Back translation of life sciences content

Back translation of life sciences content

A security measure when translating high-risk content

Quality is always important in translation, but in the life sciences industry, mistranslation can be life-threatening. Even the smallest translation errors can pose a risk to patients. It is therefore absolutely essential to do translations correctly from the start. The usual steps for quality assurance of translations - which are already very extensive - have to be supplemented by a further step: back translations.

But what is that?

A back translation is a process in which a translated text is transferred back into the source language in order to check the accuracy of the content. In the context of clinical labeling, this represents an important step that takes place before the global introduction of a drug, a medical device or accompanying instructions and manuals. This quality assurance procedure ensures that the translation is correct.

Anyone working in the life sciences should always request a back translation, even if they have their own reviewers on site. The goal of the process, sometimes referred to as translation validation, is clear: it should help the customer to check the correctness of the text.

Ideally, back translations are done by a translator who specializes in the subject area, has already carried out similar work and is not involved in the original translation.

In this way you ensure perfect implementation of sensitive documents

Idiomatic expressions, complex grammatical constructions and inherent cultural peculiarities are part of the essence of a language. The back-translated text will never exactly match the source text, but back-translation is extremely helpful in identifying errors and passages that could lead to misunderstandings.

While standard translations require a comparatively artistic approach in order to capture not only the meaning but also the emotion of the language, back-translations are translated as literally as possible in order to reflect the exact meaning of the translation. This makes grammatical and cultural nuances clearer and the smallest inaccuracies or possible misinterpretations can be uncovered.

Who should do back translations?

Back translations should always be carried out by subject matter experts who have mastered the target language at a native speaker level. Ideally, they should be translators who specialize in the subject and have already done similar work. However, they must not have been involved in the original translation. In addition, the back-translators should carry out their work without consulting the reference materials or the source text. In this way, an unbiased, precise back translation can be achieved.

Why are back translations important?

In fact, even the simplest, most innocuous of statements can take on different meanings when translated. For example, have the phrase “I like tortoises” translated into Chinese (Mandarin) by an online translation tool. Then copy the Chinese text and have it translated back into German. What is the result? "I like turtles". If there are slight deviations in such a simple sentence, it becomes clear that there can be greater differences in longer texts. Small differences like this may hardly matter in a casual conversation, but in the life sciences the devil is in the details.

English and Spanish are widely spoken in the United States, but not everyone is bilingual, let alone a translator. Take e.g. B. the word "intoxicado". This can mean “intoxicated” or “poisoned” and include anything from drug or alcohol poisoning to food poisoning to accidental ingestion of arsenic or mercury. With so many meanings, it becomes clear how important correct translations are for medical purposes.

Another example: The English word “impair” could be translated as “afectar” for Spanish speakers. In the case of back translation, this would result in “to affect”. In the literal sense, “to affect” means to have an influence, while “to impair” means to worsen, damage or weaken. Back translations serve as a final cross-check to uncover errors and revise the original translation.

The final security measure for localization projects in the medical field

However, this takes time. Back translations mean more work for reviewers and can make meeting deadlines extremely difficult. This is why preparation for translation projects in the medical field is so important. A lot of time should be allowed for translation and back translation, editing and unexpected situations. In this way, the products can be released on time and in compliance with the high standards. This protects the life science industry and the people it works for.

How highly risky projects in the life sciences industry are covered

Good translations should always be clear, precise, culturally appropriate and tailored to the target group in the respective target language. But in medicine and healthcare, good translations have to offer even more. This may not be necessary for all content, but we strongly encourage customers to do this for high-risk documents such as For example, texts related to pharmaceuticals, clinical studies, patient well-being and medical devices need to include a back-translation as an additional step in their usual quality assurance process.

Because with the help of back translations, the highest level of precision - and thus also security - can be achieved. This may be more time consuming and costly, but it is important to be on the safe side in this industry.

This is why working with an experienced language service provider like Wordpar International is so important. Our life sciences team has expertise in key areas of the industry, including medical device manufacturing and related regulations, clinical trial management, and pharmaceutical company compliance. Thanks to our large pool of professional translators, we can use language experts who have not yet worked on the project to translate back into any language you need. Speed, quality, range: these are the strengths of Wordpar International. Contact us and see for yourself.