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The Importance of Japanese Medical Translation Services

Posted by Ethan N. on November 24, 2022.

Despite Japan’s reputation as a hub of innovative technology, there is still an opportunity for international businesses in the medical system. It can be said that Japanese medical translation services are vital to breaking into its market.

It would squarely fall under “Pro” or “Premium”. Why? The expectation for the highest translation quality is understandable, the medical and life sciences industry deals with something that concerns us such as our health and sometimes life and death treatments.

In this post, we will illustrate deeper the importance of Japanese medical translation services clearly.

The common types of Japanese medical translation services

Medical Device Translation

According to Emergo, medical device companies interested in offering their products in Japan must obey Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act (PMD Act). Furthermore, the PMD Act can be tougher for foreign manufacturers because the few regulatory documents are in English. 

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There are many types of medical device documents that you would be able to localization:

  • Medical device manuals 
  • Training guides
  • Software applications
  • Compliance documents 
  • Marketing websites

If you are a medical device manufacturer that needs to prepare for your medical device translation to content across linguistic barriers, a Japanese medical translation company would be the top choice for providing the highest accuracy outcome.

Pharmaceutical Translation

In addition to medical device manufacturing, Japanese medical translation services providers will also help pharmaceutical companies overcome the difference in languages and nuances to promote services as well as products in Japan. It requires professional native medical translators and life science subject matter experts who are high-skilled to deliver the best quality outcome.

The table below would illustrate all types of pharmaceutical translation aspects that businesses need to notice

 

Insight

Clinical Trial Clinical trials are research studies performed on people that are aimed at evaluating a medical, surgical, or behavioral intervention. 

All types of clinical trials materials including

  • Pre-trial monitoring reports
  • Lab/technical procedures
  • Clinical protocols
  • Investigator’s brochures
  • Informed consent forms
  • FDA
  • International regulatory filing
Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Documents In terms of international pharmaceutical manufacturing, these documents must be translated and localized accurately overcome languages to prevent misunderstanding of important factors:

  • Drug facts
  • Operational instructions
  • Batch records
  • Policies
Informed Consent Form The informed consent form is created for patients to understand the risks and side effects of the drugs they are taking. It is entailed by law to protect consumers. Three common types of informed consent forms are

  • Written consent
  • Online consent
  • Oral (or Recorded Consent)

As can be seen, the medical and healthcare industry is a challenging market for international pharmaceutical companies due to its complex types and language barriers. But once you choose the right Japanese medical translation services, you will see that it is actually not complicated and the rewards are worth the effort.

Contract Research Organizations (CROs)

Contract Research Organizations are the company hired by a research center to undertake certain parts of operating a clinical trial. 

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Yearly, the CROs spend millions of dollars hiring professional Japanese medical translation services to ensure high-quality document translation for a large number of clinical activities such as

  • Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs)
  • Clinician-Reported Outcomes (ClinRo)
  • Observer-Reported Outcomes (ObsRo)
  • Performance-Outcomes (PerfO)

The CROs translation process entails complicated processes including terminological management, forward and back translation, language reconciliation, and linguistic hominization. It is not only costly but also time-consuming. Therefore, selecting carefully Japanese medical translation services are needed to come up with proper solutions in order to achieve higher language localization performance. 

 

Benefits of Japanese medical translation services

Despite complex types of medical documents, only Japanese medical translation services with high-skilled subject matter experts and professional native linguists can assemble an efficient team for translation, proofreading, and terminological assurance as well as quick control to come up with the best solutions for the medical industry. 

Here are 5 benefits of Japanese medical translation services

Eliminate errors

There is no space for errors in the medicine and pharmaceutical industries where the precision of translation is crucial. Imagine a doctor or a scientist is wrong at reading a clinical trial protocol or medical record with nonsense words due to bad machine translation or unqualified translators. 

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For instance, a simple mix-up of the terms “Hyper” and “Hypo” can result in a patient receiving the incorrect treatment or would lead to a life-threatening situation. A mistranslation of construction for medicine could also result in a consumer taking a medicine that is not advisable for their health condition.

Save time and money

It is not just a plain number that travels from one laboratory to manufactory or another. Scientists need context. Sometimes inexperienced translators can misunderstand ideas and complex details. Bad translated content can lead to failure in research or production. It would lose funds, or cost hundreds of working hours to fix everything.

Japanese medical translation services work with manufacturers, doctors, or patients to improve the highest quality of interpreting that helps overcome language barriers quickly at an affordable cost. Notably, communication barriers contain various aspects like differences in language, multicultural, and diversity of healthcare types.

Avoid legal complications

Japanese medical translation services are positively correlated with the pharmaceutical industry. Their job is to assure that every imported medication on the market is accompanied by precise information. 

Each label on the bottles and inside the packaging must comprise a large number of details: storage instructions, indications & usage, dosage forms, warnings and precautions, expiration dates, etc. 

Japanese medical translation services4

Hence, if the business wants medical devices or medicine to circulate in the foreign market, they must obey the principles and be well-prepared with medical documents to ask for authorization. They also need to consider some formats: style, layout, and content standards.

Regulations and documents process can be strict and lengthy for foreign manufacturers. Incomplete documentation will lead to authorization disapproval which will translate into unnecessary costs and no market share for the company. 

Affects people’s health, 

In fact, there are many traumatic cases when hospitals fail to professionally provide translation services for their patients.  Using unprofessional or lack of experienced interpreters can lead to fatal errors. Medical language is heterogeneous, including specialized terminology that can vary differently in the target language. 

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A professional linguist often takes many years of experience to learn how to handle specific situations and problems in Japanese medical translation services. Medical translators give prominence to the precision that makes the difference when simple mistakes can cost lives. 

You also might to read more about medical translation services:

Why The Medical Translation Services Are Important?

How To Find Professional Medical Translation Partners?

GTE Localize provides the best-in-class Japanese medical translation services for business

At GTE Localize, we comprise talented linguistic translators and certified subject matter experts to deliver flawless Japanese medical translation services.

Consistent, accurate, and fast is the core value that our team embraces to help the world’s leading medical companies achieve global success across differences in language and cultural barriers.

With cutting-edge language technologies, we have redefined ourselves as a top-notch Japanese medical translation provider that harnesses the best of human and technological capabilities. 

There is no doubt that you will choose us for your next translation services:

  • We are 2nd ranked in the best translation services companies from Goodfirms.
  • We work with a large network of professional native linguists with years of experience in many fields: medical, financial, technology, etc.
  • GTE Localize utilizes technological innovation to support your business such as CAT Tools, QA Tools, Self-built ERP, etc.