language has to be clear to avoid any misunderstanding. Medical translation mustn’t be subcategorized as general translation because it, often, has pieces of sensitive information if compared to general translation and semantic differences can lead to big problems. Medical translation is mainly characterized that a small mistake can cause a big danger. The medical translator, hence, has to be careful while doing his job and he also has to know the dangers he may cause. He, thus, has to be characterized by the following:
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Excellent command of source and target languages
The medical translator must have a strong command of both the source and the target languages because the translated texts have to be accurately and authentically done.
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Solid medical background
The ability to translate medical terminologies is a must. The medical translator, thus, has to have a solid medical background to be able to accurately and authentically translate these terminologies. It’s noteworthy that the commonly used words in our daily life can have different meanings than the medical text.
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Knowing audiences demands
It’s very important to know your audience’s demands from the text in hand. For example, the translation of a medication’s leaflet may vary if it’s directed to commercial purposes or physicians.
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Ambiguity avoidance in the target language
The translator has to exert his efforts to avoid using any ambiguous words that may cause misunderstanding for the readers. It’s also necessary to revise the translation before its delivery to avoid possible mistakes and get rid of any linguistic ambiguity.
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The ability to conduct simultaneously interpreting
The medical translator must be able to conduct simultaneously interpreting because he may need to use it in urgent situations. A tourist, for example, may need to get healthcare service during his vacation or a physician may need to interpret his speech to the audience as he attends a scientific conference full of different language speakers that are different from his native tongue.
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Machine translation avoidance
While providing medical translation services, it’s necessary to manually translate the medical text as a whole without using machine translation. Machine translation may help you to get the gist, but it’s not designed to translate specialized medical terminologies.
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Super commitment to the highest standards of translation accuracy
One of the most important characteristics of the translator is to professionally and accurately do his job. In medical translation, it’s very important to be so because a small mistake can endanger someone’s life.
The difference between a medical interpreter and medical translator
The medical interpreter is a specialized person who provides the oral interpretation services of the conversations between healthcare providers and patients who don’t speak the same language fluently. His presence is a must in the live medical meetings as he interprets the questions and answers between the physician and patient simultaneously. This type of translation requires having an excellent command of speaking skills and a deep understanding of the medical terminologies to have an effective and accurate communication channel between the physicians and the patients.
A medical translator is the specialized person in translating medical documents and texts from one language to another. He conveys the written information in the medical files, such as the patients’ reports, medication leaflets, scholarly studies, surgery paperwork, medical sets manuals, etc… From the source language to the target language. This is done by accurate, comprehensible, non-ambiguous translation. The medical translator has to be fully aware of the medical terminologies and concepts, and both language’s linguistic heritage to have an accurate, authentic and healthcare workers demands translation.
How can fast Trans Company help you with medical translation?
If you are searching for an accredited and authentic translation conducted by a medical translation team with a very long experience, search no further! We are, in Fast Trans Company for accredited translation, can offer you this service as per the highest standards of quality. If you, thus, make up your mind to partner with us, be sure that you will get the highest standards of accuracy and professionalism in translating the various medical documents on a timely delivery and super commitment to the international quality criteria. Don’t think twice and get in touch with us now to start working on achieving the goal you pursue.
