Sean Hopwood, Founder and President, Day Translations06.13.19
Medical translation is a special type of translation that requires not only proficiency in the source and target languages, but also a considerable level of medical knowledge. As such, choosing a medical translation provider should not be a “come what may” decision. Errors in medical literature and label translations can lead to severe consequences on many people.
The following five tips should be useful in finding the right company for medical translation services.
1. Undertake a Meticulous Research for the Best Options
This is no-brainer first step. You need to actively seek out the language service providers (LSP) that can best serve your needs. It can be through the internet, by asking for recommendations from friends and acquaintances, and by looking at reviews or rankings of the best LSPs around.
When shortlisting options, it’s important to take the following factors into account.
2. Invite Companies to Send Their Bids
You can announce your demand for medical translation service and wait for language service providers to submit their bids. You don’t have to do all of the research on your own. Wait for companies to pitch their services, especially the advantages they offer. Make companies compete for the translation project you want to undertake. It’s not remotely possible for them to adjust their services and prices to get the project.
You can announce your project at forums, on social media, as well as on job ad boards. Many companies actually go to job sites to look for potential clients. They would promptly send their details to you after seeing the opportunity you posted. Just make sure you are presenting your project in a professional manner, so you can attract only the best service providers.
3. Ascertain the Credibility of the People or Review Sites You Use as Reference
If you ask for the recommendations of friends, colleagues, or acquaintances, ensure they have the credibility to speak on the matter. You can’t ask for referrals from people who haven’t actually tried availing the service you are seeking. This does not mean, however, that you must only rely on the opinions of those who have contracted a company to perform medical translations. You can also welcome recommendations from those who are not necessarily from the medical device industry, but are acquainted with high quality language service companies.
On the other hand, if you go to review websites, ensure they are not sites created only to promote certain companies. Being atop search results does not equate to credibility. A good site design and the absence of obtrusive ads doesn’t always mean a site is credible. A useful review website is one that has been online for a long time, has numerous regular visitors, and presents verifiable information. If you have doubts in what a site is presenting, you can compare its content to those of similar review sites or verify its facts by asking for corroborations from previous customers and competitors. Moreover, watch out for potentially “spun” content or content that had been simply rewritten out of similar content from other sites.
4. Expect a Dedicated Account and Project Manager
You don’t want to compete with other clients for the attention of your account’s project manager. The team assigned to you should focus on completing your project instead of having revolving translators and project managers who keep becoming unavailable as they attend to the concerns of other clients. Get the assurance they will only be working on your project for a specific period and will be there to promptly respond to concerns.
Medical translations require a high level of precision and contextual accuracy. Don’t compromise the quality of your final output by choosing a cheap service that doesn’t provide the attention and responsiveness you should be getting.
5. Look for Relevant ISO Certification
Having an ISO certification means a business was evaluated by a third party and certified to have passed certain management standards. It accords credibility and a reputation for quality. For language service providers, the most commonly obtained ISO certification is ISO 9001, which basically ensures a company has well-documented processes and a good quality management system (QMS). It is not specific to language service companies. It is granted to businesses that are able to prove they have effective planning, operation, and control over processes and continuous QMS improvement. Companies with ISO 9001 certification are expected to have a quality manual, procedures documentation, a stated (written) quality policy, and documentation for organization, implementation, and record keeping.
Other ISO certifications that are applicable to translation companies are:
You don’t need to look for all of these ISO certifications in an LSP to shortlist. Having certifications is good, but the proof of the pudding is still in the eating. More weight should be given to the actual track record of the companies you are considering.
Conclusion
Don’t choose a medical translation service company haphazardly. Give it careful thought and spend time to find the best possible options. After all, you are not only after the quality of service they deliver, but rather, you also need to ensure the medical translations you use don’t end up creating problems for your company later on.
The following five tips should be useful in finding the right company for medical translation services.
1. Undertake a Meticulous Research for the Best Options
This is no-brainer first step. You need to actively seek out the language service providers (LSP) that can best serve your needs. It can be through the internet, by asking for recommendations from friends and acquaintances, and by looking at reviews or rankings of the best LSPs around.
When shortlisting options, it’s important to take the following factors into account.
- Experience and expertise of the company: Long-running companies are usually preferable, but don’t immediately rule out new players, especially if they have the remarkable track record to show. Examine their list of previous clients. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try getting feedback or comments from these clients. Moreover, you need to ascertain that the translators of the companies you are considering have adequate medical knowledge.
- Details of the process: Know how the companies perform medical translations. Ask for details and explanations for the steps they go through. Emphasize the need for thorough quality control. Choose the ones that allow you to get regular updates and make inputs or suggestions while the job is still ongoing.
- Turnaround: Faster is always better as long as the quality of the output does not suffer. Medical translations are not usually urgent tasks, but it would be advantageous to get the output early so it can be reviewed and corrected (if there are mistakes) as soon as possible.
- Price: Of course, affordability also matters. Just don’t make it the main deciding factor. Most companies readily provide price quotes for a certain project through their websites or mobile apps.
2. Invite Companies to Send Their Bids
You can announce your demand for medical translation service and wait for language service providers to submit their bids. You don’t have to do all of the research on your own. Wait for companies to pitch their services, especially the advantages they offer. Make companies compete for the translation project you want to undertake. It’s not remotely possible for them to adjust their services and prices to get the project.
You can announce your project at forums, on social media, as well as on job ad boards. Many companies actually go to job sites to look for potential clients. They would promptly send their details to you after seeing the opportunity you posted. Just make sure you are presenting your project in a professional manner, so you can attract only the best service providers.
3. Ascertain the Credibility of the People or Review Sites You Use as Reference
If you ask for the recommendations of friends, colleagues, or acquaintances, ensure they have the credibility to speak on the matter. You can’t ask for referrals from people who haven’t actually tried availing the service you are seeking. This does not mean, however, that you must only rely on the opinions of those who have contracted a company to perform medical translations. You can also welcome recommendations from those who are not necessarily from the medical device industry, but are acquainted with high quality language service companies.
On the other hand, if you go to review websites, ensure they are not sites created only to promote certain companies. Being atop search results does not equate to credibility. A good site design and the absence of obtrusive ads doesn’t always mean a site is credible. A useful review website is one that has been online for a long time, has numerous regular visitors, and presents verifiable information. If you have doubts in what a site is presenting, you can compare its content to those of similar review sites or verify its facts by asking for corroborations from previous customers and competitors. Moreover, watch out for potentially “spun” content or content that had been simply rewritten out of similar content from other sites.
4. Expect a Dedicated Account and Project Manager
You don’t want to compete with other clients for the attention of your account’s project manager. The team assigned to you should focus on completing your project instead of having revolving translators and project managers who keep becoming unavailable as they attend to the concerns of other clients. Get the assurance they will only be working on your project for a specific period and will be there to promptly respond to concerns.
Medical translations require a high level of precision and contextual accuracy. Don’t compromise the quality of your final output by choosing a cheap service that doesn’t provide the attention and responsiveness you should be getting.
5. Look for Relevant ISO Certification
Having an ISO certification means a business was evaluated by a third party and certified to have passed certain management standards. It accords credibility and a reputation for quality. For language service providers, the most commonly obtained ISO certification is ISO 9001, which basically ensures a company has well-documented processes and a good quality management system (QMS). It is not specific to language service companies. It is granted to businesses that are able to prove they have effective planning, operation, and control over processes and continuous QMS improvement. Companies with ISO 9001 certification are expected to have a quality manual, procedures documentation, a stated (written) quality policy, and documentation for organization, implementation, and record keeping.
Other ISO certifications that are applicable to translation companies are:
- ISO 17100:2015: This standard pertains to the existence of core processes, resources, and business aspects that make it possible for a company to deliver quality services. ISO 17100:2015, however, does not apply to interpreting services and does not cover processes involving the use of raw output from machine translation for subsequent post-editing.
- ISO 13485:2016: This ISO standard is specific to quality assurance processes for medical devices.
- ISO 27001:2013: Companies with this certification are found to have an information security management system (ISMS) that enables a systematic way for securely handling sensitive company data.
You don’t need to look for all of these ISO certifications in an LSP to shortlist. Having certifications is good, but the proof of the pudding is still in the eating. More weight should be given to the actual track record of the companies you are considering.
Conclusion
Don’t choose a medical translation service company haphazardly. Give it careful thought and spend time to find the best possible options. After all, you are not only after the quality of service they deliver, but rather, you also need to ensure the medical translations you use don’t end up creating problems for your company later on.