English-German and English-Italian medical and pharmaceutical translations

Bantelmann Translate offers medical and pharmaceutical translations in German and Italian for the medical, surgical, dental and veterinary sectors, using specialized translators, who are native speakers, and offering harmonization and back-translation practices.

 

What are pharmaceutical and medical translation?

Medical and pharmaceutical translation are particular sub-types of scientific translation; they refer to the conversion of all documentation relating to medical practices, pharmacological research or medical devices into a language other than the original.

In medical translations, absolute precision of terminology and the perfect coincidence of concepts with those of the original is, if possible, even more important than in all other areas: the accuracy of the message and surety of its interpretation could literally save lives.

Bantelmann specializes in rapid pharmaceutical and medical translations in German and Italian, which it entrusts to a team of translators, native-speakers of both languages, with expertise at the highest level in both linguistic and scientific/medical fields. Only this combination of skills allows us to complete our German and Italian medical translations in a tight time frame and without any errors.

 

Who requires medical translations?

Pharmaceutical and medical translations are in demand in the medical, surgical, dental and veterinary fields, both clinical and experimental, as well as in the field of laboratory, medical or radiological equipment. Therefore, requiring specialized and rapid medical translations into Italian and German are the most diverse entities:

• hospitals,
• research laboratories,
• University,
• CROs (Contract Research Organizations),
• pharmaceutical companies,
• regulatory offices,
• medical and electromedical equipment companies,
• manufacturers of dietary supplements,
• editors,
• medical and scientific research organisations.

 

The need for this kind of translations is increasing with globalization and the expansion of markets and the scientific community, making it necessary to both communicate one's discoveries and research and to sell pharmaceutical and medical products in foreign markets; and on top of that, dealing with foreign markets means perfectly understanding a set of strict regulations and legal guidelines. For this reason, we are structured to set up close and long-term collaborations with our clients, becoming their stable partners: only by continuously working with medical translators who specialize for Italian and German can we guarantee good results with constancy while respecting the tight timeframes typical of this field.

Contact us now for specialized medical translation between English, Italian and German!

Which kinds of documents require medical translations?

Medical and pharmaceutical translations are required for a wide variety of documents, precisely because they cover very different branches – from research to hospital care, from the marketing of medical products to scientific communication and dissemination.

This is but a brief overview of the main types of documentation for which a medical translation is required:

When is a translation needed in the medical or pharmaceutical field?

Given the many different possible customers in the medical sector, and the vast variety of possible documents that may be required to be translated in that field, it is possible to identify a specific set of events and situations in which manufacturing companies, research centers, and other organizations may normally need medical or pharmaceutical translation into English or German and other organizations may normally need medical or pharmaceutical translation into Italian or German:

• the introduction of a new medical device or a new drug on the market
• the communication of research results
• the treatment of patients from other countries
• a clinical trial, either preclinical or clinical phase
• the filing of a medical or pharmaceutical patent with the appropriate agencies

In all of these situations, it is necessary to manage the translation project competently and professionally, meeting often tight deadlines.

 

The requirements of a good translator in the pharmaceutical and medical fields

The most obvious requirement of an Italian or German translator in the medical field, namely proficiency in the language, is but the first and if you will, the most obvious of those that go into making up a truly specialized professional in this field. In addition to perfect knowledge of the original language of the document and the language into which it is to be translated, a medical translation professional must also be able to guarantee absolute accuracy and fidelity to the original text, and to do so they require

• absolute terminological rigor: in medical translation there is no room for ambiguity or imprecision, which can have literally dramatic consequences.
• full-proof reliability of content: even more so than for ambiguities, it should be pointed out that medical translations containing errors or deviations from the original text cannot be submitted.
• clear communication: medical texts translated into Italian or German may, on a case-by-case basis, be intended for an experienced researcher, a general practitioner, a purchasing manager, a pharmacist, or an ordinary citizen. All of these figures have completely different linguistic and especially specialized skills, so it is essential that the translated text be calibrated to be perfectly understood by its target reader.
• uniformity of style: terms, expressions, and phrases should be used consistently throughout the document, even when the translation work is entrusted to several professionals, to avert any possible misunderstanding.
• knowledge of standards and laws: medical translation also requires the translator to be familiar with regulations and rules of the target country, even for Western languages such as Italian and German, so as not to run into significant errors.

 

Mode of work

Medical and pharmaceutical translations must be carried out with absolute accuracy and reliability. This requires specific and special ways of working and processing the text to ensure maximum reliability of the translated text.
1. Our Italian and German translators specialize in the field of medical and pharmaceutical translation: this means both having an excellent command of the languages in question and a perfect understanding of the highly specific language typical of both technical and layman’s medical documentation.
2. In carrying out medical and pharmaceutical translations into Italian and German, our specialists use specific phraseology databases and terminology guides, such as those compiled by the EMA, so as to fully align with the technical terminology of the industry and the specific terminology of the client.
3. Among the tools increasingly used in pharmaceutical and medical translation are those related to machine translation. Our specialized translators are able to carry out the crucial post-editing phase of the texts, to speed up the work and return verified and usable content; for this purpose, they often work directly on the client's proprietary platform.
4. The process of translating pharmaceutical and medical documentation into Italian and German includes specific control steps to ensure maximum adherence to the original text:

• harmonization, during which the text is translated by two separate native-speaking specialists, who then compare and merge the work done, so as to detect and resolve any oversights;
• back-translation, during which the translated text is entrusted to a third native speaker translator so that he or she can retranslate it into the original language, so as to verify that the translation is indeed accurate, understandable, and perfectly reflecting the initial text.

5. Especially in the field of research, medical projects requiring specialized translation into Italian or German are of multi-year duration; in such cases, we assign a stable team of translators to the project from start to finish, so as to ensure linguistic consistency throughout the work.
6. To meet the requirements for privacy and secrecy of translated content, which in medical and pharmaceutical translation are often even more stringent than in other fields, our specialized medical translators often operate under specific nondisclosure agreements. The signing of an NDA is a recognized and necessary step in our work, and a guarantee that even the most confidential content and information-whether for reasons of privacy, trade secret, or normal confidentiality-will never be released to anyone not specifically designated by the client, for any reason.
7. Sometimes it is necessary to give a specific guarantee of adherence of medical and pharmaceutical translations in Italian and German to the original text: this can be achieved through the legal instrument of sworn translation, or through the mechanism of apostille. We have experienced linguists in our team of specialized translators in this field as well, who can offer our clients this option as well.