Medical and Pharmaceutical Translation

Most of the work in 'medical translation' is done for the large pharmaceutical companies. We translate manuals, labels, and test and examination reports. When dealing with people's health, there can be no room for errors. Errors in this line of work can be fatal. That's why only doctor-linguists are competent for this line of work.

Medical translations are read and appreciated, in the final analysis, by other doctors. And doctors do have their own language. Terminology and style can easily betray a text translated by a non-doctor who has not fully understood, or experienced, the subject.

To translate medical texts you must have a broad education. You must have a good grounding in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology. You must have seen, done, and, at the very least, come close to the procedures you are talking about. That is why our network of translators all have medical qualifications. This is your first guarantee of quality.

Your translation will be done by technically competent people. Furthermore, as with all our work, our translators only ever translate into their active native language. Having been recruited from universities and hospitals around the world, they are often brilliant people with PhD's and international experience. Many are engaged in ground-breaking research work. Typically having spent several years in another country, they not only speak and write their second language, but have recent and comprehensive experience of the use of language in medicine as it is used in another country.

All this to say that when you come to us you are speaking to highly-qualified professionals who understand intimately the subject they are going to translate. In this area of our work, our in-house linguists defer to the translators on terminology. We check their work thoroughly, and will question inconsistencies or elements that appear illogical, but we recognise that only medically qualified linguists can have the final word. It is an unfortunate reality that most medical translation work is done by unqualified translators. Such translations are sure to contain mistakes and may have very serious consequences.

Without wishing to dwell on it further, please be assured that quality is taken very seriously in medical translation by all our staff.