Forum posts to 'Miscellaneous'

Beyond Translation

Matt — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:21:19 -0600

It doesn’t always readily come to mind and is often easily forgotten, but one the most rewarding and encouraging aspects of translation in the medical field is the global impact on health. Just the thought that some of our translations enable life saving equipment and publications to reach more people around the world brings a certain amount of pride and satisfaction. Whenever the time permits, do a search on the internet with keywords such as "global health" and your medical specialty such as "cancer treatment" or "apheresis" or "endoscopy", etc. It could be that the French translation for a reference guide published six months ago is now allowing a physician to treat a child in Mali.

Here are a couple of sample results
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr27/en/
http://www.grandchallenges.org/Pages/default.aspx

Posted to: Beyond Translation Show Thread | Post Reply

Could this initiative help reduce obesity?

swisschris — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:24:24 -0600

On Tuesday, March 23rd, President Obama signed a new requirement that will affect the entire nation. Restaurant chains—such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King—will be required to display calorie information on their menus as well as their drive-through signs. Well, McDonald’s seems to be ahead of the game. Back in 2005, McDonald’s launched the Nutrition Information Initiative (NII) with the goal of making nutrition information more accessible and understandable to the average consumer. Read the following white paper to learn more about this initiative: Creating a Language of Nutrition

Posted to: Could this initiative help reduce obesity? Show Thread | Post Reply

Re: Virtual Medical and Life Sciences Localization and Translation Panel Discussion

SunnyCalifornia — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:42:02 -0600

Looking forward to this panel discussion. I'd be interested in learning / hearing more about:
- The in-country review process,
- Proper maintenance of multilingual glossaries,
- Do most medical and life sciences companies have a "dedicated" localization department,
- Working with an established (usually more expensive) US-based localization vendor vs. a (usually) lower-cost overseas (India, China, etc.) localization vendor.

Thanks!

Posted to: Virtual Medical and Life Sciences Localization and Translation Panel Discussion Show Thread | Post Reply

Virtual Medical and Life Sciences Localization and Translation Panel Discussion

swisschris — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:05:56 -0600

**Sorry, this event is not open to localization vendors**

Join ENLASO on Tuesday, May 11th 2010 at noon Mountain Time for a 60-minute virtual medical and life sciences localization and translation panel discuss.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Yves Lang, ENLASO’s CSO, and consist of 3-4 customer side localization professionals from the medical and life sciences industry.

The goal of the virtual panel discussion is to stimulate debate on medical and life sciences related localization and translation issues, including:

• Tools and technology
• Terminology and terminology management
• In-country review
• Writing medical and life sciences source content with localization/translation in mind
• Statutory and Regulatory Requirements
• Directives and Regulations
• Labeling
• Etc.

The moderator will ask pre-submitted questions as well as questions from the live audience and manage a point-by-point debate between several panelists who focus in on what really matters to them. This will be an exciting point/counterpoint debate between panelists that are all very experienced localization professionals on the customer side. Hear their perspective on each issue as it relates to their role in managing medical and life sciences related localization projects.

The panel discussion is open to professionals from the customer side (sorry no localization vendors or competitors please) as well as to subject matter experts, linguists, and other professionals involved in the translation and localization of medical and life sciences content.

Our goal is to make this panel discussion as engaging and informative as possible. Do you have any burning questions, a hot topic that should get addressed during the panel discussion, or a comment you’d like to share? Make sure to add your input to this thread.

Click here to register for the virtual medical and life sciences localization and translation panel discuss.

For additional information, please contact Chris Raulf at chris@translate.com or call 720.259.8524.

Posted to: Virtual Medical and Life Sciences Localization and Translation Panel Discussion Show Thread | Post Reply

Re: In-country review “Tips”

bmann — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:05:25 -0700

Also, be very careful with "global" changes! Some reviewers overlook the fact that the global change they are suggesting might be context sensitive—whether it's capitalization, plurality, or gender context. If the change is context sensitive then each occurrence should be annotated.

Clarity and unambiguity are very important. Avoid creating comments like, "Change X to the same thing it was on the previous page", or comments that are not imperative like, "Maybe this should be X instead."

Finally, the preferred medium of in-country review is annotated PDFs. This makes it easy to find the location of the change and the reviewer does not have to try to explain the location, "page 145, 3rd paragraph, 2nd sentence, 4th word—change it to XXYY"

Posted to: In-country review “Tips” Show Thread | Post Reply

Localization Handoff Form

Susanne — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:57:06 -0700

I am creating a localization handoff form for a medical customer. It will be a template that contacts on the customer side can fill out including dates, deadlines, file types, deliverables, font and graphics information and other pertinent information regarding a medical localization project. They will hand this form off to their localization vendor when requesting an estimate and will ensure clean handoffs and will save time for everyone in scoping out the project. It is a great way to be more efficient and get the quality we want from the very start. This came about following a post-mortem meeting.

Posted to: Localization Handoff Form Show Thread | Post Reply

In-country review “Tips”

Nat — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:14:24 -0700

In-country reviews are one of the most crucial steps in the medical translation process but they are also one the most challenging steps. It seems like in most cases, the reviewers are medical or marketing specialists, but do not have formal linguistic review experience. So it is important to set clear goals and expectations as early as possible during the project cycle.

Here are just a few basic guidelines that should help with making the review process more efficient.
-   Make sure a start and delivery date is scheduled and agreed upon with the reviewer. It is important to send schedule reminders as the review task is usually not the reviewer’s main function.
-   Provide clear instructions to the reviewer on how review comments should be marked
-   Reviewers should not write any explanation of their edits in the target language. These explanations should be written in English.
-   Reviewers should adhere to the glossary, style guide, reference material and be consistent with their changes. These guidelines are even more important if more than one person is conducting the review
-   If there are more than one reviewer reviewing the same material, these review changes should be consolidated into one document

Posted to: In-country review “Tips” Show Thread | Post Reply

Basic Guidelines for Creating International Documents

dsiegel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:15:26 -0700

If you have been tasked with writing or designing a manual, pamphlet, or brochure that will be localized and distributed around the world, here are some tips to follow that will make the localization process run smoothly.

When writing and designing the document
• Use consistent terminology for all English text associated with a translation project:
software, online help, documentation, package labeling, etc. (As Åsa mentioned in her post about the importance of planning, create a rigorous glossary of terms and have translations approved by all subject matter experts involved. See http://rhonix.translate.com/engineering/show/101#post101.)

• Watch for subject/verb agreement.

• Provide syntactic clues that make the sentence structure and parts of speech as obvious as possible.
For example:
Wrong: Set default image types the camera sees.
Better: Set default image types that the camera sees.

• Always include pronouns (no telegraphic text).
For example:
Wrong: Type settings in boxes for horizontal and vertical resolutions.
Better: Type the settings in the boxes for horizontal and vertical resolutions.

• Clarify to which word a pronoun refers. (Avoid vague antecedents and dangling modifiers.) In many languages, the words “it” and “they” are translated differently depending upon the gender of the word they represent.
For example:
Wrong: To get the proper result, create a new setting that is calibrated for a specific printer and software application, and add it to the list.
Explanation: “It” here could refer to “proper result” or “printer” or “software application.”
Better: To get the proper result, create a new setting that is calibrated for a specific printer and software application, and add the new setting to the list.
Explanation: “It” is eliminated to prevent ambiguity.

• Maintain a singular voice. Don't switch between active and passive voice within a document.

• Avoid lengthy compound modifiers.
For example:
Wrong: Remove the light-filtering flexible lens cover.
Better: Remove the flexible lens cover that filters light.
Explanation: Unlike English, many languages do not allow for the creation of compound modifiers, which partially explains why translations into European languages occupy 15 to 30% more space than the original English. Sometimes complex compound modifiers are standard terms in a particular industry. If that is the case, provide their definition in an English terminology list or glossary.

• Avoid contractions.

• Avoid humor.

• Avoid slang, colloquialisms, or jargon.

• Avoid using trademarked terms (like Jello, Kleenex, or Bandaid). Keep such references generic.

• Define all acronyms upon first usage. Create a glossary for documents that use many acronyms.

• List units of measure correctly and consistently (for example, metric first, followed by US equivalent in parentheses).

• Define time zones, date formats, and monetary systems.

• Verify index entries. (Spot-check 25% of index entries for a generated index, 100% of index entries for a manual index.)

• Verify table of contents (chapter titles, subheadings, page numbers, and room for text expansion).

• Verify cross-references (textual elements, titles, figure references, table references, page numbers).

• Verify all hypertext links (make sure all are active; provide instructions to localization team for locale-specific URLs).

• Verify trademark references and accurate use of trademark symbols.

• Verify addresses and phone numbers. (If numbers are US-only, document should state so. Provide localization instructions about which numbers change for target countries, and where to find the country specific information.)

• Use EXACT document names and current part numbers. Provide translated document names to localization team, if they already exist.

For graphics:
• Anchor all graphics to text.
• Link all graphics to the document, regardless of application.
• Use numerical callouts, not alphabetical characters. (If the graphic has fewer than five callouts, use short text overlays.)
• Do not embed text in graphics.
• Avoid human figures because of race, gender, and stereotyping.
• Avoid using hand gestures in icons, graphics, or document styles (for warnings, hints, notes, etc.).

Posted to: Basic Guidelines for Creating International Documents Show Thread | Post Reply

Medical translation & competition

Matt — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:25:49 -0700

When it comes to the localization industry, there are quite a few vendors for companies to choose from. As in any competitive environment, there are trade secrets, processes, and philosophies that set one apart from another. These are the things that give vendors competitive advantage, or make one stand out over another. However, in the medical community localization vendors and linguists should carefully consider whether their “spirit of competition” is actually increasing costs and possibly having detrimental effects on the safety of patients.

Take for example a medical device manufacturer that routinely uses multiple localization vendors. The customer does not have in-depth knowledge of how translation memory works, so vendors A, B, and C maintain their own TM files according to their own methodology. Vendor A utilizes attributes in such a way that they are able to accurately apply relevant TM entries project after project, saving 15% in cost and time to complete the work. Vendors B and C do not apply any particular methodology and consequently often misapply TM entries which must later be fixed in reviews, adding time and cost.

Would it not be in the best interest of the customer for Vendor A to share their best practice with the “team” to ensure consistency between translations as well as reduce risk and cost? Or should vendor A keep their mouth shut and reap the rewards of their ingenuity?

Posted to: Medical translation & competition Show Thread | Post Reply