It has been
noticed that there is an increasing number of people who are getting more
conscious about their health. To ensure that they stay in optimal health,
majority of them submit their selves for annual check up in the hospitals. But,
the increase of prices in the market has been complemented with an increase in
prices of the services rendered in the hospital, which is why the people were
left with no other choice but to resort and take advantage of the medical
services offered by other countries—such as the third world countries, commonly
called as “Medical Tourism”.
Centered in Asia Region, medical tourism has
gained popularity over the last years because of the less costly services
offered by hospitals and health practitioners mostly to western patients. While
they offer almost the same services, such as annual executive check-ups,
laboratory panels, and even surgery, one dilemma of the patients is how they
would understand their test results, or impressions given by these doctors,
especially when the language used is not the English language.
Medical Translation Service. What is it?
Medical
Translation is one of the many translation services offered by different
translation agencies. In fact, it has been regarded to be the most difficult
and most complex of all translation services given the fact that not only
should the translator be adept the medical field, he or she must also be well
aware of the existing medical words and jargons, that may have a different
meaning from its English language counterpart.
One common
pitfall of patients who would want to take a medical translation service is
getting mistranslations. This is due to either the incompetence of the
translator or their little knowledge of the medical field. One must realize
that any mistake or any little mistranslation can potentially harm one’s
health, or life even worse. It is for that reason that everyone who plans to
take a medical translation service must therefore see to it that it is credible
and could deliver the job well.
But how?
Choosing a good
medical translation agency or company can be a very tedious work to do. Given
the fact that there are a lot of agencies sprouting like a mushroom, claiming
to be good at translation, one can never be too sure that what they are getting
or who they are getting can deliver the job well.
In order for you
to not fell on this scams, there are some things that you have to make sure
before you choose and pick a medical translation agency.
1) You have to make sure that they already have established a good rapport with previous customers. This good rapport can also mean: the number of customers who availed medical translation from them, or the number of satisfied customers that they had. This is important so you may check whether they were able to deliver a good service in the past.
2) See to it that they are accredited in accreditation agencies. There are medical agencies, or translation agencies that issue accreditation to stand-alone medical translation facility. This is to ensure that the services being offered is of good and high quality standards and does not lie in mediocrity.
3) You must check that the medical translation company passed the standards such as by the ISO, or the EN. These are bodies that award standards certification to establishments who could follow the right protocol of the service.
If you are still
not sure, you can directly call and inquire your local health sector if they
could recommend a translation service company that would cater to your need.
Always remember that it is better to be sure—especially in translating your
medical reports, medical abstracts—than to put yourself into uncertainty and
possibility of mistranslation that may lead to misdiagnosis.
As it has always
been said, prevention is better than cure.
