The practice of translating medical information has been done since long time ago. One source mentioned that the oldest medical translation was found in clay tablets from the ancient Mesopotamia.
There was also a kind of dictionary from around 1300 BCE written in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, and Ugaritic containing pre-scientific medical information. As medical field develops and global medical communities emerge the need of medical translation services also grow.
Medical translation definition
Medical translation refers to the process of translating medical documents from one language into another language. The medical documents being translated are varied widely. They can be in the forms of doctor prescription, treatment plans, patient’s consent forms, medical records, up to instructions on how to use medical equipment.
They involve multiple industries such as healthcare, pharmaceutical, healthcare equipment manufacturing, psychology consultation, education, etc. Even, magazine articles which contain medical information are also considered as medical documents.
Therefore, the translation styles are also varied. Those who translate medical documents need to be able to sense the nuance of the original documents. There are very formal documents in the form of journal articles, regulations, patient’s forms, etc.
These documents are usually also legal documents. There are also documents that are meant for the public who do not have deep medical knowledge such as brochures, magazine articles, health related posters, etc.
Those who need medical translation services
Healthcare facilities, especially those who serve people from various language background for sure will need medical translation services. Effective communication between healthcare providers and patients and family members is important to achieve the best treatment outcome.
This effective communication will not happen if each party speaks in different languages that they cannot understand. Other than healthcare facilities, who need medical translation services other than healthcare facilities and providers?
1. Patients and their families
Patients and their families are the most important part of a healthcare service. Thus, patients and their families who do not speak the language of their healthcare providers will need translation assistance.
It is because they have the right to know what happens to their body and their loved ones. There are hospitals that provide legal documents in various languages as well as on site interpreter in case there are patients and families need them.
2. Insurance companies
Health insurance companies also need translation services especially those who deal with customers from different countries. Right now, there are more insurance companies that offer coverage for medical expenses spent abroad. In the past, this service was not as easy as today to access.
Nowadays, as people travel more, be it for working or just spending the holiday, the needs for international insurance coverage increase. Furthermore, there is a growing trend of medical travelling where people deliberately going abroad to get medical advice or undergo medical procedures for various reasons.
Some of them travel because the treatment options in their home countries are limited, some other travel because the expenses might be way less compared to what they have to spend in their home country, while others travel because they also want to visit tourism areas while looking for medical advice.
As there are more people using international insurance service, the need to translate insurance documents into different languages also grows. Writing the documents in English might not be enough in serving customers from different countries.
3. Pharmacy
Healthcare facilities and providers are working closely with pharmacies in providing medicine for the patients. There are medicines which are exported to different countries which, therefore, need to have translated labels containing drug information.
This is important because misinterpretation of how to take the medicine can have a dire consequence. Pharmacies that work with people from diverse language background should also provide translation service in order to explain to patients how and when to take the medicine.
4. Healthcare Equipment Manufacturing Company
Manufacturing companies that produce healthcare equipment will also need translation services to translate instruction on how to use the equipment that they have produced.
Most equipment is accompanied by at least as set of English instruction. Nevertheless, it is better to also have translation in languages where the products are used to avoid misinterpretation. Not following the instruction given in using a medical device can also result in a dangerous situation.
5. NGOs that work in community health area
Non Government Organizations that work in the area of health use translation services quite a lot. They work closely with communities that might not speak international languages.
To be able to carry their programs, these NGOs need to translate their plans and education materials into the languages that the communities that they work with understand.
Other than those mentioned above, there are also social workers, nutritionists, therapists, and many other people who might need medical translation services in carrying out their duties serving others even those who might not speak the language they speak.
Things to consider before translating medical documents
Looking at the wide scope of medical documents, translating them requires more than good language mastery. Here are the things to consider when getting medical document translation services:
1. Type of source documents
As it has been mentioned before, medical documents varied widely. Knowing what kind of documents that we are going to translate will help us to get appropriate translation services.
Knowing the type of source document will also help us to measure how technical are the terms used in the documents. Source documents intended for a medical academic community conference for sure will have a lot of technical terms.
However, as the conference is intended for medical community, there are a lot of terms which are understood internationally.
Those terms might not need to be translated. If the source document is intended for education purpose at school, there might be different idioms across culture that need to be translated carefully so that those idioms will not lose meaning.
Knowing the source of documents will also help us to determine whether or not the documents are legal documents. There are medical documents with legal power which will be better translated by a sworn translator such as death certificate, DNR (Do not resuscitate) form, informed consent form, etc.
2. Documents audience
It is also important to know who the audience of the translated texts will be. Will the documents be used for a medical academic seminar? Or will it be used to educate people in rural areas? Is it needed for the court? Or is it going to be distributed to school children? Knowing the audience will help in setting how the translated documents would sound.
Documents used for a medical conference would sound different from documents used for elementary school students. Both documents for the conference and for the elementary school students talk about COVID-19. However, since their audience is different, the tone of the original documents is different. Therefore, the translated documents should show that different tone too.
3. Local or global
Do you need your documents to only be used locally? Or do you want it to be read by global audiences? Even documents written in English can contain a lot of local terms if they are intended to be used locally.
An example of such document is a report document talking about an endemic in a particular area in the world. That document might also contain local tradition on how people deal with the disease for long.
Meanwhile, when the documents are meant to be for global audience, the translator needs to be able to explain local terms into more widely accepted and understood terms.
An example of this is the document containing education about COVID-19 in Indonesia. There is a term ‘masuk angin’ which is close to the ’cold’ sickness which is not widely known across the world. In the document, it is explained how to differentiate between ‘masuk angin’ symptoms and COVID-19 syptoms.
There might be systems which are not used globally for example the measurement system. In the USA, different from the rest of the world, metric system is not used. Thus, translating document into English for USA audience will be different from translating the document into English for other audience.
4. Slogan, motto, tagline, and things alike
There are texts with medical information in them which are intended to invite people to do something and contain slogan, motto, and tagline. Those slogan, motto, and tagline need to be carefully translated in order to avoid misunderstanding.
In one of the articles, we have learned how mistranslation of tagline might negatively affect product sale. This also applies to tagline for educational purposes. Getting a good translation service with translators who really know cultural nuances in both languages is necessary.
After reading all of the information related to translating legal documents, you should get a better picture of what to do when you are about to get a medical translation service.
If you are still not sure to do, do not hesitate to contact professionals who can help you to get the right service to translate your medical documents. If you don’t know which agency you can contact for a medical translation service, you can contact us at PéMad. We are ready to serve you.
References:
- https://www.ilstranslations.com/blog/medical-document-translation/
- https://www.translateday.com/medical-translation/
- https://www.dynamiclanguage.com/medical-document-translation-advantages-and-disadvantages/
- https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/challenges-medical-files-translation/
- https://www.bureauworks.com/blog/how-successfully-make-medical-document-translation/
