Managing Translation of Revisions & Updates to Medical Device Documentation

If your company has international markets for your medical devices, translations are a fact of life for your documentation, whether your products are simple catheters or complex surgical instruments. Every time you update or change your product, your device documentation must change as well, both in English and in all the languages of the markets you supply. At International Language Services (ILS), we translate medical device documentation for both professional and patient use into all CE Mark languages and many more. Through our experience translating document updates and revisions, we’ve developed some tips to help streamline the translation process and minimize costs for our clients. Some of those include:

• Consult with Your Translation Company – Before beginning a revision or update of medical device documentation that requires translation, contact your translation services company and speak with your assigned project manager. That individual will likely be able to offer advice to help you manage and streamline the process and control costs.
• Avoid Unnecessary Changes – In many cases, much of your documentation does not require changes. Where changes are not essential, retaining the original content minimizes the amount of translation required. Only the text that has actually changed must have translations updated, for those languages that you have previously translated. The savings can be substantial. Your translation services provider can provide the expertise to help you maintain quality, certified translations without incurring unnecessary time delays and costs.
• Maintain Continuity in all Associated Documentation – Wherever possible, create simultaneous updates or revisions for all documentation associated with a particular medical device product. That may include instruction manuals, packaging and labeling, user interfaces, marketing materials and any related files. By combining translation of all associated documentation into a single translation project, considerable savings are possible.
• Provide Existing Translations – If your current translation services provider did not originally provide the translations that you are updating, be sure to provide copies of the previous translation as well as the original English files. If you are working with the same translation company, the previous translation and original copies should already be on file. Here at International Language Services, we archive all of your previously translated documents. Your project manager will ensure that all changes are captured in the translation and that appropriate translation review is offered to meet our ISO-certified quality standards for certified translations. You receive high quality translation updates while satisfying your own internal quality standards.
• Update Source Language Glossaries – As you make revisions and updates to your files, update any language glossaries of industry specific technical terms you’ve developed for translation of previous versions. Maintaining accurate glossaries promotes translation efficiency and ensures that the preferences of your in-country contacts are reflected in the translations you receive. This saves time and the potential aggravation that in-country reviews can generate.
• Identify Updated or Revised Text – Clearly identify all additions, revisions, or changes in your original language document file by using track changes or other revision marking tools. Highlighting changes enables the translator to work on only new content for translation, simplifying and speeding the translation revision process. Working in advance with your translation provider to determine the best method for identifying changes can be a real time saver.

At our medical translation company, our translators specialize in translating English to over 150 foreign languages commonly used in Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America and Africa. These languages include: French, Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latvian, Norwegian, Finnish, Korean, Hungarian, Romanian, and more.

Medical Device Translation for CE Mark & Other Foreign Languages

At our medical device translation company, we understand that controlling translation costs is a high priority for medical device manufacturers. When design or model changes require updates to documentation, our translation team puts our document and translation management tools to work to keep your translation costs to a minimum. By working closely with you on an ongoing basis, we can help reduce costs and project turnaround times. That’s one reason why so many medical device manufacturers have maintained long-term relationships with ILS. Contact us soon to discuss your upcoming documentation revision and update needs.