Picture this: A man from Colombia has recently migrated to Australia and went to have dinner at a restaurant in Sydney. Post dinner, when he reaches home, he has a sudden uneasiness and immediately rushes to the Emergency Department. When asked by a nurse about what happened, he says, ‘Estoy intoxicado.’
The nurse who is not well-versed in the language immediately translates it to ‘He says he is intoxicated.’ The result? The medical team assumes he is having some alcohol-related issue and shifts him to the waiting bay to give him time to get sober. But the patient was actually trying to say, ‘I have been poisoned.’
The example above clearly emphasises the need for accurate medical terminology translation. Incorrect translation only leads to delayed or no medication and worsens the condition of patients. On that note, let’s delve deep into the ways of translating medical terminologies accurately, along with the reasons to do so and common challenges faced while translating the terms.
Getting lost in translation is not an option when it comes to medical terminology. Both patients and healthcare providers need to understand the terms. Here’s why translating medical terminology is non-negotiable for both parties:Â
A. For Patients: The Right to Understand
- Informed Consent – True consent to instructions or medicines prescribed by doctors is impossible if they don’t understand the terminology. Full comprehension is necessary for true consent, and this is one of the major reasons translating the terms accurately is crucial.Â
- Patient Safety – Accurate translation is essential to prevent misdiagnosis, medication errors, and misunderstood post-op instructions. All of these are important to ensure patient safety and proper treatment.Â
- Patient Empowerment – Patients must actively participate in their healthcare journey. It is one of the major reasons accurate translations are important.Â
B. For Healthcare Providers: The Duty of Care
- Clinical Accuracy – The example at the start of the blog demonstrates how a lack of understanding of medical terms can lead to incorrect diagnosis. Proper translation is therefore necessary to ensure correct diagnosis and effective treatment plans.Â
- Legal and Ethical Responsibility – Medical terminology translation is not only about offering great customer service, but it is also one of the core professional duties of healthcare providers in Australia, carrying both legal and ethical implications. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights guarantees every patient the right to know about services, treatment, cost, etc., in a clear way. Also, NSQHS compels hospitals to ensure effective communication with patients.Â
- Building Trust – Understanding key medical terminology can help build trust with diverse patient populations.Â
Undeniably, translating medical terminology is crucial for both health providers and patients. Before we share the tips to translate the terms accurately, let’s take you through some of the common pitfalls or challenges in medical translation.
The Danger Zone: Common Pitfalls in Medical Translation
There are quite a few challenges in medical report translation. It is crucial to pay attention to all of these to ensure accurate translations:Â
A. The Illusion of Fluency
Your bilingual family member is not the right person to translate medical terms. The reason here is that they are emotionally involved, do not have a proper understanding of medical terms, and are unintentionally filtering or softening of bad news. As a consequence, it leads to misinterpretation of the terms and incorrect medications or treatment.Â
B. Linguistic ‘False Friends’
Reiterating the example at the beginning of the discussion, a major challenge in translating medical terminology is misunderstanding terms that sound or look similar but have completely different meanings. Like the nurse misinterpreted ‘intoxicado’ as drunk or intoxicated, but the patient was complaining about food poisoning.Â
C. The Jargon Jungle
Terms like CBC, MRI, or Parkinson’s disease do not have any direct literal translations, and decoding them can be tough. Further, the understanding of how to take a medicine can be misunderstood if the medical terms are not translated correctly. The challenge here is that the translation might miss out on the dosage, such as ‘by mouth’, ‘sublingually’, or ‘topically.’
D. The Machine Translation Trap
Trusting AI or Google Translate for translation of common phrases, but when it comes to translating complex medical terminology, these tools cannot be trusted. However, most patients end up using these tools to translate medical terms, which, in turn, becomes a major challenge.Â
With that understanding, we will move on to a few practical tips for translating medical terminology.Â
Practical Tips for Translating Medical Terminology
The challenges cannot be denied. But it is crucial to find ways to ensure the translations are accurate. Your health comes first, and you need to put your best foot forward to ensure the doctor understands your concerns. That applies to the health providers as well. Here are a few tips to ensure accurate translations:Â
A. Go Beyond the Dictionary – Prioritise Context
In medicine, one term can have several translations. So, to ensure you have the correct translation, understand the context. Explain your disease or the problem you are having properly to get the right treatment. You need to have a basic understanding to explain your problems correctly.Â
B. Adapt for Target Audience
You cannot go for a ‘one-size fits all’ approach for medical translations. If you are showing a prescription written by a doctor in Spain to a doctor in Australia, you need to be very careful with the technical terms. However, when you are sharing a discharge certificate, you might not need such a detailed technical translation.
C. Maintaining Consistency with Glossaries
It is crucial to maintain consistency with the meaning and the way you use a medical term. You need to ensure that the way you used ‘hypertension’ in the beginning is used similarly during your treatment. Do not change the context at any point during the process.Â
D. Hunt for ‘False Friends’ and Untranslatable Idioms
Stop translating terms by the sound or the way they are pronounced. Also, don’t go on using an idiom that is easily understandable in your hometown when you go abroad. The phrase ‘feeling under the weather’ might not be interpreted the same way elsewhere.Â
E. Understand Measurements
If you are from a country that uses Fahrenheit as a measurement scale, please know that Australia uses Celsius. So, when you are explaining or talking about how high your fever is, make sure you use Celsius. Translation is not restricted to words only. You need to know how measurements are translated and use them correctly.Â
Following these tips is crucial to ensure accurate translation of medical terminology. But how would you understand what translates to what? We have a solution to the problem. Read on to find it.
Professional Medical Translators: The Solution You Are Looking for
The best way to overcome the odds is by hiring a NAATI certified translator who has the expertise to translate medical documents. The translator acts as a cultural broker, converting more than words. They bridge cultural gaps and ensure that the translations are appropriate and understandable by healthcare providers in Australia.Â
Companies offering medical translation services have subject matter experts who are not only well-versed in different languages but are also well-equipped in medical terms. Adding on, they offer proper quality assurance to ensure the translations are accurate. Further, all the translations they share adhere to the rules and regulations of the country.Â
Exercise your right to hire a translator and convey the message clearly to a doctor. As already said, your health comes first. So, make sure you take the right steps to translate and convey the message properly to a doctor.
Conclusion: Communication is the Best Medicine
Accurate medical translation is a shared responsibility for both the patient and the health provider. You must not let language be a barrier, and put your best foot forward to convey the message clearly to a doctor. The best way to go about it is to hire a professional translator. They have the expertise and experience to translate complex medical terminology and help both patients and health providers understand what is wrong.Â
Ask for help without any delays to get the right treatment.
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