28 Jan Medical text translation, everything you should consider

Wondering how to produce a good medical text translation? You’ve come to the right place. At Okomeds medical agency, we perform all kinds of medical translations on a daily basis. In this article, we explain everything you should keep in mind in this area.

Best practices in medical translation

The translation sector is very broad and varied. It includes areas that not only require a high level of linguistic skills, but also very specific knowledge in a given subject. This is the case for the certified translation of medical texts, pharmaceutical translation and veterinary translation.

For medical translations, it is not enough to have perfect knowledge of the source and target languages. It is also necessary to have prior knowledge of the subject matter to be translated or interpreted. Medical translators have knowledge of cardiology, sports medicine, veterinary medicine, rehabilitation, paediatric surgery, dentistry, medical genetics and more. In this sense, it is essential, therefore, to set a series of standards that are put into practice and guarantee the quality of the product or service to be offered to the customer.

Terminology in medical text translation

Terminology is a determining factor in medical text translation. The right thing to do is always rely on specialised translators who have extensive training and, above all, experience in the specific field of work. Professional medical translators are responsible for delivering and communicating a clear and consistent message that is not misleading under any circumstances. It would be a serious matter if a prescription or a medical record were mistranslated and, as a result, a patient did not receive the appropriate treatment.

Medicine is not a stationary science, but is constantly evolving, and this is something that a medical translator must always keep in mind. This means that medical translators, as well as doctors themselves, need to train and update their knowledge. This way they will provide an impeccable medical translation service.