What facebook teaches us about globalization and translation

Love it or hate it, Facebook continues to keep the world wrapped around its finger. If you need proof of its world dominance, take a look Facebook’s most recent annual report.

Here are just a few of the surprising statistics and claims made in the report:

  • Generated $13 billion in the EMEA region;
  • Had a $21 billion economic impact on Central and South America;
  • Had a $100 billion economic impact on the United States

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5 medical device industry trends that affect translation

As the science and technology industry continues to update and evolve at a rapid clip, so does your translation needs. Industry trends directly affect the way you present your medical device translations. Without keeping your product labels, marketing materials, and usage guides up-to-date in all languages, you could put your company at risk of losing sales – or worse.

Here are five medical device industry trends that will require you to take a second look at your translations.

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How to localize a medical device translation for your website

One of the costliest mistakes global businesses make is not localizing their medical device translation content. Localization goes beyond basic translation work: it involves digging into the local culture, getting to know what drives consumers in various areas to buy, and learning about the areas where your sales team does business.

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Terminology management software for your translation needs

When you’re reading a product label or instruction booklet, how much jargon do you see? Chances are quite a bit.

Jargon and technical terms fill the pages of documentation across all industries. High compliancy industries are especially prone to seeing technical verbiage in content. When translating these terms, many translators get stuck or confused.

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Notarized translations: What is a notarized translation and do you need it?

Translations extend beyond product labels, booklets, and printed materials. There are some documents that need to get sent to the authorities and officials to aid in a case or a decision. If that’s the case with your text, you might require a notarized translation.

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Why single-source certified translation providers beat multi-vendors

For companies operating in a high-compliancy industry, such as the legal or medical field, accuracy is paramount. Because there is no room for error in these translation projects, many businesses turn to a certified translation provider instead of multiple vendors. Read more

Why you need linguistic validation

Get a group of people together from various countries and you’ll quickly discover that there is no such thing as a direct translation. What means one thing in English could mean something completely different in Spanish.

When performing medical studies or case studies in various regions, you need to do more than basic translation. You must also understand the context of language in each region. All this falls under the category of linguistic validation. Read more

The pitfalls of inconsistent patient-reported outcomes translations

For years, translations of patient reported outcomes (PROs) have had inconsistencies. The way the translations are managed and the way they are published vary from practice to practicThis can cause tremendous difficulty in the pharmaceutical and medical field. Without proper information, how will patients understand what they need to live a healthy life?

Here are some of the pitfalls faced by the industry.

Inconsistent terminology

There are various ways to describe the same work. For example, if you plan to test a new translation on a small group of people to ensure accuracy and comprehension it can have two different names – “pilot testing” or “cognitive debriefing.”

It’s inconsistent verbiage like those two terms that confuses people in the pharmaceutical and medical industry. Although both cognitive debriefing and pilot testing can use a small group of people, pilot testing can also refer to testing on a larger group of people. This can have a profound impact on the meaning of a text depending on the context. In translations of PROs, this can change the meaning from language to language.

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The importance of cognitive debriefing in the medical device space

Have you ever sat across the table from a someone whose native language was different than yours and wondered how well they understood you? Did you ask a non-English speaker a question and receive an unusual response in return?

Context and nuances lose meaning across translation. What might seem obvious in one language could mean something completely different in another.

Having a slight misunderstanding in a friendly conversation might not be a huge deal, but in your medical device marketing, it is. Misunderstandings could cost money, lose sales, and cause a host of legal problems. To avoid these catastrophes, cognitive debriefing is essential. Read more

Why the most economically active languages change over time

Access to the Internet is increasing worldwide. As more countries are able to go online and engage with this valuable resource, the linguistic makeup of the digital world experiences a dramatic shift.

Every year, Common Sense Advisory (CSA) aims to document the population of languages being used online in an annual report. The 2013 report was recently released, titled, “The 116 Most Economically Active Languages Online.”

In this report, CSA broke down data sets into four main categories:  Read more