Medical translation is one of the most challenging among all the translations. It involves high-level risks & difficulties as well. Any error can have a major effect on a patient’s treatment. Medical translation services are one of the highly specialized areas of work with a shortage of specialist medical translators in this field.

Having knowledge of more than one language is not sufficient to become a medical translator. Native speakers of multiple languages will definitely have an advantage but only when it is backed by continuous learning and years of practice in the medical field.

The medical industry is an innovative one and new technological advancements in terms of products and procedures are evolving every single day.

What Makes the Perfect Medical Translation?

Out of the multiple factors that make a medical translation perfect, an extremely important one is accuracy. A medical translation should be 100% accurate along with being correct in terms of language and terminology. Only an experienced medical industry veteran and linguistic expert should be chosen for performing medical translations.

Another important thing here is how the translator deals with medical data?The medical industry has sensitive data that needs to be kept private. It is the translator’s or the translation agency’s responsibility to ensure data security.

Medical translation is a critical mission because it is vital to meet consistency all the time during the translation process. If this doesn’t happen, it can lead to multiple negative consequences. The loss of life is the biggest of them all. Thus, keeping accuracy at the top level is the basis of a perfect medical translation.

Must-Have Skills for Medical Translators

Do you remember an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” where a doctor failed to understand what his non–English speaking patient was trying to tell about her situation?

Well, this is a common situation faced by multiple patients and doctors in most of the hospitals in the US. It also leads to delayed medical treatment in the case of serious patients. As the US has great medical facilities, millions of people from across the world come to the country for medical help & face such situations.

This increased the demand for medical translators. If a patient’s medical reports or doctor prescriptions are translated to the English language, it will save a lot of time and the needed medical procedure can be started soon by the hospitals.

But the medical translators need to have the following skills to be able to deliver a good quality medical translation that will be up to the industry standards.

• Having a strong command over multiple languages is the first one here. Besides all other skills, being as good as native to the pair of languages one is dealing with is of uttermost importance. He/she will not be considered as a translator until they have this skill. For instance, say if they are dealing with a patient’s medical documents in Cantonese and need to get them translated to the English language. Now, having an extremely good understanding of both languages is a must to perform translation.
• Strong command over various languages is not enough until a translator has in-depth knowledge of the industry terminologies. The medical industry has its own terms which are not only difficult but are also very complicated and complex. A good medical translator can ace the industry by learning these. Good knowledge of terms makes it easier for the translator to understand what is written in the medical documents and how it needs to be translated. Another important thing is to not stop learning as this industry is evolving day by day due to the inventions and innovations.
• A medical translator needs to be quick enough to finish the translations on time. How quick yet accurate the translator is will be clearly shown from his years of experience. 
• Meeting the code of ethics is the next skill needed by medical translators. It is important to ensure that all the professional standards are met during a medical translation. There are many such standards available in the medical industry to be followed by translators. A deep understanding of all of these is important to be able to provide great quality outputs every time. One such standard is to keep patient’s medical information confidential and not sharing it with any third party.
• The next important thing is that the translators should be ATA certified to do an appropriate job. Most of the organizations will accept medical translations only if the translator is certified.  

The Bottom Line

Medical translation has no place for assumptions. This is a well-defined industry where your skills are all that matters. Good command of language pair along with strong medical vocabulary are the two major pillars that will lead to 100% accurately translated outputs.

If you are looking for medical translation services that can deliver outputs quickly at affordable rates without compromising on the accuracy and data security, then it’s time to connect with Vanan Translation.