[A must-see for medical translation professionals] Shorten and streamline lead time for medical translation using Trados/Phrase TMS and machine translation!

The advancement of deep learning has led to the utilization of IT and AI in various businesses. The medical and pharmaceutical industries are no exception.

For example, in the medical field, technologies such as image diagnosis support and patient-oriented chatbots using IT and AI are starting to be utilized. There are various challenges in the medical field, such as the increasing medical expenses due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and the working environment of doctors. To address these challenges, the use of AI is gaining attention.

Is IT and AI also being utilized in the translation field of pharmaceuticals and clinical trials?

In this blog, we will discuss the current state and solutions to the challenges of clinical trial translation.

 

Table of Contents

1. 1. Current Status of Translation for "Medical and Pharmaceutical" Documents
2. 2. Three major benefits of utilizing CAT tools such as Trados and Phrase TMS
3. 　2-1. You can save the translation result as "assets (TM)".
4. 　2-2. Helps unify translations and translation methods
5. 　2-3. Terminology can be referenced on the CAT tool screen.
6. 3. Utilize CAT tools/TM and machine translation (MT) simultaneously to further streamline the translation process!

 

1. Current Status of Translation for "Medical and Pharmaceutical" Documents

In the pharmaceutical industry, simultaneous development of drugs is being conducted. Therefore, with the increase in development speed, there is a demand for translating large amounts of documents in a short period of time.

According to a survey conducted for translation companies specializing in the medical field (Reference: "Medical Translation and Interpretation Complete Guidebook" (Ikaros Publishing)), approximately 20% of translation companies answered "Medical/Pharmaceutical (Medical)" as a "Translation Genre that Increased in 2017". When asked about "Translation Fields that are Expected to Increase in Demand in the Future", approximately 27% of companies answered "Medical/Pharmaceutical (Medical)" and approximately 24% of companies answered "Medical Equipment". This indicates that there is a steady demand for translation projects related to the medical field.

 

On the other hand, the survey from this magazine also reveals that the use of IT/AI in translation work has not yet become widespread.

For example, about 62% of translation companies that do not utilize computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools such as SDL Trados or Phrase TMS, and about 43% of companies that do not use machine translation (MT).

In the translation field of manufacturing and IT-related industries, the use of CAT tools and MT is becoming more common, but it does not seem to be established yet in clinical trial translation.

 

2. Three major benefits of utilizing CAT tools such as Trados and Phrase TMS

By the way, what benefits do translation professionals gain from using CAT tools? Here, we will introduce three advantages of implementing CAT tools.

1. You can save the translation result as "assets (TM)".

For example, when translating an English Word file into Japanese, how do you proceed with the translation?

When translating on a Word file, there is the advantage of being able to proceed with the translation while being conscious of the overall flow and layout. Additionally, there is no need to learn any special operations.

However, what if the same or very similar sentences that have been translated in the past appear in another file? Have you opened a previously translated file and copied and pasted it?

To copy and paste, you need to open a past file, move to the corresponding location, and copy. However, if you open the wrong file or make a pasting mistake during this operation, it can lead to loss of time and decrease in quality.

 

There is a way to "monetize" the translated content and easily reuse it in future projects. It is called "Translation Memory (TM)".

 

 

When using CAT tools to progress with translation, the translated results are registered in the database in pairs. When translating a file containing similar content in another project, the same or similar sentences are compared with the database and the translated text is automatically inserted. This allows for a reduction in work time and mistakes, as there is no need for copy and paste. Additionally, by reusing past translations with TM, there are benefits such as improving quality by achieving consistency in wording and reducing inconsistency in translation.

 

2. Helps unify translations and translation methods

There may be cases where we ask other team members or external translation partners to handle the project we are in charge of, due to reasons such as the progress of the translation project or a member's absence due to illness.

If you do not provide past translation files at the time of the request, the translation may progress in a completely different way from the previous time, and the consistency between files may be lost.

Even if the translation is accurate, if the way of translating or the choice of words is different from the previous translation, the client may think that there is a variation in quality.

 

 

It is useful to share TMs in companies and organizations in situations like this. By checking past translations with TMs, it can serve as a reference when choosing translation methods and terms to use. This helps maintain consistency in translations.

 

3. You can refer to the glossary on the CAT tool screen.

In the translation field, there are often specific terms that should be used depending on the document, and these terms are compiled into a "glossary". Depending on the type of project, multiple glossaries may be used.

These are glossaries, and they are mostly compiled in Excel and other similar programs.

Therefore, if you want to look up a term while translating a Word file, you need to open Excel. After looking it up in Excel, return to Word and continue translating. If another term comes up that you want to look up, open Excel again. That's how we work with multiple applications during the translation process.

 

 

You can display a glossary next to the translation editing screen by using CAT tools.

In addition, the terms included in the selected sentence will be automatically detected, so there is no need to search for each one individually.

Multiple glossary registrations are possible, so there is less need to switch between applications, allowing for more focused translation work.

 

 

3. Utilize CAT tools/TM and machine translation (MT) simultaneously to further streamline the translation process!

So far, we have explained the reasons why using CAT tools to progress with translations and registering the results in a TM can lead to increased efficiency and improved translation quality.

 

By simply introducing CAT tools, it is possible to streamline translation work. However, by also utilizing MT, further efficiency can be achieved.

For example, sentences that have been translated in the past are automatically inserted from TM, and sentences that have not been translated before are automatically translated by MT, reducing the input workload significantly. By correcting the automatically translated text and registering it in TM, it can be utilized in future translations.