5 reasons to choose a healthcare translator for your MedComms
Would you entrust a patient information leaflet to a non-specialist translator or online translation tool? Or ask a general translation agency to subtitle training videos about a rare disease?
In this blog post, I’ll show you why you shouldn’t. There are good reasons why freelance translation experts specialising in medical communications (“MedComms”) are in demand.
From promotional materials for new drugs to conference resources, they’re your linguistic experts for your chosen target market. And they offer more than that! Let’s dig deeper and see what they can do for your medical translation project.
1. Improved patient outcomes through quality translations
According to an article in the British Journal of General Practice (2022), people in the UK “who do not speak English will report greater barriers to accessing primary care than those who do, have a poorer patient experience, and are more likely to be in poor health.”
This means that non-localised medical information worsens patient outcomes: there will be inferior results from health care and/or treatments if patients don’t fully understand written or verbal medical information.
So, it’s crucial for specialised healthcare translators to remove language barriers, and to provide easy-to-understand medical translations. Through their in-depth knowledge of the target market, they are also best placed to flag any issues that might be controversial in their culture or language.
2. Tailored copy aimed at medical staff and patients
A good medical communications translator will cater for target audiences of all cultural and educational backgrounds, including senior healthcare professionals.
For instance, I recently worked on translations for ads that were displayed in a peer-reviewed medical journal. These advertisements promoted an effective drug for nephropathy, encouraging physicians to prescribe this medication more widely.
What made the project interesting was the mix of skills I had to use: both literal translations of scientific data and transcreations of marketing slogans.
Similarly, when I subtitled a masterclass video aimed at physicians about another rare disease, I had to convey a switch in tone of voice when translating original patient accounts into Italian. This meant that, in some sections, I simplified the scientific terminology to convey to doctors how lay people would talk about their illness. The aim was to enable physicians to diagnose this condition more easily.
3. The right communication channels for your target audience
Experienced MedComms translators work on a wide variety of medical outputs and need to have a good understanding of marketing strategies and methods. Let’s look at this in detail.
Medical communication aimed at patients
Healthcare translators may work on e.g. patient education materials, digital appointment letters, information leaflets, health apps, guidance for medical appliances or social media posts. A solid understanding of or an additional specialisation in marketing translation is useful in most cases.
Of course, they will also have a good grasp of what they are reading regarding medical and scientific terms. Depending on the type of publication, they’ll be able to either translate literally (e.g. for data/measurements) or use a more creative approach (e.g. in ads copy).
For example, I worked on social media transcreations for a British patient association aiming to build a multilingual community beyond UK borders. My focus here was on nurturing an Italian social media community of patients who suffered from the same rare disease, and to raise awareness of this illness among the general population.
I needed to understand the patient association’s marketing strategy, channels, target audiences and brand voice. Any scientific terminology also had to be error free and easily understandable in Italian.
To help with projects like these, I always consult an experienced doctor and work with a second proofreader. Our combined expertise ensures flawless copy – every time.
Medical communication aimed at healthcare professionals
Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff need up-to-date and tailored information, too. MedComms translators will work on specialist medical websites and journals, clinical trial documents, scientific papers, conference materials, regulatory documents and training resources, to name just a few.
A recent example of my own translation work for this target audience was Italian promotional material for a new prescription drug. This included concepts, positioning statements, and an elevator pitch aimed at physicians.
Again, I worked with an Italian doctor and proofreader, so I was able to deliver copy that was perfect for the target market.
4. Avoid dangerously inaccurate translations
Mistranslations can be a matter of life and death. An article by Letizia Leonardi in Granite Journal (2022) listed some translation mistakes that had serious consequences for patients and healthcare services. For example,
- faulty machine translations caused severe dosage and instruction errors in a US patient information leaflet; and
- patients in a French hospital overdosed on radiation treatments because the hospital administration had relied “on bilingual personnel members to translate instructions and use the [radiation] device”.
To avoid grave mistakes like these, MedComms linguists and specialised medical translation agencies follow strict quality assurance processes and guidelines. For instance, they use specialist glossaries and medical term bases for their projects.
This isn’t enough to avoid errors in the translation process, though. Like me, translators in this area should work with a medical expert and a proofreader to ensure accuracy. After all, three pairs of eyes are better than one!
To learn more, read my case study on my recent work with medical communications agency Havas Life Medicom.
5. Invest in better data security
We’ve seen that machine translation tools, such as Google Translate, aren’t very reliable – particularly for medical communications purposes. Neither are they safe from a GDPR/data security point of view.
A professional medical translator or health comms expert will do their utmost to protect any information they handle. Additionally, members of translation and interpreting associations – in my case, the ITI and TradInfo – pledge to follow their organisations’ conduct rules.
This will ensure that any health-related information is handled safely and securely.
Choose an expert for your MedComms translations
It’s clear that specialist translators are the safest choice for your medical content. Not only are they trained and experienced, but they will also keep their skills up to date through continuous learning.
Do you need help with your next health-related translation project (English/German to Italian)? I’ll be more than happy to assist you.
If you’re interested in other language combinations for a particular medical sector, watch this space: I’ll introduce you to my new MedComms translators’ network in a future blog post.
In the meantime, let’s chat by email or in an informal call. Get in touch!