Because translation services are in demand in just about every field, including the Medical arena, translators tend to choose a field which they call their specialism. This makes it far easier when selecting a medical translator because the selection process can be based on the translator’s experience translating in the medical field. Because translators specialise there is no need to choose any translator as there are specialists to choose from who are more reliable and provide more accurate translations.

What a Good Medical Translator can Achieve

A translator who has specialised in medical translation will have compiled databases and glossaries of key technical terms. These can be used in any future medical translation work as they have already been tried and tested. The main aim of a good medical translator is to make sure that medical translation is as good as the source text. Accuracy is the most important feature when translating and this is, of course, important when lives could be at stake if a medical translation is inaccurate.  A good translation needs to include slang, expressions and key cultural references that can be translated directly into another language and should be close to the source text meaning.

What are the Qualifications of a Medical Translator?

When choosing a medical translator, key features you should look for are being fluent in the language pair and if possible the translator should show proof that he or she has completed and passed a medical assistant’s programme or has a bachelor’s degree in a science field. It is important that the translator has in-depth medical terminology knowledge in order to complete a medical translation. You cannot wait forever for your medical translation so if you choose the right translator in the first place you will reap the rewards.

What you can Expect a Medical Translator to do

A good medical translator should be able to competently translate medical information found on websites, patients’ medical records and written material that patients are required to read before signing. They should also be able to translate accurately any information that is related to the medical field. This includes guidelines for taking medications and possible side effects.

Medical translators typically translate the medical history of patients, documents concerning hospital discharge and medical device instructions. You can also expect your chosen medical translator to translate such documents as informed consent forms. Another document that may need translating is an adverse event report.  In the medical related field documents that may need translating are summaries of features of medical products, marketing materials and labels for any medicinal products. Also, articles ready for publication in medical journals and surveys for medical marketing research.

Can you Depend on your Medical Translator being Accurate?

This is an important question coming from anyone seeking a medical translator. Most medical translators use their ability to be accurate to win contracts. A medical translator knows that medical translation work demands a high degree of accuracy. They know only too well that a wrong term or word could be damaging and could even get to the point of putting lives at risk. It’s not just the literal word for word translation that is important but the medical translator needs to be able to use the most popular language that can be easily understood and is simple and clear.

Easy to Communicate

A good medical translator should possess people skills and should easily be able to maintain a good relationship with clients. He or she should be able to provide the proof that they retain customers and are constantly taking on new clients. All the translator’s skills, knowledge and talent should be maintained to the highest level. Medical documents translation cannot be given to anyone who just says they are bilingual at least two languages, as experience in the medical fields is essential too.

What a Good Translator will Always do

A medical translator will input several steps into a medical translation. Once the translation has been completed a spellchecking tool will be used to check for misspellings. After any corrections have been made the translator should read through the translation to make sure it makes sense.

A good medical translation should read as though it was originally written in the language and is not a translation. This means there should be no word for word translations. These can be spotted because they will not fit comfortably in the translation. Fortunately, most medical translators use CAT tools that should find any untranslated segments that will be the same as the source text. It even detects if there are any numbers that are wrong or missing. These sorts of tools have increased the chances of getting an accurate, foolproof medical translation that will do good, not harm to the clients, who asked for the medical translation.

Summary

In today’s world, where translators are the key to understanding, there is no shortage of good medical translators. They go out of their way to ensure they have the experience and dedication to work as medical translators as this is the key to ensuring a good and accurate medical translation has been completed. As long as you, as the client, ask your chosen medical translator key questions about their experience in translating in the medical field, you cannot go wrong. Medical translating is a growing field and the quality of translators improves over time.

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