Medical translation: discharge summaries, test results and clinical documentation

Medical translation is the field where an error has the most serious consequences. An incorrectly carried over dose, an omitted allergy note or an ambiguously translated diagnosis directly affects the decision a doctor takes in another country. That is why with us medical documents are handled only by translators who have a medical education or many years of experience in clinical terminology, and every translation is edited by a second specialist. This page is the central page of the medical practice: here you will find a description of all six of our medical services, the confidentiality standards and answers to the questions that patients, clinics and pharmaceutical companies ask us most often.

Why medical translation is a separate discipline

For a general translator a medical text is a set of incomprehensible abbreviations, Latin terms and numbers. For a medical translator it is a specific clinical picture, which must be carried over into the other language so that the receiving doctor sees exactly what the author of the original saw. This requires:

• knowledge of anatomical and clinical terminology in both languages, including the international Latin nomenclature
• knowledge of the codes of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10, ICD-11) and carrying them over unchanged
• distinguishing the systems of laboratory units (SI and conventional units)
• the correspondence between the trade names and international nonproprietary names (INN) of medicines
• understanding the format of a medical document: a discharge summary, an examination report, Form 100 and a clinical trial protocol are written in completely different structures

Medical precision: where the risk hides

Terminology and abbreviations

In a medical text the same abbreviation has different meanings in different contexts. In an English discharge summary "MS" may mean multiple sclerosis, mitral stenosis or morphine sulfate. In a Georgian document a local abbreviation stands for cardiovascular disease, which is completely incomprehensible to a foreign translator. Our translator decodes an abbreviation not mechanically but according to the clinical context and, where needed, gives the full form in brackets.

Units, doses and reference values

Glucose is often measured in mmol/L in a Georgian laboratory, and in mg/dL in an American one. Haemoglobin is g/L in one place and g/dL in another. If the translator simply copies the unit and does not note the need for conversion, the receiving doctor may perceive a normal value as critical. We keep the units as in the original and attach a translator's note when the receiving country's system is different. In dosage entries (for example, "500 mg twice a day for 7 days") every number is double-checked.

Confidentiality: HIPAA, GDPR and Georgian legislation

A medical history is the most sensitive personal data. The American HIPAA standard, the European GDPR and the Georgian Law on Personal Data Protection treat health data as a special category of data. Our internal procedure takes the requirements of all three frameworks into account:

• every translator and editor works under a signed non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
• files are received and transferred over an encrypted channel, not via public messengers
• the document is seen only by the person who works on it directly
• after the agreed period the files are deleted from the server, and at the client's request the retention period is reduced to zero
• we never use a medical document as teaching material or a sample without anonymisation

For clinics and pharmaceutical companies subject to HIPAA or GDPR requirements a data processing agreement (DPA) can also be signed.

Translation and notarization: what the difference is

This is the most frequently asked question, and the answer depends on to whom you will submit the document.

• A plain professional translation is enough when the document is needed for a doctor, a clinic's medical board or a second opinion. The doctor is not interested in a seal, they need an exact clinical picture.
• A translation certified with the agency's seal is required by most insurance companies, embassies and the admissions departments of foreign clinics. With the seal we confirm that the translation is complete and corresponds to the original.
• A notarized translation is needed when the document takes part in a legal procedure: determination of disability status, a court dispute, a pension or inheritance case, a medical visa for some countries. The notary certifies the translator's signature, not the medical content.

If the document is to be submitted to an official body abroad, you will often need an apostille too. When taking the order we establish the purpose and advise exactly which level you need.

Our medical services

We have divided the medical translation practice into six specialised services. Each has its own terminology base, format standard and responsible translator:

• Translation of discharge summaries and medical histories: discharge summary, outpatient card, case history, consultation report
• Translation of laboratory and radiology results: blood tests, histology, MRI, CT, ultrasound, ECG
• Translation of clinical trial documentation: protocols, informed consent forms, investigator's brochure
• Translation of pharmaceutical documentation: package leaflets, SmPC, registration dossier, labels
• Translation of Form 100: health certificate for a visa, studies, employment
• Translation of medical device manuals: operating manuals, IFU, technical passports

Who contacts us most often

• Patients and their families planning treatment in Turkey, Germany, Israel or the USA and sending the clinic their full history
• Foreign patients who receive treatment in Georgia as medical tourists and then receive the Georgian discharge summary in their own language
• Clinics and hospitals preparing documentation for international accreditation or for foreign patients
• Pharmaceutical and CRO companies that need clinical trial documents for submission to an ethics committee
• Insurance companies reviewing reimbursement of services received abroad
• Importers of medical devices who are required to provide a Georgian-language manual for registration

How the work proceeds

• you send us the document over an encrypted channel or bring it to the office; in the case of handwritten notes we first assess legibility
• we establish the purpose and advise the necessary level of certification
• a specialised translator works on the document, then a second specialist compares the numbers, doses and terms with the original
• for a regular client we create a terminology base, so that every subsequent document is consistent with the previous one
• where needed we certify with the agency's seal or notarize and prepare the document for an apostille

Frequently asked questions