Translating Life Science Content: When Quality is Crucial

There's no room for mistakes when translating life science documents. Even the slightest typographical error can have enormous financial repercussions on your company, not to mention put medical patients' lives at stake. To ensure you get quality, accuracy, and precision, read this article to find out everything you should know about life science translation.

Life Science Translation: When do I need it?

Life science companies and organizations operate in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, biomedical technology and devices, life science technology, nutraceuticals, environmental, etc. They engage in various stages of clinical research and development.

When life science companies plan to launch a product in a new market, export medical devices, or provide treatment for a foreign patient, they require multilingual, high-quality translation. Typically, these documents include technical specifications, patient medical records, marketing content, packaging, etc.

Life Science translation generally is divided into four areas:

• Clinical Studies / Clinical Trials
• Pharmaceuticals / Pharma
• Medical Devices
• Healthcare / Public Health

The importance of quality in life science translations

High-quality content is critical when translating life science materials. In this field, accuracy and precision are more crucial than ever since faulty translations can lead to severe consequences, such as legal actions, wrong diagnoses, and the worst-case scenario, loss of human life.

That's why life science companies often choose to work with professional, certified translation providers with demonstrated experience in providing life science translations. Apart from being highly trained linguists, medical translators are, above all, subject-matter experts. With the support of high-end technology, proven processes, and quality standards, certified translation agencies can provide regulated, compliant life science translations.

Here are the five most essential tips for high-quality, compliant life science translations:

Invest in a professional translation provider

Experience is vital when searching for life science translation partners! Find a provider with a proven history of providing multilingual life science translation. It means they have the necessary knowledge of processes, conventions and know all the life science industry's ins and outs.

Subject-matter expertise

Although it's always recommended to work with subject-matter experts when translating technical documents, when it comes to the life science industry, hiring industry specialists is a must! Look to hire translators with a background in medicine, pharmacy, or any other life science field.

Regulatory compliance

Life science translation requires precision and a deep understanding of strict regulatory laws. Medical and life science translations often need to respond to the guidelines set out by target countries. With native-speaking medical professionals on board, local laws are always tightly followed when translating life science materials.
Professional translation providers worldwide obey international standards such as ISO 17100 to ensure translation quality and information security for their clients.

Multiple levels of quality control

Translations have to undergo multiple layers of quality control, checks, and balances throughout the entire process, to ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance.

At Language Buró, we meet the highest level of quality in providing regulatory compliant life science translations. We do this by following Quality Assurance Approach, consisting of a three-step translation process: ("TEP": Translation – Editing – Proofreading) and a final quality assessment.

High-quality translation technology

One of the many challenges the life science industry faces are the numerous rules and guidelines to comply with. The constant progress of technology and the development of translation memories allow translators to overcome this challenge more easily. By storing already translated phrases and terms specified by the rigorously stipulated rules and templates, translation memory software can add significant value to translation projects.

How you can obtain high-quality, regulatory compliant life science translation at Language Buró?

At Language Buró, our goal is to enable safe medicine and clear communication between markets. That's why we work with world-class specialized life science translators who respect all the requirements, the terminology of your field, and industry details to provide the highest standard of translation.

We are the trusted medical translation service provider for the leading global life sciences organizations like Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer, to name a few. Get in touch with us today to receive a free quote for your translation project.