As heighted numbers of patients seek medical care in overseas markets and companies look to recruit patients from all walks of life, what role do accurate medical record translations play in enabling health care professionals to deliver more targeted, patient-focused care? In the medical industry, there are few documents aside from patient medical records that provide doctors with the crucial information required to make diagnoses, prescribe medication, and develop treatment plans. With high volumes of people immigrating to the US each year and increased numbers of patients from all backgrounds seeking advanced health care, there is a growing need to translate medical records to facilitate a more streamlined communication between doctor and patient, allow for doctors to more accurately make informed medical decisions, and ensure higher quality of care can be provided.
Medical Record Translations: Essential Features That Must be Translated
In order to receive treatment and medical attention in most hospitals and clinics today, medical practitioners in all fields rely on comprehensive and precise histories of their patients that are well-documented in a patient’s medical record. This chronological account of medical data often includes key documents which are in high demand for medical translation, such as:
- Immunization record translations
- Medical history translations
- Treatment plan translations
- Lab & test result translations
- Medication prescription translations
- Consent document translations
- Medical directive translations
- Personal information translations
By nature, these types of documents, which include sophisticated clinical terminology, necessitate a translation to be carried out by a highly competent linguist and the added expertise of a subject matter expert. While one word may describe a particular condition in the patient’s native language for instance, it could have a completely different meaning or no meaning at all when translated into English. Moreover, translations of medical records may also require a certified translation, wherein the translation is accompanied by a notarized statement to ensure it is accurate to the best of the linguist’s ability and knowledge. For language services providers (LSPs), medical record translations are a leading example of how high-quality localization solutions enable professionals to more effectively provide for their patients and overcome the barriers that most often hinder communication.
The Growing Importance of High-Quality Medical Translations
The function of an accurate translation of a patient’s medical record plays a significant role when treating patients of different backgrounds by providing medical workers with a solution to more easily communicate with their patient and avoid situations like a wrong diagnosis or unexpected side effects from a wrongfully prescribed medication. With a growing emphasis on patient-centric care in medicine, accurate medical record translations are a necessary tool that further benefits the patient by allowing them to understand and communicate in many situations. Outside of the clinical setting, immigrating to countries like the US requires a significant amount of documentation to be submitted, one of which is a medical history which requires a certified translation to be approved. As the health care field is constantly expanding both domestically and abroad, LSPs including CSOFT Health Sciences work closely with medical companies and practitioners to meet the demand for medical record translations and help deliver certified and accurate medical localization solutions. Visit lifesciences.csoftintl.com to learn about our patient medical record translations.