What is Healthcare Translation?


Language barriers create significant challenges to providing effective and high-quality healthcare. Of all Americans 5 years of age and over, 60.6 million people (21%) speak a language other than English. In the United States, federal and state laws provide a framework to ensure healthcare access for individuals unable to speak English. Many healthcare institutions have access to interpreter services, and the availability of professional translators has been associated with improvements in patient satisfaction, communication, and overall healthcare access.



Whether you are providing advice about the winter flu season, or instructions on how to use a cardiac medical device, linguistically diverse populations need to receive critical health information in a language they can understand and speak. It has been established that poor access to medical information can result in serious danger to a patient’s health. Misunderstandings of medication dosage alone can and have resulted in patient deaths. Healthcare providers, insurance companies and pharmacies are required to offer language services for individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEPs) in their native language. Medical and healthcare translation services are highly technical and demand the utmost accuracy.

Effective communication with patients about medical conditions and treatments can be as important as the diagnosis. In the United States, there are currently over 21 million people with limited English proficiency. These individuals are more likely to experience difficulties in understanding a medical situation, following treatment instructions, or even reading labels on medications. The consequences of miscommunication or misunderstandings can be very dangerous. Knowing the importance of this issue, many medical translation companies and agencies offer a variety of solutions so that each project is handled with the highest level of accuracy and service in the industry:
  • Translation of Medical Forms and Records
  • Bilingual Staffing
  • On-Site Interpretation
  • Over-the-Phone Interpreting
  •  Multilingual Typesetting 


Medical Translation Skill Requirements

Translating medical terminology and jargon becomes even more complex with the emergence of new diseases, treatments and therapies. As new global epidemics continue to challenge medicine, such as Zika and Ebola, they create a greater need for multilingual translation. However, since medical terminology is so broad, it’s inevitable that various problems will occur as translators attempt to create correct and corresponding translations across languages. Being a translator in the medical industry demands a deep understanding of medical vocabulary in two or more languages. Being bilingual doesn’t necessarily mean that someone will be able to translate medical jargon from one language to another because the terminology is not familiar to those outside of a particular profession. For instance, even someone with a background in cardiology may not be adequately fluent in the terminology specific to the field of oncology, especially in another language.

A good medical translator should have the following 3 capabilities:

  • Have a comprehensive knowledge and reasoning ability in the medical field being translated
  • Be able to read and understand the source language competently so that he/she understands the meaning of a particular text
  • Be able to accurately express the meaning of the translation in the target language

All 3 qualities are equally important, as each attribute is closely connected to one another in terms of understanding specific phrasing in different languages. Even if just one of the above mentioned skills is not performed, it will ultimately alter the translation process.
In order to provide the best possible healthcare to all patients and to mitigate potential liabilities, it is crucial that the translation of medical information be performed by highly skilled, experienced language specialists so that everyone can get the same and accessible information that they can easily understand.  

Location: New York, NY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should find a Primary Care Physician?

Image
Who is a primary care physician? A primary care doctor or physician is the physician you first seen in case you have a health problem. Your primary care doctor will help you get the best care and also talk to medical specialists about your health case so that you can get the best treatment. He or she will be involved in your healthcare for a long time. You will always receive primary medical care in an outpatient setting just like you would do in a doctor’s clinic or office. You may be looking to change your primary care physician or get a new one. Never be worried! To find a doctor near you is an important step towards managing your healthcare. Your primary physician is always your medical “Home”. This is the medical doctor you will visit most mostly if you have medical needs such as routine screening, non-emergency diseases such as sore throat and earaches, wellness visits and when you need someone to ask of health questions or conce...
Read more

Genetic Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency (GSID)

Image
Sucrose or table sugar is a disaccharide that is made up of two simple sugars linked together by glycosidic bonds. The two simple sugars are glucose and fructose. Maltose is also another disaccharide made up of two glucose molecules. Human beings cannot absorb sucrose or maltose directly from the small intestines to the blood stream. Therefore, two enzyme known as Sucrase and Isomaltase are needed to cleave sucrose and maltose into glucose and fructose which are simple sugars (monosaccharide) that can be absorbed from the digestive track to the blood stream. If there is absence or low levels of sucrose and isomaltase, then a person is unable to break down sucrose or starch. What is GSID? Genetic Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency (GSID) is a rare genetic disorder that affects one’s ability to digest sucroseor maltose due to low levels or absence of two digestive enzymes, Isomaltase and Sucrase. Sucrase and Isomaltase are two enzymes that are associated with digestion of starch and ...
Read more

Benefits of Social Media States Healthcare

Image
Many social media tools are available for health care professionals (HCPs), including social networking platforms, blogs, microblogs, wikis, media-sharing sites, and virtual reality and gaming environments.These tools can be used to improve or enhance professional networking and education, organizational promotion, patient care, patient education, and public health programs.  Social media provide HCPs with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues. HCPs can use social media to potentially improve health outcomes, develop a professional network, increase personal awareness of news and discoveries, motivate patients, and provide health information to the community. Physicians most often join online communities where they can read news articles, listen to experts, research medical developments, cons...
Read more