Google Translate has established a firm position on the translation market, and many individuals and even organizations use it on a regular basis nowadays. The capabilities of the service have been growing over the last years, and it can currently produce some impressive results.
That said, Google Translate is still far from the quality required for certain types of translation work, especially in sectors like legal and healthcare. There are some serious implications to this type of specialized translation work, and finding a good medical translation service is imperative if you frequently run into situations where language barriers are a problem.
There’s No Room for Error in Medical Translation
An error in translation can occasionally lead to problems in certain fields. There’s no room for such incidents in healthcare. One small mistranslation can make the difference between life and death in some cases, and you have to be absolutely sure that your patients understand everything about the procedure.
Likewise, you have to know that you understand their concerns in as much detail as possible. Missing just one point can lead to serious problems. When you’re using Google Translate, you just can’t know that the output is 100% accurate.
Risk of Exposing Sensitive Data to Third Parties
When working with Google’s translator service, you’re always submitting your input to Google. You might not care much about this, and in all likelihood, it’s probably safe to assume that Google isn’t going to leak your data.
But you could still end up violating various privacy and confidentiality laws. There are also certain long-term implications of voluntarily submitting data like that. For example, Google might use it as training data for its services.
Reliability and Availability
Google Translate is generally reliable and available around the clock. But what happens if the service goes down one day and you urgently need to have something translated? You’d be in trouble, and you might be on the hook for any damages that result from that situation.
On the other hand, working with a specialized medical translation service means that you can rely on its guaranteed availability. Your working relationship will be outlined in a contract, and you will know exactly what you can expect from the agency at every step of the way.
A Proper Understanding of the Healthcare Sector
While Google Translate might be okay for simple translations, it’s not a very reliable tool when it comes to fields that require specific knowledge. It’s very unlikely that Google Translate will have a proper overview of the specific part of the healthcare sector you’re involved in, and it might even mix up certain terms in a disastrous way.
Sure, you might be able to run simple bits of text through it, but for anything that requires actual knowledge of the healthcare sector, you will want to work with a qualified medical translation agency.
Legal Concerns
Patient confidentiality is always a hot topic in healthcare, and using services like Google Translate might carry some negative implications in this regard. We already touched on this above when we mentioned the issue with submitting data to Google, but it goes beyond that. You don’t know who might be able to intercept those communications in certain cases.
When working with a good translation agency that specializes in medical translation, you will have the additional reassurance that the translators all understand the legal implications of their work.
Prevent Cultural Differences from Getting in the Way
Ever tried to translate something with heavy cultural references using Google Translate? If so, you’ve probably noticed that it usually doesn’t produce convincing results. Even worse, it could occasionally mistranslate something in a way that changes the whole meaning of the original message.
This could lead to problems between you and your patients, and it could quickly erode their trust in you. That’s another good reason to work with a good medical translation service. As long as you’re working with translators with specific experience in the languages and cultures involved, you’ll know that they can handle the job without jeopardizing your reputation.
Differentiating Between Simple and Complex Translations
That’s not to say that you should completely avoid using Google Translate in your work. In some cases, it can be a very useful tool. As long as you understand its limitations and the implications of using it, we fully encourage you to augment your translation skills with the help of Google Translate.
But as soon as you encounter a situation that requires an actual expert, you have to ensure that you’re working with a translation service that’s fit for the job. Complex translations must always be handled with the help of someone experienced. Not just because of the basic quality of the translation itself, but also because you’ll have some additional reassurance about its validity. A good translation agency will verify its work thoroughly.
Expanding on Prior Work
Another benefit of working with a medical translation service is that it’s an ongoing relationship where you can build on prior work easily. That’s not really possible with Google Translate. When working with an agency, you can easily go back to previous projects and utilize different bits of them in your new requests.
When working with something like Google Translate, you’re forced to basically start from scratch every time. This can be wasteful and it can even lead to errors in the long term.
Final Thoughts
We understand your concerns and we’re ready to help you. If you want to ensure that your medical translation is always of an appropriate quality and that every word is carefully checked by experienced specialists, we’ve got you covered.
Get in touch with The Language Doctors today and find out what we can do to assist you! We’re always ready to take on new challenges, and our qualified medical translation specialists are prepared to provide you with a full range of services that cover all your needs from A to Z. Getting started is as easy as reaching out to us for your first quote!
