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Medical and Life Sciences Translation
Medical translation, where accuracy is not a matter of style.
Patient records, clinical documentation, device instructions and regulatory material — translated by linguists experienced in medical texts, reviewed by a second reader, and handled with the confidentiality health information requires.
What is at stake
Why medical translation is treated differently
In most translation, an error is an embarrassment. In medical translation it can reach a patient. That single difference shapes how the work is assigned, reviewed and delivered.
The failures are rarely exotic. They cluster around a handful of predictable places: units that look similar and are not, a negation lost in a long sentence, an abbreviation that means one thing in cardiology and another in obstetrics, left confused with right. A generalist translator with excellent language skills will produce fluent text and may still miss all four.
So medical work goes to linguists who have read this kind of document before, and every translation is read back against the original by a second person before it leaves.
How we work
What careful medical translation involves
- 1
Where errors become clinical
Dosage units, laterality, negation and abbreviation are the recurring danger points. A dropped negation in a contraindication changes its meaning entirely.
- 2
Audience decides register
A patient-facing consent form and a regulatory technical file describe the same device in very different language. Writing both as though they had one audience serves neither.
- 3
Regulatory wording is not free text
Some phrasing is prescribed by the receiving market. Improving it is not an improvement.
- 4
Consistency across a document set
The same warning appearing in a manual, a label and a training deck should read identically. Translation memory enforces that.
- 5
Human review, always
A second linguist reads the translation against the original before it is delivered. On medical work this is not optional.
What we translate
Medical documents we handle
Patient records and clinical notes
Histories, consultations, progress notes and referrals.
Discharge summaries
Frequently needed for continuity of care across borders.
Imaging and laboratory reports
Radiology, pathology and diagnostic results.
Instructions for use
Device IFUs, manuals and quick-reference guides.
Labelling and packaging
Where regulatory wording differs by market.
Clinical evaluation material
Reports, literature reviews and technical files.
Informed consent forms
Where comprehension in the patient's own language is the point.
Insurance and claims documentation
Supporting evidence for cross-border claims.
Regulatory submissions
Material prepared for market authorization.
Training and educational material
For clinicians, distributors and patients.
Confidentiality
How health information is handled
- Stored outside public paths. Files are validated on upload and held where no web request can reach them.
- Access limited to the assigned team. A named coordinator and the linguists working the project.
- Linguists see documents, not identities. Assigned translators receive the files, languages, deadline and brief — not the client record held elsewhere in our system.
- A full audit trail. Every action recorded with the person and the time.
- Your agreements, signed. If your organization requires specific data-handling terms, send them before work begins.
Timing
Turnaround on medical work
| Type of project | Typical delivery |
|---|---|
| Short records and certificates Vaccination records, single reports, brief notes | 1–2 business days |
| Standard document projects Discharge summaries, clinical histories, claim files | 2–3 business days |
| Technical and regulatory material Device documentation, submissions, multilingual sets | Depends on volume and complexity |
Larger or more complex projects may require additional review time. Regulatory work in particular is scoped before it begins, so the date we give you is one we can meet.
Related services
Where to go next
Questions
Medical translation, answered
Documents are validated on upload and stored outside any publicly accessible path. Access is limited to the coordinator and the linguists assigned to the project, and those linguists see the documents, languages and deadline — not patient identities held elsewhere in the system or any commercial detail. If your organization requires a specific data-handling agreement, send it and we will sign it before work begins.
Medical work is assigned to linguists with experience in clinical and life-sciences texts. This matters more than it might seem: dosage, laterality, negation and abbreviation are all places where an ordinary translation error becomes a clinical one. A linguist who has not read discharge summaries before will not reliably catch that mg and mcg are not interchangeable.
Yes. Clinical notes, discharge summaries, imaging reports, test results and correspondence are among the most common requests. Where the claim is being made in another country, tell us the destination — the level of detail expected varies, and it is easier to prepare correctly than to revise.
Yes — instructions for use, labelling, packaging, clinical evaluation material and technical files. Device documentation carries regulatory requirements that differ by market, so tell us which markets you are entering and we will scope accordingly.
It depends who is receiving them. Insurers, courts and immigration authorities usually require certification with a signed Certificate of Accuracy, which we provide. A clinic reading a patient history for treatment purposes generally does not. If you are unsure, ask — there is no reason to pay for certification nobody asked for.
Translation memory and a project glossary keep drug names, device terminology, anatomical terms and recurring phrasing identical across every document. On device documentation especially — where the same warning may appear in a manual, on a label and in a training file — consistency is a regulatory expectation, not a nicety.
Short records are typically 1–2 business days and standard document projects 2–3. Technical manuals, regulatory submissions and multilingual device documentation depend on volume and complexity. We will give you a date we can meet rather than one that sounds good.
Often, though it depends entirely on legibility. Handwritten notes are common in older records and in some healthcare systems. Where something is genuinely unreadable we flag it rather than guess — an invented reading in a medical record is worse than an acknowledged gap.
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