Medical translation is a challenging task that goes beyond simple fluency in two languages. A professional medical translator must have an expert’s understanding of the industry, its technical terminology, and international privacy legislation — not to mention exemplary attention to detail to catch and remove any possible errors.
Reaching out to professional medical translation services can help you find a certified medical translator who boasts all these qualities and more. These healthcare translation services guarantee your translator has the following skills and training.
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Industry Experience
First and foremost, a medical translator must have extensive experience working within the healthcare or life sciences field.
The medical community uses highly complicated language that can overwhelm a general translator, as they may not always have a word-for-word translation in your target language.
Just like doctors and other healthcare professionals, medical translators may also specialize in their field. They may focus exclusively on drug patents, medication labeling, patient records, or surgical notes to reduce the risk of making mistakes when converting text into another language.
A Native Speaker’s Understanding
The top medical translation services deploy a translator who is a native speaker of the language you need for your project. They may even live in the country where your foreign language document originates, giving greater insights into the medical standards of the source content.
Why is a native speaker imperative to your translation? A native speaker has a deeper understanding of how their mother tongue functions grammatically, and they have first-hand experience using its slang and idioms. This helps them produce articulate translations.
The right choice of the medical translation service provider can help you find the greatest number of native speakers who provide customised services in the languages you need.
Strong Attention to Detail
A seemingly minor error in translation can have an enormous impact on your business — whether it causes the FDA to reject your drug treatment or it results in a patient’s death.
A professional medical translator understands the stakes every time they undertake a project, so they pay careful attention at every step to eliminate any miscommunications or inaccuracies.
To ensure the utmost accuracy for all your medical document translations, ask if the translator’s parent agency has the EN ISO 17100:2015 certification. This ensures the work they complete undergoes multiple levels of review in accordance with global healthcare standards.
Time Management Skills
Timing is just as important as accuracy since missing deadlines could put people’s lives at risk. Alternatively, it can disqualify your application for patents and approvals. As a result, your medical translator must respect deadlines — whether they’re hard or fluctuating.
Professional medical translation services retain thousands of translators on their roster in case you face exceedingly tight deadlines. With this many professionals on their team, they can deploy additional translators to your project and cut turnaround times in half.
Bottom Line
A medical translator offers more than just the languages they speak. They’re also specialised professionals with industry experience, attention to detail, and timely work. Remember this as you compare your options of translation service providers to manage your translation requirements.