Disrupting the matrix: the 3 major problems in pharmaceutical and medical translation and how to solve them

This article addresses the major concerns and challenges of the pharmaceutical industry professionals working in the regulatory field related to translation and language solutions, as well as their expectations and desired solutions.

Having executed numerous translation, editing, and localization projects to support different types of pharmaceutical and medical business operations, from the translation of clinical research materials to the localization of marketing and other patient-oriented materials, we have grown aware of the most common challenges, issues, and solutions related to the development and provision of language services for the medical and pharmaceutical industries – from the viewpoint of language professionals and gradually gained insight into these challenges and expectations of our clients from the industry.

The following article features the major concerns and challenges of the pharmaceutical industry professionals working in the regulatory field related to translation, as well as their expectations and desired solutions.

Issue 1: Terminology

Lack of standardized and professionally adopted medical terminology for a great number of modern medical procedures, diagnostics, equipment and devices in the target language is the key issue.

For this reason, specific terminology should be discussed with the client at the early stages of the projects. Once the terms are approved, we may rely on terminology bases.

Terminology bases contain translations of specific industry terms that have been adopted and agreed upon by all stakeholders and can be used, consulted and/or updated on all future projects.

All professional translation tools support the use and management of termbases, effectively eliminating the issue of medical and pharmaceutical terminology in the target language and providing accuracy and consistency.

It should be noted that terminology bases are the result of a group effort – their foundation are glossaries, monolingual descriptions of new products, procedures or devices provided by the client or manufacturer, they are translated in accordance with the existing professionally and legally accepted linguistic conventions of the target market and finally approved by the client or regulators.

Issue 2: Response and turnaround times

Language solutions are often nested in the narrow gap between the finalization of a product, document, or any other piece of material than the needs to be translated or localized and its launch or delivery, making turnaround time really precious in the language industry.

However, speed and quality – particularly in highly specific and regulated domains such as pharmaceutics or medicine – do not really go hand in hand and it is another thing to deal with.

The translation process developed as the optimal form of full utilization of professional human knowledge, technology, and standards is designed to provide the highest output quality within the most reasonable timeframe.

The variables that affect the process include are the volume of materials to be processed, the number of language combinations and/or any additional requirements or services

The volume of translated text can be increased with the introduction of computer-assisted translation software and translation assets, as well as experienced and agile teams.

Issue 3: Style

Most of the time, style is preferential and what constitutes a really good translation can be debatable, but a bad translation is always easy to spot – the translated text makes little to no sense in the target language, the language lacks a natural flow and it is obvious to the reader that the material is (poorly) translated.

Inadequate phrasings, awkward syntax, and literal meanings are the things that none of the pharmaceutical industry professionals working in the regulatory field want to encounter.

Language solutions are a part of pharmaceutical and medical business operations on the foreign market, meaning that they need to function as such – they need to help those operations run smoothly on the foreign markets and not cause additional difficulties.

"There is cure for bad translation"

The solution to these kinds of issues is to be found in the translation process.

 We believe that it is of great importance for the life sciences professionals to check the strengths and the weaknesses of the existing translation processes: it might be the first step to achieving the optimum multilingual support and minimizing the translation issues.

Our recommendation is to assess the existing process by taking into account specific requirements and to be aware that there are ways of optimization, cost and time reduction, and quality improvement.

Found it interesting? Do not hesitate to contact me if you need help with language solutions. #translation #pharmaceutical #l10n #medical #language #solutions #technologyeclectic #ciklopea