Medical document translation is one of the highly-paid fields of translation. Medical translators are also quite in demand. People often have to travel abroad for medical reasons. There are countries that have more upgraded and top-notch medical facilities and therefore people travel to other countries to get better treatment. Patients who travel to get medical treatment from overseas have to travel with their medical documents. Medical practitioners often also require to communicate with their colleagues, patients, and the general public who are based in other countries and speak a different language.
These all scenarios require the translation of medical documents, transcripts, reports, and transcriptions. Also, these are important documents and hence require detailed attention, a strong grip, and subject matter expertise. Therefore, it is important to translate the content considering particular requirements. The practitioners hence should consider addressing a few quick questions before they go for translation to ensure.
- Is it for personal or professional use?
As a medical practitioner, you need to translate the medical content but you need to be open about your goals. It is important to ponder if you want to translate the content for personal use or if it is going to be published on some international forum. Therefore the purpose of certified medical document translation is important. If you want the translated content for personal use to get the gist of the topic, you can avail many free online medical resources and online translators. However, if you aim to get the translated content published to share publicly with colleagues overseas, you might need a professional medical solution.
- Is it good to use Google translate?
Machine translation and using Google or other online translators can be beneficial and be availed free too, however you need to be careful in this regard. It can be misleading. According to a recent study conducted to evaluate the accuracy of Google translate for medical communication the translations are accurate in around 58% of the cases. Therefore while translating the content you need to be sure about it. Google translate though can help in translation and understanding the text but it is not suitable for the translation of material that is aimed at patients, the general public, or colleagues.
Moreover, it is also important that you consider only free online translation for the content and that is not confidential. Using a free translator and uploading your content on Google’s search engine can be problematic in the future if plagiarism is a serious concern for you.
- Should you do it yourself or hire a professional?
Healthcare practitioners all over the world have excellent language and communication skills. They can easily communicate with their patients and colleagues in foreign languages. Whereas translating or writing for professional reasons is a bit technical matter and requires relevant expertise. So you might need to hire document translation services online or otherwise depending on the nature of the work if you want to achieve good results and outcomes.
Here are a few examples.
If you are looking to translate not-so-critical and professional text, you can translate it using your skills and with the help of machine translation. You can later get it reviewed by some linguist and professional. However, this should only be done if you have an excellent and high level of proficiency in the foreign language.
Also, the reviewer should be professional and possess relevant experience so that he can scan the whole document in the right way and can evaluate it for better. A native speaker should be preferred. A good understanding of the subject as well as the purpose and intent of the text should also be clear. It is worth mentioning here not to go for the language student or a colleague or an acquaintance on the basis of their bilingual skills as they might lack the in-depth subject matter and other minute details of medical text.
As medical content also has limitations regarding legal matters. These vary with the regions and countries. So for the critical texts hiring a competent service that offers professional medical regulatory documents translation is a great idea.
- Do you need a translator or interpreter?
We all know the basic difference between translators and interpreters. So you need to be clear on this part if you require translators or interpreters. Translators are usually required to deal with written content including reports, brochures, website content, and a lot more. They can deal with any kind of medical document translation and format. However, interpreters perform their duties in real-time. They are required when you need to communicate with someone who speaks a different language and an interpreter can translate the verbally spoken content. Both of them can also address regulatory translation issues. Many times even professionals fail to realize the difference between both and rather mix the roles which could be problematic with tight deadlines.
- Do you require a native speaker?
Working with a freelance medical translator and hiring a translation agency both go a different way. If you like to hire a translator directly you should make sure you have cross-checked and evaluated the translator’s profile. He should not only be good with the languages but should also have experience in regulatory compliance translation. As the rules and regulatory affairs may differ in different regions and professional translators are usually updated with the laws and rules which get changed around them.
Final words
Before you go for the professional medical translation, you need to address a few questions on your own. Medical practitioners and other healthcare staff often feel that they can translate the content themselves, however often fail to achieve desired quality. So people who are looking for translation solutions should follow certain practices based on the nature of the content and its translation requirements.