Medical translations need to be accurate, so that means online tools like Google Translate aren’t typically good enough for this type of translation. Also, a medical translator with basic translation skills might not be good enough to do a translation that needs to be clearly understood. Without a qualified medical translator, health care would not be so effective and could possibly be dangerous.
The sorts of translations of a qualified medical translator are likely to do include:
● Translating prescriptions
● Translating patient records
● Translating documents related to the use of drugs.
The translation skills and abilities for a medical translator
● A qualified medical translator must possess the translation skills to be able to competently translate from the source language to the targeted language.
● A medical translator must have superior knowledge of medical terminology, as a medical translation is required to translate very specific medical terms in the right context.
● A medical translator must have some knowledge of the culture of the language that he or she is translated.
If the medical translator is translating patient information he or she must agree that any confidential patient information is not shared with others.
If you intend to become a qualified medical translator if you have a degree in a second language it will help you to be competent in the demands required of a medical translator. To boost your qualifications, getting a certificate from the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (CMI) can help you medical translator career. This is if you live in the United States.
Gaining experience as a qualified medical translator
Because of the complexity and technical nature of a medical translation, you should start your career with some relatively simple tasks like information leaflets for patients or product information leaflets for companies offering new medical devices or drugs. This enables you to improve your translation skills and abilities.
You can also practice by finding medical device websites and translating the information they provide. You should have a thorough knowledge of the way the human body works as this is what you are actually concerned with the most in the medical translation industry. Of course, if you do this you should get an experienced qualified medical translator to check your work for accuracy. There are other websites like The European Medicines Agency website where you can practice translating SmPCs using the database they provide. You can then translate from your source language and the translated version in your targeted language and compare how good your translation is. This boosts your translation skills and abilities.
Keeping knowledge current
When you have some spare time you need to study both the medical terms in your source language and your targeted language as well becoming fully updated with the latest terminology in the medical field. A good investment is investing in some reputable medical dictionaries, which is a good way to boost your basic translation skills.
