High-quality healthcare communication, including translation, is key to providing better care, lowering costs, increasing patient satisfaction & compliance, improving quality of life, and mitigating the risk of costly legal proceedings in the event of poorly or wrongly communicated information.
This is why healthcare practitioners, clinics, hospitals, and health insurers around the world trust BeTranslated to deliver timely, accurate, and competitively priced healthcare translation services in a wide range of language pairs.
Why can’t I use an online translation tool?
While an online translation tool is absolutely fine for figuring out what you want to eat on holiday (most of the time!), when it comes to health it’s a different matter. For example, ‘angine’ means a sore throat in French, and angina in English signifies a heart condition. There is little difference lexically between the two, but the difference in severity is huge, and it is essential that the two don’t get mixed up.
Poorly or incorrectly translated healthcare and medical information is no laughing matter, and can have very serious consequences for patients, healthcare professionals, administrators, and legal teams.
When healthcare translation goes wrong
In Germany between 2006 and 2007, a one-word translation error resulted in 47 failed knee replacement surgeries, which had to be repeated resulting in significant additional costs for the hospital but, more seriously, caused considerable distress and pain for the 47 patients who had to undergo a second knee operation.
Another example of healthcare translation going horribly wrong, is the heartbreaking story of the British woman who had an unnecessary double mastectomy in Spain, after a translation error led her doctors to believe she had a family history of breast cancer. She is now suing the hospital.
It can be all too tempting to use machine translation, or to just ask a colleague or intern to perform a translation, but cutting costs when it comes to healthcare communication can end up being a very costly business.
What kind of content do specialised healthcare translators deal with?
BeTranslated’s experienced and highly trained linguists translate a variety of content for the healthcare industry in a wide range of formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign, etc.).
- Pharmaceutical/healthcare literature, and medicine labels
- Clinical trial documents
- Websites
- Medical device manuals and Instructions for Use (IFUs)
- Medical and pathology reports
- Lab and imaging results
- Software localisation of healthcare products
- Medical insurance documents
- Patient records
- Consent forms
- Post-treatment care instructions
What is the profile of a healthcare translator?
Translating healthcare documents requires a native level of language proficiency, analytical capabilities, and deep cultural knowledge in the source and target languages. A healthcare translator has formal education in the source and target languages, and is an expert in the terminology of the subject area.
Where can I find a high-quality healthcare translator?
BeTranslated has over fifteen years of experience in healthcare translation. Our expert linguists are fully trained in the translation of a range of healthcare and medical content, such as clinical trial documents, patient information leaflets, medical device instructions, research protocols, informed consent forms, and more. Translation services can be provided into and from a wide range of languages depending on your needs. All our projects are tailored to meet your unique requirements (budget, deadline, etc.).
Eliminate the risk
Whether you’re a practitioner, manager of a clinic or hospital, in charge of patient services, or if you are involved in pharmaceutical research or clinical trials, for complete peace of mind, let BeTranslated take care of all your healthcare translation requirements. BeTranslated is a boutique translation agency working with customers in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, and the Dominican Republic. Its global network of experienced translators provides language services to clients around the world.
If you would like to find out more about BeTranslated’s specialised translation and localisation services for the healthcare industry, contact our team for a free, no-obligation quote.
