Medical Device Translation 101
The medical devices sector is a global, billion dollar industry projected to reach $576.85bn in 2026, and $755.21bn by 2031.
The United States leads the market with over 40% of global revenues, while Europe represents a market worth roughly €170 billion, and the UK market is projected to be worth over $27.90 billion by 2032.
Medical devices are used in every country around the world with a modern healthcare system. Due to the global nature of the medical devices market, medical device translation services are a critical service for both device manufacturers, their partners and patients alike.
Why is medical device translation so key to the sector?
Trusted, professional medical device translation services are critical to enabling organisations such as medical device manufacturers, wound care brands, prosthetics manufacturers, medical technology brands, medical charities, clinical research organisations and more to:
- Safeguard patients
- Instruct international users on the safe use of devices
- Export devices and equipment overseas
- Comply with regulations (MDR)
- Position your brand and products online to a global audience
What does medical translation look like?
Medical translation projects typically require a highly technical translation skillset and approach – one Andiamo! has forged our reputation on.
At Andiamo, we provide specialist medical device translation services for the following kinds of projects:
- IFUs
- Safety information
- User guides
- Brochures
- Patient information leaflets
- Packaging and labelling
- Clinical trials documentation
- Websites
- Marketing materials
- Video subtitles
- Multilingual typesetting
The risks of poor medical device translation services
While effective medical device translation services help to support your compliance, facilitate your international growth and help support and protect the safety of patients, the risks of poor translation services are enormous for organisations in this sector:
- Delays in regulatory approval and speed to market, potentially causing significant financial impact.
- Patient confusion, injuries or fatalities due to unclear or mistranslated instructions.
- Legal ramifications and compensation claims/lawsuits if substandard translation is proven to have contributed to a patient being injured or the device malfunctioning.
- Reputational loss, and loss of trust in your brand, from inconsistent international messaging.
- Expensive and time-consuming product recalls.
The Andiamo! approach
Sector-specialist translators
Andiamo! uses only the most skilled and experienced, mother tongue medical device translation specialists, who have been carefully assessed, and have a deep understanding of the sector and its terminology.
Your project will be assigned to sector-specialist translators with the most experience working with your content type, for example: brochures, IFUs, user guides, clinical trial documentation etc.
We also provide every client with a dedicated project manager to answer any questions you may have, and guide the timely completion of your project.
Two pairs of eyes are better than one – but we offer three!
Our Gold Service is our ultimate quality assurance solution, and one that our clients in the medical sector are keen to take advantage of.
This service provides a 3-stage translation check. The first, by the original mother tongue, sector-specialist translator, the second by a second mother tongue sector-specialist translator, and a third check by our skilled and experienced in-house linguists, with the help of QA tools.
Certificates of authenticity are also available upon request.
Translation tools
Our translators use a variety of tools to support the consistency and accuracy of our medical device translations. By working within software like Translation Memory, our team analyses technical medical documents, to isolate repeated text and matches from previous translations to ensure consistent translations every time. By not having to translate each word and phrase every time, we can also offer you match discounts on future projects.
We also use other tools and resources such as glossaries of key terminology, to further support the accuracy and consistency of your translations.
A single partner for all your language service requirements
In addition to medical device translation services, Andiamo! can also support your organisation with:
- Multilingual typesetting/DTP
- Foreign language video subtitles
- Consecutive interpreting
- Simultaneous interpreting
Trust in our experienced multilingual typesetters to ensure that mistakes are not introduced at the formatting stage, and to give you the assurance that your reader-ready translations are just that. Similarly, you can rest assured that our subtitling team will provide the highest-quality, accurate foreign language subtitling, to transform your video content into multilingual marketing tools.
What about using machine translation for medical device projects?
Quality and accuracy is paramount when it comes to medical device translation.
As such, for organisations in this sector, we only recommend human, mother-tongue, sector-specialist translators, and of course our Gold Service, which offers a 3-stage checking solution. More information on this above.
At Andiamo, for non-medical projects, we typically use MTPE (machine translation with human post-editing). However, using MTPE for medical translation would require an additional second check, at least. Therefore, our human Gold Service (which offers ISO17100-certified translations, and a 3-stage check), provides greater assurance, and is the ultimate solution to ensure quality and accuracy.
Why Andiamo?
When you work with Andiamo, you can rest assured that medical device translation specialists, and technical translation experts, are working to support your organisation, your compliance, patients, and your international growth.
Beyond our 35+ years of experience, we hold multiple ISO certifications (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 17100:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 13485:2016) and are audited externally to maintain these standards and demonstrate our commitment to quality.
Contact our friendly team today to discuss how we can help to support your organisation.
