Accuracy is a key feature in any type of professional translation. However, when working in particular sectors, the requirements of a translation work carried out in a workmanlike manner become more stringent, and it is important that they are fully respected in order to guarantee the necessary results. Without any doubt, among the fields in which these circumstances occur, the translation of medical documentation (https://www.bantelmann-translate.de/en/medical-pharmaceutical-translations) holds a prominent place.
Medical translations are a sub-category of the broader family of scientific translations. Specifically, the definition includes all the translation work of documents relating to clinical trials, pharmaceutical research, medical practices and the use of related devices and software, as well as textbooks of medical disciplines.
Perhaps even more than what happens in many other sectors, entrusting translations of this type to a professional and specialized translator is indispensable: the complexity and importance of the work require it. But how to evaluate if the result is actually up to par?
It is possible to identify at least four elements that are essential to find in a medical translation job in order to define it as being done in a workmanlike manner.
The more a mistake can have serious consequences, the more it is necessary for the instructions relating to the task to be punctual, precise and free from any risk of misunderstanding. If this is the general rule, it is difficult to imagine an area in which it applies more stringently than in the medical one.
For this reason, any translation of texts or documents relating to medical practices must be as faithful as possible to the original text. The terms used cannot be ambiguous, the concepts must be presented with identical clarity and without any danger of misunderstanding, and every possible detail must be kept in the target text.
The law must protect public safety, and this inevitably entails a direct interest of the legislators in relation to all documents whose contents have even a potential impact on people's health. Undoubtedly, all the information typically contained in a medical translation - think of a clinical study, or the instructions for the use of a pharmaceutical product - fully fall within this definition: it is therefore inevitable that there are precise regulations in this regard.
Anyone who deals with medical translations must necessarily be up-to-date with regard to the legal innovations affecting this sector, so as to be able to work in compliance with the relative laws. A very recent example is that relating to the introduction of MDR, a European level legislation that involves various aspects relating to medical devices including - precisely the topic of our interest - the rules relating to the documentation that must accompany medicines.
It may seem trivial, but a fundamental requirement for translating a complex text well is to understand its content thoroughly. If this level of understanding is possible for everyone with a careful and thorough reading for most of the documents that one can happen to translate in the commercial field, things change markedly when we move on to translations of a more technical type, and perhaps find its culmination in medical translations.
To fully understand the nuances, as well as the terminologies, contained in documents of this kind, you need a specialist not only in the language, but in the medical field, who is familiar with the concepts that are presented and illustrated. Only in this way is it possible to ensure that the final translation faithfully reflects the intentions of the source text.
Each scientific sector has its own specific vocabulary, because the technical terminology allows to combine two fundamental concepts, namely precision and conciseness. Using technical terms in fact allows you to express the details of any information without requiring complex and potentially misunderstood sentences, and at the same time maintaining every fundamental detail of the information to be transmitted.
Naturally, the absolutely exact translation of each of these terms is one of the essential elements of a valid medical translation. A specialized professional will make use of specific database systems to ensure not only that they are translating correctly, but that they are doing so in compliance with the terminological conventions commonly used in the target language.
As we said at the beginning, a good medical translation must guarantee absolute accuracy. For this reason, there are two procedures that are rarely used in other areas of translation, but which are an almost essential best practice in this field: harmonization and back translation.
The first term refers to the collaboration between two specialized translators, who work on the same text separately and then compare and merge their results into a single translation, thus being able to ensure clarity and accuracy of the highest level. The second, on the other hand, has to do with the final verification, in which the document resulting from the harmonized translation is entrusted to a third translator - completely unaware of the work done up to that moment - to translate it back into the original language; the perfect correspondence of this translation to the source text is the best guarantee of a professionally outstanding work.
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