The trend of translation has made people use machine translation whenever they need to translate anything. Likewise, many doctors and physicians including healthcare centers have also started using machine translation in order to cope with patients who have limited to zero proficiency in the English language. Though technology has become advanced like never before and we keep witnessing new inventions every now and then. But artificial intelligence will need to improve to perfection to make the machine translation accurate and quality content. The medical content and text can not be checked on the parameters of the machine translation. Patients who have limited proficiency in the language are at higher risk of being misunderstood. Moreover, using machine translation for them can further elevate the level of seriousness and danger. For medical translation, one has to be familiar with the ins and outs of both languages, cultures, and complex medical terminology.
Medical document and medical terminology translation services have to be accurate, precise and to the point within a given format and layout. There is no room for errors and inaccuracies in the medical content. A little negligence can go a long way. Machine translation in particular cannot be trusted for medical text. Here are a few pitfalls of using machine translation for medical text.
- Context
Machine translation is an imperfect medium of getting translation and using it in a medical context can be dangerous. It does not understand the context of the content. Also, it is unfamiliar with the medical history of people and how certain factors could trigger some underlying issues. The context is of foremost importance in medical translation. The language barrier can lead to miscommunication between physicians and patients. Hence, the content which goes for translation through a machine can put people in serious danger consequently inviting serious troubles. If a translation that is going through the machines does not express the context and the patient is unaware of the background, it can leave him in a state of despair where he could be stressed due to his diagnosis and the translation is not helping him either.
- Accuracy
There is no accuracy in the content that machines translate. A lot of healthcare staff and physicians opt for machine translation because they do not have the budget to hire professional and certified medical document translation services. Accuracy is the essence of translation and for a medical text, it is the most important attribute that helps physicians to move forward and deal with patients. Medical text which runs through the machine tools for translation brings no accuracy. It is rather more into word-to-word content that has no fluency and lacks context. The pharmaceutical and healthcare translation without accuracy is of no use and is a waste of time and resources. Medical content is sensitive by nature and can lead to a matter of life and death. Inaccurate medical data can be a reason for someone’s disability for life. Hence, it is better to always hire experienced medical translators for the purpose.
- Format
Medical document translation services require following a certain pattern. Medical documents including prescriptions, consent forms, reports, medical history, log out charts, and a lot more have to be inserted following a specific layout. The machine translation can mess up the whole format and layout. It doesn’t recognize the pattern and the type of document it belongs to. Different medical documents come in different layouts and keeping the track of every form in the given layout gets tough while performing the translation task with the help of machine tools. Informed consent forms are particularly important which patients sign and give their consent in case of surgeries and treatments. For accurate informed consent form translation services, it is better to not rely on machine tools.
- Medical terminology
We all know how medical terminology and industry jargon are not everyone’s cup of tea. When it comes to hiring human translators for medical tasks, medical companies prefer to hire someone who is experienced, has the subject matter expertise, and understands the terms and terminology. Machine translation, however, cannot excel in this regard. It is fed with particular content and terms and it might take ages to use and place the medical terms where needed. It can not understand the context so placing medical terminology as per requirement could be something translation tools fail to do. This is why medical companies hire a professional translation vendor for medical terminology translation too. Because once the translator understands the significance and usage of each term only then he can excel in translation further.
- Cultural barriers
Not to mention machine translation tools can barely interpret the cultural barriers rightly and in accordance with the situation. This can affect professional medical terminology translation services severely. A lot of medical issues are serious taboos in some regions whereas people address these openly in other countries. Hence, translating the content through machines and conversing with the patients on the basis of machine-translated content can offend the patient and spark controversy. Thus, the machine translation could make your patients upset and divert them away. Therefore, it is imperative to not trust machine translation tools for medical reasons as it could bring you sheer embarrassment with much more shortcomings.
Conclusion
Machine translation though has made many advancements and might replace human translators in the future. However, it will require ages to deliver accurate, precise, and contextual medical text. There are immense shortcomings that come with translating medical text through machines. Therefore, it is important that medical companies hire only human translators for translating medical content. Also, healthcare companies should not rely on online translators.
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