However, the term pivot language (or bridge language) refers to the intermediary language that enables integrated translation/localization process from only one source language to any required number of target languages in cases of multilingual localization when the source materials are not available in a single language for any reason.

Choosing the Pivot Language

In most cases, the main factor for the pivot language choice is essentially the availability of human and other resources (such as data or translation assets) for a particular language or language pairs, and this generally depends on the language size. Language services get more expensive and the availability of digital and human resources gets more limited as the sheer number of native speakers descends. For example, there will always be fewer resources available for localization from Dutch to Japanese than from Dutch to English or from Japanese to English.

This is the reason why, in most cases, English will be the preferred pivot language, followed by other relatively large languages such as Spanish, German or French.

In certain cases, depending on the project requirements and the specific language pairs required, the purely linguistic features of languages such as their structure, shared vocabulary and genetic relationships can be leveraged to shorten the turnaround time and improve the cost-effectiveness of localization process by choosing one among the mutually intelligible languages  or dialects as the pivot language for localization within certain clusters of languages and locales (such as South Slavic).

Concerns and Solutions

The main and only concern of pivoting is quality.

There is no doubt that this approach provides an opportunity to exchange not only the translated information, but also any errors, false friends and awkward or vague lexical and structural solutions among the language pairs.

Luckily, quality is also one of the main reasons why the pivot language approach is deployed in the first place.

The importance of the source material quality can never be emphasized enough, and it is essential to remember that any vagueness in terms of clarity, context or the intended purpose of the source materials is likely to reflect on the localized versions. With the pivoting approach, these issues are resolved during the preparatory stages because the materials are developed/translated to the pivot language with the clearly set purpose of localization to other languages, which is usually not the case when corporate materials are composed.

At the same time, pivoting enables development of centralized quality assurance programs, centralized development of translation assets such as multilingual terminology bases , and reduced administration as any communication between the linguist and technical teams and the client can be smoothly performed through a single point of contact, i.e. the project manager.

When it Works

The pivoting approach can be used in virtually all areas of language services – in machine translation with AI, professional human translation, even in interpreting – but its main strength is always in numbers – either in the number of target languages, or in the volume of the materials for localization.

While it may make little sense to apply it on localization projects involving an odd number of language pairs, it will make perfect sense to use it when the language pairs are numbered in dozens .

When done right (i.e, when the source materials are given all due attention), it is an excellent tool that enables centralized management of multilingual projects and, consequently, optimization of costs and time required for localization.

The post The Pivot Language Approach and Multilingual Localization Projects: How and When it Works 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.

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.