Medical manufacturers and the pharmaceutical industry in general need lots of translations, not least because of the strict regulatory requirements they have to meet. Accurate translations are crucial in order to ensure safety for patients and users – and that’s where the CAT tool memoQ has a large part to play in delivering high-quality texts.
Life science businesses usually have to translate their documents into a large number of languages to ensure their medical products can be marketed in the various countries where they operate, and they need to produce a wide range of texts. That’s because they’re subject to stringent regulatory requirements imposed by the likes of the MDR (Medical Device Regulation) and the IVDR (In Vitro Diagnostic Device Regulation), which regard translations as part of the medical product. So they need to be clear and accurate in order to avoid mistakes which could have serious consequences.
So life science businesses are reliant on translations produced by specialist translators with experience in the respective field and work with translation agencies which have a rigorous quality management system in place to monitor their translation processes and workflows. Using state-of-the-art translation technology – with CAT tools, and in particular memoQ, at the heart of it – reduces the risks and ensures high-quality translations are delivered.
Life science translations and CAT tools
As well as carefully choosing their translators, agencies use CAT tools to ensure they produce high-quality translations for the medical, pharmaceutical and health industries. One such CAT tool is memoQ, and the variety of useful features it offers to help translators and project managers deliver accurate translations makes it ideal for medical purposes. These features include:
- Translation memories and term bases
- A comment and discussion feature
- The ability to carry out simple in-country reviews
- Computer-assisted quality assurance
- Version management
- ISO 17100 workflows
- Support for a wide range of file formats and interfaces
Use term bases and translation memories to produce high-quality translations
Translation memories are more or less the key element in how CAT tools work, and of course memoQ uses them too. All completed translations are saved in a translation memory, where they are then available for future projects. That means previously translated texts don’t need to be translated again each time, which reduces what clients pay for translations and helps agencies and translators deliver projects more quickly – which is a huge benefit if a product’s launch date is looming and everything needs to be ready as soon as possible. Translation memories also automatically improve the quality and consistency of translations, as translators can work based on the existing texts.
Terminology management is just as important for medical translations. Effective terminology management ensures that the terms desired by clients are used consistently in all their translations, avoiding the confusion that can arise when a component has one name in one section of the product instructions and a different name in another section. So terminology management is another key ingredient in producing high-quality life science translations.
Plus, memoQ makes it easy to manage terminology in any browser using QTerm (find out more here).
A comment and discussion feature that makes it easy to ask and answer questions
In order to deliver a high-quality translation, sometimes the translator may need to ask questions about unclear sections of texts. Sending an e-mail is one way to do that, but it’s not particularly convenient – it’s simpler and more effective to use memoQ’s comment and discussion feature. Questions can either be sent to the project manager or straight to a member of the client’s staff responsible for translations, who will then have the context that helps them answer the question more easily.
Carry out simple in-country reviews
Although translators who specialize in medical technology and the pharmaceutical industry will know their way around the subject matter, ultimately it’s the clients themselves who are the experts in their products. If clients want to review their texts again before launching the product for maximum peace of mind, in memoQ there are various ways to do that: their staff in the various sites around the world can either carry out the review in the browser-based version of memoQ, or they can work in Word files. And translation agencies will be happy to advise clients on how to make the review processes as efficient as possible.
Use computer-assisted quality assurance for medical translations
Quality checks are another factor in accurate translations. Once the translation or review is complete, memoQ can run a computer-assisted quality assurance check which flags up formal errors such as double spaces, missing numbers, incorrect formatting or inconsistent translations. And this QA check can be customized.
Track projects and use version management for life science translations
memoQ tracks each stage of the translation process to ensure traceability. In each project, it’s easy to see which person did what at what time – which is helpful both when conducting in-country reviews (to keep track of changes) and in the event of damage. Version management also means that earlier versions of sentences/texts can be restored.
Use ISO 17100 workflows for medical translations
ISO 17100 governs the requirements for translation services and everyone involved in the process (project managers, translators, reviewers etc.). In memoQ, each person has a particular role with specified rights, which makes it simple for everyone to work together and produce a high-quality, ISO 17100-compliant translation.
Work with a wide range file formats and connect to authoring systems
There are as many different file formats used to produce the accompanying documentation as there are medical products. memoQ can import a wide range of file formats so that the text they contain can be translated, and when the translation is ready, it’s delivered to clients in the same format. That means no more time-consuming copying and pasting, or the mistakes it can cause. And memoQ can connect to various authoring systems so that, if they use one, clients can order translations directly from the system they’re familiar with.
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