| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Developing Medical Specialism Thread poster: Sam Brightbart
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Sam Brightbart 
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:32
French to English
TOPIC STARTER | Yana Onikiychuk
Russian Federation
Local time: 17:32
English to Russian
+ ...
| Tricky issue - MD or not MD? | Jan 2, 2013 |
There is a lot of debates whether a person must be a MD/nurse/pharmacist to perform accurate translation in medical field. Moreover, it really depends on market, if there are (any) medical translators who migrated from medical specialties. There is a share of these professionals in Russian translation market, whether ex-doctors or full-time healthcare workers looking for an additional income (blame the economy). But I seriously doubt that in USA/Germany/France and other countries the amount of s... See more There is a lot of debates whether a person must be a MD/nurse/pharmacist to perform accurate translation in medical field. Moreover, it really depends on market, if there are (any) medical translators who migrated from medical specialties. There is a share of these professionals in Russian translation market, whether ex-doctors or full-time healthcare workers looking for an additional income (blame the economy). But I seriously doubt that in USA/Germany/France and other countries the amount of such translators would be substantial to cover all the translation/interpreting needs.
It's hard for me to advice where to get a medical experience, since I got mine in medical school and later in hospital (right, I'm ex-doctor), but I can tell you you can get rather good command in the field without getting to 7 or more years of official medical training. Reading -yes, on-line coursers - definitely, now it's plenty of them, try also to find a MD/healthcare specialist to be your mentor for the first time and to explain you basics of how it works (physiology, pathology, signs and symptoms, diagnostics, treatment), since you can miss it even with the best course and best glossaries. The value of medical background is that you have a better understanding of basic principles and better grip on the context. In some cases instead of going to KudoZ, you revive your medical school memories, and the right answer just pops out. Also with medical background you can more easily locate a mistake in the source text (and there are many - nobody is perfect) or in the translated text you edit.
Actually, we done a small study on medical translation performed by doctors vs. non-doctors, and we found that with the years of experience the difference in translation quality and number/type of mistakes between doctors and non-doctors vanishes, and both categories have similar performance. While linguists do more mistakes on terminology, doctors are usually bad with grammar/style, so both products require a post-editing.
So be patient, be curious, be stubborn, and never be over-confident - that will help you to stay out of mistakes and get the expertise you want.
Oh yes, and stay out of medical statements handwritten by doctors - they are awful, and you need a decent cryptographic talent and vast knowledge on rare medical acronyms used in diagnostic reports/therapy description.
Good luck, and let me know if you need some help! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Emma Goldsmith
Spain
Local time: 17:32
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
| Link to study | Jan 2, 2013 |
Yana Onikiychuk wrote:
Actually, we done a small study on medical translation performed by doctors vs. non-doctors, and we found that with the years of experience the difference in translation quality and number/type of mistakes between doctors and non-doctors vanishes, and both categories have similar performance. While linguists do more mistakes on terminology, doctors are usually bad with grammar/style, so both products require a post-editing.
As Yana hasn't posted it herself, here's a link to a report on her study:
http://gxplanguageservices.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/guest-post-translating-with-and-without-medical-background-a-retrospective-study/
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