Translation refers to conveying messages from one language into another in a linguistically and grammatically correct manner. 

Localization includes the relevant additional features, adapting the translated piece of text to a narrower group of people. As the name itself tells us, the text is localized when it addresses a certain local audience. 

In the context of life sciences content localization, different markets may require different localizations, for pure linguistic or legal purposes.

Localization Vs Translation in Life Sciences

Life sciences translation and localization services make a difference for the providers of medical services and patients. If translators haven’t translated the content in question properly, the localization part will lack the necessary quality. 

Also, the translation company might have to deal with the same language in different versions.

For instance, if we translate a guide on certain medicines from English into Spanish, the end product for Spain may differ from the one prepared for Mexico. Spain is an independent country and an EU member, so the life sciences translation services might require a two-fold adaptation for this country. 

Mexico, on the other hand, is an independent country, but it’s also a member of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on free trade. The latter brings some legal translation specifics that Spain doesn’t have. 

Life Science Localization in Practice

When we’re talking about translation vs localization in life sciences, we need to be precise about the terms. A medical translation and localization may include medical software, instructions for use (IFU) for medical devices, user manuals, doctor manuals, and other aspects of medical content. 

A pharmaceutical translation and/or localization may refer to patient information leaflets (PILs), summaries of product characteristics (SPC), medical labels, etc. 

Translating and localizing clinical research materials includes informed consent forms (ICF), patient-reported outcomes (PRO), questionnaires, study protocols, and communication with local regulations, among other things. 

When handling these niches of life sciences content localization, translators and localizers must take into account domestic units of measure and conventions, local compliance, and established medical practice. They also need to meet the established expectations, jargon, and warnings. 

Also, the providers of life sciences localization services have to bear in mind that in-field medical workers and hospital staff typically work under a lot of stress. Working in an emergency unit or being a nurse/surgeon in an operating room leaves no room for ambiguity. That’s why accuracy and compliance are the pillars of Ciklopea’s policy on life sciences localization services.

Who Are Life Sciences Language Services For?

The target audience of life sciences translation and localization services may differ. For instance, adapting instructions for patients in clinical treatments is different from translating or localizing text for healthcare professionals. If a patient receives complicated and unlocalized instructions, they might feel more uncomfortable, which can additionally affect their medical condition. 

A user manual for doctors has to meet the knowledge level they possess and the activities they carry out in their daily tasks at work. To use the example from above, translating a doctor’s manual on medicines from US English into Mexican Spanish would require localizing the measure units, i.e., adapting imperial measures to metric measures. 

An international guidebook for hospital management demands a completely different approach. As such content usually contains regulatory and compliance-related details, language service providers are obliged to meet the standards expected at that level. They often have to properly explain and cover international standards, such as the ISO 13485.

Life Sciences Localization Vs Transcreation

In the translation vs localization comparison, it’s important to explain whether transcreation is applicable to life sciences. In most cases, transcreation isn’t part of the translation process in life sciences. 

Localization and translation predominantly revolve around adapting semantic items from one language into another. Transcreation includes a higher level of creativity in the message-conveying process. It’s used to transfer the tone, style, and purpose of the original text to an international audience. As such, transcreation is more commonly used for marketing, advertising, and branding translation services, rather than technical and medical translation. 

Since life sciences localization services are more focused on accuracy and compliance, i.e., drier but more precise communication, transcreation is generally avoided. Still, it can be used when it’s necessary to create more detailed or more vivid instructions for patients. 

ISO Standards and Life Science Language Services

Every company operating in an international business environment needs to meet certain ISO standards. The providers of life science and language services are no exception. For starters, it’s important to answer one pillar question: what is ISO 13485, because this is one of the key standards in life sciences. 

The ISO 13485 is an international standard for manufacturers of medical devices. It’s a rulebook with various rules and requirements that such entities need to follow in order to produce internationally verifiable medical devices. It prescribes the production, installation, maintenance, and proper, safe design of medical devices. 

Compliance with ISO 13485 is formal proof that a localization and translation service provider has implemented strict legal regulations. In turn, it demonstrates that the service provider in question is capable of delivering accurate and consistent translation. Since errors in the life sciences industry can have fatal outcomes, every organization operating in this field must meet stricter requirements than what might be the case in some other industries. 

ISO 27001 is another important standard for every business. It defines how the Information Security Management System within an organization should function, in order to ensure it’s a secure and compliant entity. A localization and translation service provider is not a high-risk business. However, translating and localizing content for clients from healthcare and pharmaceutical industry includes exposure to content that requires special legal compliance. 

ISO 18587 is another crucial standard for translation and localization companies. It contains guidelines and features required for post-editing of machine-translated content. In the life sciences industries, post-editing plays a vital role because of the life-sensitive content that such niches include. 

The Future of Translation vs Localization in Life Sciences

The number of people in the world will keep growing steadily in the time ahead, meaning that more people will need medical services. Apart from urgent interventions, every person needs routine medical care. There will be more medical devices and more medical content to cover in the time ahead. Providers of translation and localization services have to be aware of these processes to keep pace with the market. This is what every client needs to know when comparing translation vs localization in life sciences. 

Ciklopea is fully invested in knowledge and professionals who ensure top-tier localization and translation services. Get in touch with us, and we’ll work together to create a tailor-made offer for life sciences translation and localization services. 

The post Localization Vs Translation in Life Sciences: Understanding the Difference appeared first on Ciklopea.

• The importance of precise translation in ensuring patient safety and effective communication within the healthcare industry.
• Strategies for handling the unique challenges of translating scientific texts.
• Practical tips for maintaining accuracy and consistency in medical translations.
• Real-world examples highlighting the differences between translations for healthcare professionals and patients.
• Solutions for managing terminology and incorporating client feedback to improve translation quality.

Announcing Our Video Series

To continue sharing the wealth of information discussed during the webinar, we’re excited to announce a special video series that will be released over the next four weeks. Each week, we’ll share a new video featuring highlights from the webinar. Here’s what you can look forward to:

• Most Frequent Document Types in the Life Sciences: A Short Overview
• Ciklopea’s Workflow and Services: Strategies for Managing Scientific Terminology and Ensuring Translation Accuracy
• Vendor Management: How We Form Teams for Life Sciences Translations
• Possible Errors: Practical Examples of Translation Challenges and Solutions in the Medical Field

If you want to learn more, take a look at our first video

We invite you to follow our blog and social media channels to stay updated on the release of these videos.

Each video will provide valuable insights and practical tips that can benefit anyone involved in the life sciences and translation industries.

The post Reflecting on Our Webinar “From Lab to Lexicon: The Crucial Role of Translation in the Life Sciences” – Video appeared first on Ciklopea.

More Product-Related Documentation

The MDR classification of medical devices has been extended to include more medicinal products, meaning that more products might be classified as medical devices than before. In addition, medical devices manufacturers are also responsible for devices once they are marketed and for the technical documentation, and there are new and more precise requirements for clinical trials to be conducted by the medical devices manufacturers.

The new guidelines also require more detailed labeling, description of the product, clinical data, documentation, software and information about application of the device, “clearly comprehensible to the intended user”.

In other words, more IFUs will need to be translated and submitted for approval to healthcare authorities for every market.

Mixed Complexity Levels

One of the particularly interesting changes related to translation refers to the manufacturer‘s responsibility to draw up the Summary of Safety and Clinical Performance in a form that intended users and patients can understand.

This means that it might be necessary to develop and translate information intended for the healthcare professionals and patients in the same document.

Focus on the User

Many of the changes required by the MDR compliance relate to the availability and clarity of the product-related documentation to the users of medical devices.

For example, the IFUs must be available on the manufacturer‘s website, linked to the Summary of Safety and Clinical Performance (SSCP) (written in or translated to the language understandable by the user) and uploaded to the EUDAMED database, and to quote from the MDR itself:

• IFUs “shall be written in terms readily understood by the intended user, and, where appropriate, supplemented with drawings and diagrams”
• SSCP must be submitted for class III and implantable devices in a language “easily understandable to the intended user”
• Labeling must be “clearly comprehensible to the intended user”
• Information supplied with the medical devices must be “easily understandable to the user”

This all means that there will be more demand for translation of patient-facing content and that having a reliable provider of language services with the appropriate experience and expertise in content production and  development of translation solutions for the medical devices sector will remain to be crucial for smooth operation and closing of regulatory cycles on the European market, and one of the reasons for this is that manufacturers now also need to provide documentation in English and in their language.

Last, but not the least, centralized management of translation services for the official languages of the EU is probably the best model for  the manufacturers of MDR-compliant medical devices because this model enables uniform execution of the translation process and the quality control across the language pairs.

The post Regulation (EU) 2017/745 on Medical Devices (MDR) and Translation appeared first on Ciklopea.

Before we delve deeper into the procedures, it should be noted that the choice of accurate and appropriate terminology in the life sciences sector will depend upon the target audiences and purpose of the materials.

If the content is targeted at the patients/end users who are not necessarily familiar with the expert terminology, we may want to use the terms that such audiences will understand.

These are the so-called patient-facing materials and may include a wide range of content from informed consent forms and various patient surveys to marketing materials and user interfaces of medical devices.

Another group of content is targeted at the industry professionals and/or regulators and the language of these materials needs to feature the industry-accepted terms, consistent with the scientific and legal conventions of the target market. These materials also include a wide range of materials, from clinical trial protocols to SmPCs.

The Heritage, the Modern Times and the Speed

The largest part of the medical/pharmaceutical vocabulary in the European languages originates from Latin, Greek and Arabic, making it an international, almost universal lexical stock, and while traditionally it took little more than adapting a Latin/Greek/Arabic phrase in accordance with the target language orthography to render a usable translation, with English having become the lingua franca and the language of much of the contemporary technological and scientific development, this situation looks somewhat different.

Most of the terms describing modern medical procedures, diagnostics, equipment and devices are coined in English every day, combining the traditional terminology with new technologies, at a much faster pace than these terms are adopted in other, comparatively smaller languages.

This situation is frequently resolved by the healthcare professionals simply using the English terms with little to no adaptation out of necessity and this is one of those case when terminology management, as one of the standard procedures in the language industry, truly acts as an auxiliary discipline to the life sciences.

What is terminology management?

Terminology management is a multistage process of identifying, translating, storing and maintaining searchable multilingual terminology bases for use on translation/localization projects.

For best possible results, terminology bases should be developed in collaboration with the client/client’s subject matter experts as the best practices show that client’s input regarding the explanation of new technologies and the desired solutions before/at the early stages of the project can speed up the process dramatically and generate results of higher quality.

Although they are also developed and used in conjunction with productivity software (CAT tools), unlike translation memories that store translated segments (sentences or paragraphs) in a single language pair, terminology bases store only translations of specific terms and provide a quick and reliable reference to the translators and reviewers working on the project.

Terminology bases can be described as customized advanced dictionaries and some of their benefits include:

• Terminology bases are multilingual (they can contain translations for specific terms in many languages);
• Terminology bases can contain specific notes (clarifying the context, e.g. which translation should be used for the patient-facing materials);
• Terminology bases can contain images/definitions (very useful for providing additional context);
• Prohibited terms / terms that must remain in the source languages (DNT terms) can be defined.
• Terminology bases are stored and can be reused on future projects, ensuring lexical and stylistic consistency.

Benefits of terminology bases

Terminology bases are one of the building blocks of any successful/lean translation process.

A result of joint effort of the linguists, client’s subject matter experts and the experts working on the technical preparation and execution of translation projects, terminology bases with their versatile functions ensure a faster and leaner translation process with less editing in the quality assurance stages.

Side effects

While terminology bases are an excellent tool, they are not a substitute for a magic wand that will make any bad translation go away.

Unclear/missing context of the desired terms may actually generate very bad results (just consider the entirely different meanings of simple words such as thread or probe in different medical and pharmaceutical applications and the issues that might arise from these differences).

Terminology bases usually do not include different grammar case forms, often leading to reporting false errors in the quality assurance phase.

However, when done right and in the hands of an experienced and focused linguist team, terminology bases ensure accuracy, appropriateness and fluency of the translated/localized materials that fulfill their ultimate purpose of bringing the medicinal and pharmaceutical products to the global markets.

The post Word for Word and More: Terminology Management for the Pharmaceutical Industry appeared first on Ciklopea.

• Language solutions for the medical devices and pharmaceutical industries.
• Translation technologies.
• Digital transformation.
• Management of digital translation assets.
• Integration of online content management systems and localization platforms.
• Terminology management.
• Quality assurance
• How translation technologies can help you optimize the costs and duration of regulatory cycles and more.

Learn More about DIA Europe 2021 and register.

The post Ciklopea at DIA Europe 2021 appeared first on Ciklopea.

In this webinar, we will discuss how the digital translation assets can be used to support global and local business operations in the life sciences sector while retaining the highest quality levels and maintaining the consistency of corporate message and style on all levels.

This session gathers top experts from the worlds of life sciences, business development and localization industry who will explore the opportunities of digital asset management. Each of them will share their experiences and their views on digital asset management and its enormous transforming potential that they have witnessed in their respective fields.

The panelists:

• • Morten Kruse Sorensen – Senior Global Director, Multichannel Excellence & Operations at Novo Nordisk

• Charlotte Fairweather – Medical Affairs, Digital innovation at Bayer
• Emma Booth – Director and Head of EU Medical Capabilities at Amgen –
• Mladen Stojak – Chief Strategy Officer at Ciklopea
• Nancy Hähnel – Business Development Representative at Ciklopea

Date: 31 March 2021

Time: 3 PM (CET)

Duration: 60 minutes

If you want to learn how the digital translation assets can boost your performance in the life sciences sector, this is the webinar for you. Register now!

The post Ciklopea at NEXT Pharma Summit Webinar “Digital Asset Management in Localization Process and How to Do It Better?” appeared first on Ciklopea.

Patient-facing content is virtually everywhere: from marketing materials that ranges from advertisements to medicinal product brochures and various promotional articles written to educate patients on their conditions and treatments and to provide lifestyle advice, to package inserts (or patient information leaflets or PILs) and drug packaging and labels.

In other words, every medical and pharmaceutical content that is not written for healthcare professionals and/or regulators can be qualified as patient-facing content.

Patient-facing materials in clinical trials

Materials such as informed consent forms, treatment descriptions, investigational medicinal product information, legal and financial information, as well as any materials used during the subject recruitment phase, are essential in every clinical trial.

These materials provide the study subjects with the relevant complete and accurate information about the trial, the involved risks and benefits, as well as their rights and obligations and the full implications of their consent.

In addition, it is important that various legal and regulatory requirements are met in the language of the patient-facing materials.

Translating patient-facing materials

While medical translators are well-versed in medical and pharmaceutical terminology and procedures by definition, in these cases they need to execute their translations knowing that the target audiences are the people who may have never heard of urticaria, but who are certainly aware of hives.

Although this may seem easy, it is not uncommon that these translations actually require more effort and linguistic skill than translation of materials for healthcare professionals simply due to their nature and purpose.

They also carry another layer of responsibility – poorly styled or wrong translation may unintentionally mislead a study subject/patient both in terms of use and side effects of a medicinal product, as well as the legal aspects of clinical trials.

For these reasons, it is essential to assemble a linguist team with the appropriate experience and clear understanding of the material purpose and information about the target audiences.

While it is always a good idea to use common terms for medical conditions and procedures when they are available, this does not mean that general quality standards can be omitted and that slang terms may be used.

It is always useful to have a linguist checklist for translation of patient-facing materials that may include the following items:

•       Use short and clear sentences.
•       Avoid the syntax of the source material. If any sentence in the source language is too long or too complex, split it in two or more sentences.
•       Use common terms and avoid expert terminology.
•       Alternatively, use common terms with expert terms/scientific names in parentheses.
•       Pay close attention to clarity and accuracy of the sections explaining how to use medicinal products, legal implications of consent form, risks, benefits and side-effects.
•       Ask yourself if your grandmother could understand the translation (unless she happens to be a healthcare professional).

Application of translation technologies

Translation technologies and digital translation assets can be (and are) used on these projects to cut expenses and shorten the turnaround time, but only in cases where the existing assets were used on previous projects for the same target audiences.

For example, a translation memory or a termbase developed and used for translation of scientific materials, study protocols, SmPCs and other materials targeted at healthcare professionals may not be of much help in these cases.

It is therefore a good idea to develop and maintain separate translation assets on the basis of target audiences and purpose.

The post Translating Patient-Facing Content: Challenges and Solutions appeared first on Ciklopea.

This microsite is the result of our accumulated expertise in the field and presently features detailed information on our portfolio of solutions for various medical devices, pharmacy, beauty and healthcare, crop sciences and clinical research companies and organizations, as well as the knowledge base featuring various resources on translation and localization in the life sciences industries.

The microsite is available at Lifesciences

The post Ciklopea Launches Life Sciences Microsite appeared first on Ciklopea.

Let me tell you a secret that took me 15 years to figure out about providing top language services:

Translation is actually NOT what you are looking for.

What you really need is a language solution, which is essentially another name for an errorproof process in the language industry.

Now, you are probably wondering – “Why didn’t I know this before?”

Honestly – it’s not you, it the language solution market putting all the emphasis on translation, when in reality – if you work in heavily regulated industry like pharma, you need more than “just” a translation.

You need the “whole package” to make sure that the errors are avoided and the delivery is on time.

Why?

Because every error or missed deadline costs time, money, energy, affects reputation and compromises the overall quality of your product/service. Plain and simple.

So, what is the difference between “just” translation and language solution?

Translation remains the main part of the language solution, but it includes further services and procedures performed before, during and after the translation process. These services and procedures may vary depending on the specific project requirements, but they usually include:

• Selection of the right linguist team for every project on the basis of their expertise, language pair and quality of their work;
• Determining the scope and the requirements of each project;
• Use of appropriate technology (Computer-assisted translation or CAT tools)
• Development and use of appropriate translation assets (termbases and translation memories)
• Professional human translation;
• Professional human editing/proofreading of the translated materials by a second linguist team;
• Subject-matter expert review (if required)
• Computer-assisted quality assurance (QA) processing;
• DTP and additional services (if required).

Life Sciences and Language

Where is the meeting point of localization – and other language services – and the pharmaceutical industry?

If we take a step back and look at medicines and medical devices as essentially products, it’s easy to see that translation and localization are the necessary tools for business operations on the global markets.

But if we remember that healthcare products are designed to improve the quality of life and health, it becomes instantly clear that development of language solutions for the life sciences sector requires specific approach, high expertise and rigorous quality control process.

Language Solutions for Clinical Research

Clinical research is one of the pivotal phases of development of pharmaceutical products in which companies test safety and efficacy of the new medications intended for human use.

It is performed in medical institutions and hospitals (clinical research centers) and involves wide groups of stakeholders, including the study participants, investigators and other healthcare professionals, ethics committee members and regulators.

With clinical research studies being increasingly outsourced, the need for localization of a wide range of study materials also increases.

These materials, inter alia, range from materials written by medical professionals for their peers, such as study protocols, requests for approvals and correspondence with local regulators, the materials composed by medical professionals for patients such as informed consent forms (ICFs) to patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

All clinical research materials are composed in a particular style, using a particular vocabulary and, in case of any regulatory-related content, the translated versions must follow the specific terminology and standards of the target markets and therefore the translation projects must be performed by the linguists who are familiar with the target market regulations, preferred/required terminology and the clinical research process in general.

This is where the strengths of an advanced translation/localization process truly come to the fore and the execution phase of that process begins with the selection of the most suitable linguists for the concerned language pair and professional domain.

Translated, proofread and approved segments of the translated materials are stored in the form of translation assets (terminology bases and translation memories) for further use that ultimately cut the translation costs down and, besides the standard quality control steps such as proofreading and computer-assisted quality assurance, function as an additional quality layer of quality assurance as the linguists perform every new translation project using the previously approved elements.

It’s All About Quality

The ultimate purpose of this is to deliver the translation of the best quality possible that answers the challenges of clinical research requirements, ultimately helping the life sciences companies close the regulatory cycles on the foreign markets and launch their products quicker.

What can you do right now if you are struggling with poor quality translation?

If you found this post helpful and need help with localization of clinical research materials, schedule a free translation process audit and I’ll tell you where the mistakes in your translation process are and how to correct them.

The post The Missing Piece In Translating Clinical Research Materials appeared first on Ciklopea.

Once the basic aspects of a translation process have been defined (scope, deadline, language pairs, etc.), it is crucial to assemble the best project team on the basis of linguistic and subject-matter expertise.

This essentially means assigning the linguists with both linguistic proficiency and deep understanding of clinical research procedures (both in general and on the target market/country) to the project. They need to understand the type, structure and purpose of any document that may be required in the course of clinical trial, as well as the specific medical, legal and (in certain cases) technical terminology used by the clinical research organizations and regulatory authorities on the target market.

Once the translation is finished and approved by all stakeholders (including the local regulatory bodies), the translated versions can be used for creation of translation assets.

Translation assets and benefits of their use

Translation assets include translation memories (segmented databases containing previously translated and approved elements in a specific language pair), termbases (databases containing translations of preferred terms in a specific language pair) and sometimes glossaries (monolingual definitions of specific terms and procedures).

The previously translated elements are the building blocks of translation assets and their benefits include:

• Lexical and stylistic consistency – every new translation is performed to match the previously used and approved style and terminology. Specific terms such as medical and pharmaceutical terminology, medical titles, names of CROs and other institutions are used consistently.
• Quality control – use of translation assets represents an additional layer of real-time quality control because linguists are able to perform their tasks on the basis of previously translated materials.
• Easy updates – any change in the source material can be easily and automatically implemented in the translated materials.
• Cost/time optimization – use of translation assets enables long-term saving of the time and resources required for translation.

Managing translation assets

Termbases can be multilingual, while translation memories are created for a specific language pair. It is, however, possible to develop several translation assets that can be used for different purposes within one account.

For example, it is possible to create separate translation memories for the materials composed by the healthcare professionals for other healthcare professionals (Investigator’s brochures, protocols and amendments, Case Report Files (CRF), various tests, instructions, reports, approvals, authorizations, etc.), the materials given to the subjects (Informed Consent Forms (ICF), advertising materials, all subject-oriented textual materials) and various legal and financial documents (agreements, insurance statements, financial documentation, etc.) and to use them for further translation of these materials accordingly in conjunction with one master termbase.

The various specific of different types of documents oriented to different stakeholders and designed for different purposes within a clinical research will thus remain consistently and appropriately translated, ultimately also optimizing the expenses and the required time of translation.

Of course, it is also possible to develop and use only one master translation memory.

Wrap-up

With the right process in place and with smart application of language technology, it is possible to address the challenges of translation in clinical research, retain consistency and quality of different types of materials, easily update the translated files and ultimately cut the translation costs.

If you want to learn more about the language technology and its use, check out our feature article How to Cut Localization Costs with Translation Technology.

The post Updating Clinical Study Documentation: Translation, Consistency and Quality appeared first on Ciklopea.

Creative translation or transcreation is a sophisticated language solution that cuts through localization, translation and cultural adaptation to communicate the rhythm, tone and intent of the source material on the foreign markets.

It is used whenever a particular aspect of a corporate message targeting the widest circles of users needs to be adapted for a foreign market’s environment.

Unlike translation that communicates the meaning of the source material with the utmost precision and accuracy, transcreation communicates its particular emotion, style and values, with the linguists focusing on the intent of the original material and its marketing aspects, such as target audience, brand philosophy and, more often than not, the harmony of the transcreated message with the company’s visual identity.

Succinctly speaking, the message is reworked and recreated in the target language rather than translated or localized.

When do pharmaceutical companies and medical devices manufacturers need transcreation?

The short answer would be – whenever they need to adapt any copy/marketing material to a foreign market.

The purpose of creative translation is to preserve the creative juice, punch and effect of the original message that may come in different forms such as taglines, advertisements, product/service brochures, websites – and even brand names in some cases.

Another, very important purpose of transcreation is damage prevention – in addition to bringing the company and its products closer to the target audiences, creative translation also functions as a protective layer that prevents any instance of the product, service or company being negatively perceived on the target market.

Every market demands different approach and, in some cases, even different materials.

Direct translation of marketing materials is therefore never the right solution as it may (and does) cause the product/service to underperform on the target markets, or, even worse, confuse or offend the target audience.

All external communication coming from the medical and pharmaceutical companies must convey the message of expertise, professionalism and well-being and transcreation is the solution that preserves these values on the target markets, helping the companies achieve their full potential and build a positive global presence.

Additionally, all marketing materials must be approved by the regulatory bodies operating on the target territories, which actually provides another layer of quality assurance – if the regulators understand and approve the transcreated message, the chances are good it will be accepted on the target market.

How we do it?

Successful transcreation for  the life sciences industry is a team work that typically requires close cooperation and constructive communication among the stakeholders – the client, the project managers, the linguists, the marketing experts and the regulators.

Check out our case study describing in detail the process of tagline transcreation to 11 languages that we did for JGL, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the Adriatic region.

The post Trascreation for the Life Sciences: Why, When and How appeared first on Ciklopea.

Want to join our team? Continue reading…

As a Sales Representative, you will be part of the team enabling Ciklopea to strengthen its position as a leader in providing customized and scalable solutions to its clients by helping them communicate their message to international audiences and secure a positive global presence. By individually approaching customers and listening to their needs, you will assist them in finding the right business solution.

If you are coming from the localization industry or have a clear understanding of the importance of linguistic solutions for business success and know how to expand the reach of our message, we are the perfect employer for you.

Responsibilities:

• Generate prospect leads through cold-calling
• Identify decision makers and set meeting with targeted leads to begin sales process
• Create and deliver qualified opportunities and ensure follow-up
• Collaborate with Sales and Business Development team to determine the necessary strategic sales approaches
• Continually expand the company’s sales pipeline.
• Reach sales and profit margin targets
• Negotiate pricing and contractual agreement to close sale
• Register all sales activities on a daily basis in CRM.
• Report sales execution to the management weekly/monthly/annually
• Report on market trends in the industry and share the inside sales information

Qualifications:

• 3 or 4- year Bachelor’s Degree
• 1 – 3 years of direct experience in sales
• Demonstrated ability to convert prospects and close deals while maintaining established sales quotas.
• Solid experience in opportunity qualification, pre-call planning, call control, account development, and time management.
• Success in qualifying opportunities involving multiple key decision makers.
• Strong problem identification and objection resolution skills.
• Ability to build and maintain lasting relationships with customers.
• Exceptional verbal communication and presentation skills but also impeccable written skills
• Strong team player but still a self-starter
• Ability to achieve and exceed targets while working under pressure
• Fluent English speaker is a must. Fluent in the German language is a plus.

We offer:

• Excellent working conditions and a competitive remuneration package (base + commission)
• The opportunity to reach your goals and your full potential
• Positive attitude and excellence, result-oriented team work

About Ciklopea:

Ciklopea is an industry-focused provider of linguistic solutions enabling companies to reach, engage and support global clients and customers.
Our linguistic products have been developed to accommodate the specific requirements, dynamics and prospects of the life sciences, IT & software and technology and manufacturing industries. Using our proprietary technology, advanced project management and linguistic expertise, we provide customized and scalable solutions that will help you communicate your message to international audiences and secure a positive global presence.

Ciklopea is an Employer Partner.
Employer Partner Certificate is a project aimed at identifying and promoting companies with quality human resources management.
Find our more at: http://www.poslodavacpartner.org/cep-winners-detail/ciklopea-eng

We are waiting for your application at hr[at]ciklopea.com

Join our team and show us we can no longer function without you!

The post We Are Looking for a Sales Representative (M/F) appeared first on Ciklopea.

The Specialization

We often speak about the life sciences industry and medical or pharmaceutical materials, but the truth is that these are all umbrella terms for an extremely wide range of study areas and specializations, ranging from psychiatry to dermatology, from neuroscience to beauty products.

Each sector has its own terminology and processes that need to be accurately communicated from one language to another and this is why the linguists working on these projects need to use the phrases and terms used by the healthcare professionals on the target market.

There are cases when the same term has to be adapted in different ways depending on the sector and the language combination and there are always newly introduced terms that need to be double checked. In every event, regulatory documentation in the target language is always the best resource to be consulted as an additional layer of quality assurance.

The Domain

Medical content comes in all shapes and sizes, from medical software to specific regulatory documents and marketing materials. The regulatory materials, correspondence with regulatory bodies and contract research organizations, clinical trial requests and amendments need to be adapted the certain way, in accordance with the professional, legal and technical requirements of the target market.

Marketing materials, as well as any piece of content developed for general public and users of medical products such as PILs, brochures, questionnaires and more need to convey the expert information in a manner understandable to the end users, while medical software localization has its particular, technical features and limitations that need to be addressed.

There is no one size fits all solution – each domain and medium require specific approaches.

The Language

It is usually not only the perfect right, but also the duty of translator to depart from the phrasing of the source material in order to make it understandable and clear in the target language, but one has to be extra careful when using that translator’s license in medical and pharmaceutical materials.

Medical content is not immune to false friends, as per usual between the more and less similar languages – for example, Russian word for stomach or abdomen is живот (zhivot) means life in Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian and other Slavic languages. Personal titles of medical professionals may and do differ wildly across the languages, just like the names of the drugs.

Once again, being extra careful and exploring the existing medical vocabulary and culture of the target market is what gets the job done – and the job is always to convey the meaning of the source materials between the languages accurately, precisely and appropriately.

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The first thing that springs in my mind is how irrelevant the 911 emergency call can be in different parts of the world. For example, if you find yourself in Croatia, or, say, Sri Lanka, dialing 911 would probably kill you, as there would be no one to pick up the phone. That number is probably completely irrelevant for your locale.

This banal example represents the most obvious and the most extreme case, but under the surface there are many more of them that are barely noticeable to non-experts. Naturally, it gets me wondering who stands behind the whole process and how it is done.

The Stakeholders

There are several key participants who are responsible for producing and delivering accurate marketing materials for the life sciences products and services.

It all begins with medical and pharmaceutical companies, who develop the products and services and have the practical and technical knowledge about the product, and their marketing teams who have a deep understanding of the products, the target markets and audiences but need the external linguistic help to launch their products and campaigns on the foreign markets.

Their 911 emergency call is the Language Service Provider. The LSP will take care of the next stages of the process, which includes assembling linguist teams with the appropriate education and experience. They need to be tested, graded and have their output scored. However, LSPs shouldn’t bite off more than they can chew, meaning they should only accept projects they are equipped to handle.

Finally, there are subject matter experts (SMEs) with the expertise in the field, who are in charge of proofreading the translated material and provide professional feedback before the product launch.

The Process

Localization of marketing materials for pharmaceutical and medical products often involves more stages than, for example, those needed for clothes or food and beverages. Throughout the process, the LSP should be in contact with the manufacturer and other stakeholders in order to harmonize the different aspects and requirements of the project.

The process can include different stages depending on the specific requirements of a medium (for example, DTP processing and prepress proofing may be required), but it can always be described as close cooperation of all the other stakeholders in order to develop impeccably localized marketing material that will help the product manufacturers reach, engage and support their clients and customers on the target market.

It is also a good idea to find out a bit more about the SMEs, just to get the insight into their daily responsibilities and proofreading capacities. Delivery times and volumes can be determined only when the earlier steps have been established.

Readability

It is important to realize that most of the time, marketing materials are not developed for the experts and the healthcare workers, but for the patients and lay users. It is linguistics duty to deliver all the relevant information, but in a way that everyone can understand, which is called readability. There is no point in advertising a product using the language and the terminology that only select groups can relate to. Sometimes it means shifting away from the source and adapting the meaning, sometimes it may include transcreation and it is not only allowed, but also necessary to bring the product closer to the audiences.

Going Digital

In this day and age, it is no longer enough to communicate with the clients through the traditional channels such as printed leaflets and brochures.

In order to reach the wider audience, it is necessary to spread the corporate message and brand awareness online, which opens a set of whole new challenges. But it is certain that, in addition to product / service quality, the safest way to stand out from the competition on the target markets is through careful and high-quality localization, both online and offline.

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Life sciences and translation/localization are a bit of an odd couple, but deep down inside they are a match made in heaven. Almost all companies in the life sciences industry have to do business abroad, which means they need to speak the local lingo. Very few companies have the resources to translate everything in-house, which is where LSPs (language services providers) like us come in. Given the life-or-death nature of the majority of texts, understanding the translation process has never been more important. More importantly, using a professional agency who can deal with the complexity of this industry is an absolute must.

What life sciences regulations do I need to know about?

The life sciences industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world, and this makes our lives as translators that little bit more complicated. Not only does your translation agency have to be capable of handling medical terminology, they have to know the rules and regulations too. Acts like HIPAA are in place to protect patient confidentiality and protected health information, and translation agencies are legally required to follow it. Reputable LSPs should also work in accordance with ISO 9001, ISO 27001 or ISO 17100 regulations, which cover translation quality standards and information security. There are also European and national regulatory bodies that have specific translation terminology that needs to be kept to.

Is there anything else I need to keep in mind when ordering a life science translation?

Another thing to keep in mind when tackling life science localization is the fact that traditional TEP (translation-editing-proofreading) is simply not enough anymore. One example is that PIL (patient information leaflets) actually require readability testing, and it’s recommended for other of documentation too. You should also consider the marketing and sales potential of your new markets, so that you’re not missing out on that all important ROI.

How can I make sure that my LSP is a life science professional?

The market is full of translation companies, but knowing which one is right for your translations is better than ever. So, to round things up, here’s a checklist of things to keep in mind when choosing a new partner:

• Different documents need different styles, so feel free to discuss this with your LSP. They’ll be able to recommend which style is best for you.
• Make sure they know about approved terminology. They will be able to give you a list, and most companies like ourselves even perform in-house quality reviews to make sure this set terminology is kept too.
• Ask for blind CVs of the linguists doing your translations. Most translation agencies keep their translators’ CVs on record, so by having a look at their CV, you can make sure that their linguists really are life sciences experts.
• Check how they work. Some LSPs like us have set teams for documentation and another one for marketing, even if they are for the same products.
• Ask about rules and regulations to make sure that they are always followed.

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Active Role in Exchange of Information

The massive amount of life sciences materials being translated to almost every written language of the world on a daily basis essentially represent an active exchange of information on the cutting-edge life sciences products, procedures and development that are constantly widening the lexical stock of the target languages, making a valuable contribution to the scientific and business arenas of the target territories.

This is particularly true when we talk about the comparatively smaller languages whose existing lexical and lexicographical heritage may be limited. In these cases, a translation company does not act as a mere intermediary communicating the message of the life sciences industry to its local customers and clients, but it also becomes an invaluable assistant to the scientific and academic communities on the local market.

LSP does not act as a mere intermediary communicating the message of the life sciences industry to its local customers, but it also becomes a valuable assistant to the scientific and academic communities on the local market.

Life Sciences and Language

Life sciences materials include a wide range of structured documents oriented to scientists, healthcare professionals, regulatory agencies, clients and patients. Success of all medical and pharmaceutical scientific and business activities on the local markets also depends on the quality of translation, clarity of language and compliance of the translated material to the target culture, professional standards and local legal regulations.

For example, documents required by clinical studies such as Informed Consent Forms (ICFs), study protocols or the materials related to product launches such as Summaries of Product Characteristic (SPCs) or Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) are written in accordance with the set guidelines and need to be translated accordingly and this is where the LSPs provide their assistance to the benefit of all parties involved in a process.

An Auxiliary Discipline

Due to the importance of its role in medical and pharmaceutical activities on the local markets, translation industry can safely be regarded as a kind of an auxiliary discipline to the life sciences. Study and improvement of the quality of life is what gives the life sciences their collective name. Accurately and precisely communicated information on life sciences from one language to another is one of the prerequisites of their global success and its importance can never be emphasized enough.

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Every translation task has one ultimate goal – communicating the meaning of the source material in an accurate and stylistically appropriate manner to the target language. In other words, if translators cannot understand the meaning of the source information the accurate translation is impossible, and it goes without saying that the consequences of a bad or imprecise translation in life sciences may be very serious.

In addition to the mandatory mastery of both source and target language, every translation task also requires a certain level of additional background knowledge and this is where the main challenge of translating the life science content lies – proficient translators with background in medicine, pharmacy or any other life science are rare.

When translating and localizing to comparatively smaller languages, we may encounter terms that simply do not exist in the target language.

When translating and localizing to comparatively smaller languages, we may encounter terms that simply do not exist in the target language. In some cases, the appropriate linguistic literature, such as medical dictionaries, is not available and the terms need to be adopted or transcreated, which can only be done with the linguistic and life science knowledge and experience being combined.

Translating of life science content encompasses a wide range of materials ranging from instructions for use of medical devices and in vitro diagnostic devices (IFU), manuals for MDs and patients, patient information leaflets (PIL), summary of product characteristics (SPC), study protocols, questionnaires, informed consent forms, instructions, packagings, labels, marketing materials and more.

To answer these challenges and to provide linguistic services to the ever-expanding life sciences industry, LSPs form teams of translators specialized in translating the life sciences content that usually include professional consultants such as MDs, pharmaceutics and other professionals.

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