Sophie Ao | January 13, 2023
Client
Medical equipment producer in Israel
Background
The client is a leading medical equipment producer for bone density checkups in Israel. It has been in active collaboration with 100+ hospitals in China. They have distributed and recycled survey reports from some main 20 hospitals. They need to collect feedback from doctors, who are actually using their product. All these reports were filled in Chinese, which the client does not understand. Thus, they contacted us to provide professional medical translation from Chinese to English for these critical messages.
Problem
Our client collected 1500+ survey feedbacks and patient bone density records in paper from doctors in 22 hospitals of 6 provinces of China. All of the feedbacks were handwritten. The client has shipped all of them in a big pile by post. They needed someone to translate every feedback even in slightest detail. Translation was needed in 1 month.
Solution
Sort and label
We categorized the survey by hospital name, labeled and paginated them so that we can quickly refer to each single page immediately, whenever needed.
Digitize the paperwork for reuse
We scanned all the hard copies into PDF, renamed them by the same page number and stored them in the respective folder created for each hospital.
Create templates
We found the survey layout were a bit different from hospital to hospital, however, most data types are identical, so we created a Word template for faster and consistent data entry.
Data entry with Chinese human typing service
Since all the feedback were in handwritten form, OCR accuracy is way lower than human labor. Our Chinese typists started typing manually all comments in Word files based on the template that we built. An experienced typist lead ran QA checks to ensure all the data entered are free of typos or ambiguity, which would facilitate the medical translation process.
All PDF scanned copies were rendered into completely editable Word format with a unified layout. The documents were ready for translation.
Prepare for translation and build glossary
We imported all the Word documents in the same folder structure into a CAT tool for analysis and pre-processing. The total workload had decreased by 60%, thanks to the template and repetition.
We also locked down numbers and other entries that did not need translation at all to further reduce the work scope for the client.
During the process, we extracted terminologies, arranged for translation and sent them for client review. After client approval, we created a terminology base for the project so that every participating translator was on the same page on the use of terminology.
Translation, proofreading and QA check
We handpicked the best Chinese to English translators who have a strong medical background either in academics or work experience. Since they were familiar with the medical contents, we could be sure terminologies were translated correctly. This is a crucial part of accurate medical translation projects.
Our proofreader is highly proficient in English and good at writing in English accurately and fluently, and they took the credit of leveling up the readability and customer experience.
After proofreading, our dedicated project manager imported translation back to CAT tool for quality assurance check, against glossary and translation memory.
When QA check completed, we exported all translations and delivered them to the client in the same folder structure that we maintained.
Result
Work scope has shrunk from the initial estimate of 300,000 words to 129,446 words, thanks to template and CAT tool adoption.
It took 3 human typists, 3 translators, 1 proofreader, and 1 dedicated PM to complete preparation, medical translation, proofreading and QA check in just 25 days.
The client is extremely satisfied with our work: fast turnaround, high-quality, well-organized, proactive communication, frequent status reports, and most importantly — saved him a lot of money.
