The Importance of Medical Interpretation and Translation through COVID-19

While reviewing data on medical translation, I thought about the greater importance of medical translation as the COVID-19 virus spreads not only as a national problem but as a global problem. Communication between medical institutions around the world and communication between medical staff and patients is considered to be very important to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to treat confirmed patients.

As with all translations, accuracy of translation is of paramount importance for medical translation, where human life is at stake. Any change or omission of even a single word in a doctor's medical thesis or medical certificate can have a devastating effect on the quality of medical practice and put the patient's life at risk. This COVID-19 virus is an essential tool of modern medicine in order to translate and communicate data on medical information around the world and to accurately deliver diagnosis and medical services to people living abroad across borders. ​

Translation is essential for healthcare services. Patients have the right to understand explanations from their doctors, regardless of language. Looking at the corona crisis, quite a lot of people are living abroad, and it is not easy for clinics and hospitals to provide information in their native language to everyone, whether they are nationals, immigrants or travelers. In a highly contagious situation like the COVID-19 virus, if a small translation error causes communication problems, it can cause confusion that will miss a diagnosis and spread the virus.

This is why professional interpreters and translators play an important role in the healthcare industry. In the United States, 8% of the population is considered limited English proficiency (LEP). For those who do not speak English, communication is a barrier between migrants and health care workers. This can lead to misunderstanding of the name of the disease and accidents that cause bodily injury to the patient. ​ In this context, the hospital's interpreters and translators ensure that the patient obtains a complete medical history and learns all the details of possible symptoms. In addition, patients can understand their health status and follow their treatment plan correctly.  In addition to providing translation services, hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers must have a set of translated documents available to foreign patients. These documents can be valuable information to help patients make decisions that are best for their health. The healthcare industry needs specialized medical translations for continued growth. Modern medicine is closely related to technological innovation. New treatments, medical devices and medicines are developed daily by doctors around the world. The healthcare industry needs professional translation services to make all of this available to patients who speak multiple languages ​​around the world.

All imported medicines require translated documents for approval by authorities in all countries. Drugs imported from many countries may be banned from import if there are errors in reports and documents proving their properties. This can be a serious problem for patients who can experience side effects if any component is missing, or if the measurement is translated incorrectly or is misspelled. ​ Without proper medical translation, companies in the industry cannot comply with local regulations. Professional translation plays an important role in helping healthcare companies pass complex documents to enter overseas markets. ​ Professional translation service providers cover a wide range of documents, from clinical trials to patents and case reports. Professional medical translations enable doctors to treat patients with the latest discoveries in medicine. It also helps patients understand their treatment and the health problems they are experiencing. As with the situation with the COVID-19 virus, misinformation can lead to panic, where diagnosis or side effects can be misunderstood.

The medical translation industry encompasses a wide range of areas including drug development, clinical trial research, patents and drug information. Therefore, there are several types of medical translations that cover these medical areas. ​

♦ Website and Marketing Materials Translations are required to translate hospital and medical facility websites and marketing materials into their respective languages. Medical websites or marketing materials are very important for promoting information and services provided by hospitals and medical departments. It is important to provide multilingual service for your website so that you can easily offer your products and services to overseas markets.

♦ Translation of documents for clinical trials

Clinical trials are essential to drug development and those who participate should be aware of the risks involved. Therefore, accurate information must be provided to those participating, and translation of such medical documents is important.

♦ Medical Consent Form

In general, patients who sign consent forms for surgery or consent for various medical services must be fully familiar with the medical procedures involved. In general, a consent form assumes that the signing party has an understanding of what is going on or what may be happening with the medical service.

♦ Medical device and product translation

This type of translation is done for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. This industry needs to reach a variety of overseas markets to sell its products. Therefore, marketing and product descriptions should be presented in the local language. It is also important for the industry to understand the consumer demographics that help them sell their products.

 The healthcare industry is constantly introducing new technologies to improve the field and puts a lot of effort into making them available to a wide range of users. The healthcare industry operates globally and communicates regularly with other countries, so getting accurate medical translation services is important. Medical Translation serves a variety of markets that speak different languages.

The COVID-19 virus has made it more important for all countries to ensure that medical information can be quickly communicated worldwide in each language.

As a result, the need for a professional medical translation company that can do its job effectively and communicate its content is very high.

How might I’M Translation and ISiS Korea aid translation?

At I’M Translation and ISiS Korea, we can connect you with a professional translators and interpreters. We have over 30+ languages available on our platform and we are flexible and available regardless of the language pair, topic, and time zone. Please visit us at www.imtranslation.com and www.isiskorea.com/eng to request a free translation and interpretation quote. Thank you!