Translations for the medical industry
a case study

The challenge: translations of medical device manuals

In 2010, we were contacted by a manufacturer of medical devices and services related to urology, cardiology, gynecology and other medical disciplines, active in major international markets: the client needed native speakers for a range of target languages, with appropriate scientific and engineering skills, able to give a uniform vocabulary and quality to the translations of all documentation, technical and commercial, inherent in the launch of ten medical products.

What we translated

Our translators were engaged in translations from English source language to seventeen languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Czech, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Dutch, and Greek. Seventy-five thousand words were translated for each language combination, totaling 300 pages, covering product user manuals and marketing materials with a technical-specialist slant pertaining to medical products such as coronary stents, balloon catheters, and other devices for the management of urinary incontinence.

Our primary goal to satisfy our client

It was our care to ensure the quality, consistency and homogeneity of the technical and commercial product translations, in the seventeen languages and for each of the ten devices, even in the face of a delivery timeline of only two weeks.

The project in a nutshell

Respecting the urgent nature of the mandate, the assignment was completed in its various stages: we typeset and delivered the translated manuals and marketing materials, taking care of the pre-pagination of the texts, then translation, then proofreading by scientific consultants for the purely medical and engineering terms, leading to the stylistic editing stages and finally proofreading by native linguists experienced in the field, for each target language.

Our extra gear

Our project leader selected and coordinated a team of translators and experienced proofreaders, organizing an end-to-end workflow to smoothly complete all phases of project management, i.e., translation, formatting, and proofreading for each language. The team of native linguists and proofreaders specializing in the medical field optimized our client’s computer-aided translation (CAT) memories and worked with distributors abroad to agree on a common glossary and lexicon for all documents.

For each language, Mercury Translations assigned a senior reviewer to each control group for feedback on terminology and the final quality of the translations. To meet the tight deadline, translator deliveries were organized in batches so that proofreaders could work simultaneously.

A critical issue: how we solved it

The breadth and complexity of the project declined in seventeen languages for each product branch, applied for the ten new products, had in the past led to obvious formatting problems for the client and especially little consistency of terminology between different documents translated at different times, making translation management dysfunctional and the results a source of frustration.

The added value for our client

Greater efficiency in the processes combined with the improvements made to the CAT tools have brought the company significant savings in translation costs. In addition, with Mercury Translations, the company’s contact persons were able to be in control of every phase of the project, sending their feedback and keeping track of the state of the art in real time. Our involvement enabled the company to confirm its leadership role with its target clientele