e-Learning Blog

Communication with Patients

Medical devices are used by healthcare professionals with specialized knowledge. However, product descriptions and usage instructions are often written in the manufacturer's language, which can create communication barriers. Our translation services localize this specialized information into a language that healthcare professionals can understand. This enables healthcare professionals to use the products correctly and optimize care for patients.

Quality Assurance

Medical devices and pharmaceuticals are directly related to people's health, so the quality of translation is extremely important. Our translation services are carried out by translators with specialized knowledge and experience. Furthermore, experienced specialized reviewers (checkers) check the entire translation and contribute to stabilizing the overall translation quality by coordinating even when translations are done by multiple translators. This ensures that product descriptions and usage instructions are accurately conveyed, allowing healthcare professionals to use the products with confidence.

Compliance with Laws and Regulations

To ensure product safety and protect patients, the medical industry is strictly regulated by the laws and regulations of each country. Our translation services understand these laws and regulations and reflect them in the translation content in consultation with our clients, ensuring compliance. This allows companies to avoid the risk of legal violations and maintain reliability and safety.

Rapid Access to the Market

The time it takes to bring new medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market is extremely important. Our translation services provide a one-stop solution from translating e-learning materials to narration recording, authoring of materials, and functionality verification on LMS, allowing for a speedy market launch of products. This enables our clients to maintain a competitive edge and achieve success in new markets.

Services Utilized

・Translation
- From English to Japanese

・e-learning material production
- Narration recording
- Video editing
- Storyline/PowerPoint/Word authoring
- Debugging/Function verification

Requests

There was a request to translate and localize a training program (over 170 items) for medical devices related to arrhythmia treatment overseas for domestic healthcare professionals.

Volume

Storyline: 101 pieces (approximately 1,500 slides)
PowerPoint/Word: 77 pieces (approximately 150 pages)
Narration recording: approximately 220 minutes
Videos: 109 pieces

Production Period

Approximately 6 months (the production period per item is about 1 month)

Background

The department handles systems used for diagnosing arrhythmia treatment and equipment used in surgical procedures. Prior to this project, our company has a proven track record of translating and producing training programs from English to Japanese for other departments, and we were introduced to the current department by them.

Translation specialized in the pharmaceutical and medical industries

Our translators, who have passed our strict screening criteria (with a pass rate of 20% or lower), provided high-quality translations using translation tools such as Trados and Phrase TMS. Additionally, native reviewers with M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) and Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) degrees conducted post-work checks, and adjustments among multiple translators contributed to the overall accuracy and stability of the translation quality.

Translation Support Tools (CAT Tools)

Translation support tools improve translation quality by utilizing translation memory (TM), glossaries, and quality check features, shorten delivery times by reusing past translations, and reduce costs. Furthermore, they focus on data protection, minimizing the risk of data leakage. By leveraging these features, translation projects using tools like Trados achieve the maintenance and improvement of translation quality, shortened delivery times, cost reduction, and data security.

●Standardization of Terms Using Translation Support Tools

Translation support tools are essential for maintaining consistency in translations. They provide a "term base" feature to ensure that specific words and phrases are translated consistently. This guarantees consistent terminology usage throughout the document, making it easier for readers to understand.

●Specification of technical terms using a glossary

A glossary is a list of specialized terms used in specific fields or projects. It is used by translators to ensure the accurate use of terminology, which in turn allows for the precise communication of specialized content.

●e-Learning Material Production

By providing e-learning material production as a one-stop service, we responded quickly and efficiently to our clients' needs. While collaborating with external partners for some processes, such as narration recording, we consistently managed and handled the main tasks in-house, including video editing and the production of materials using Articulate Storyline. This significantly reduced the hassle of dealing with and coordinating multiple vendors for our clients.

●Narration Recording

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, studio recordings have become difficult. To flexibly accommodate a large volume of recordings, we requested professional narrators to do home recordings. Home recording is a method where narrators record in their own homes or offices, and instructions for the recordings and file exchanges are conducted via email and other means. Considering the time and cost involved in re-recording, we compiled instructions for the pronunciation of technical terms and intonation in advance, and after the recordings, we meticulously checked for any mispronunciations or awkwardness, achieving high-quality narration.

●Video Editing

In addition to replacing the narration from English to Japanese, we adjusted the timing discrepancies between the narration and the video. We also replaced the English text in the video, including subtitles, with Japanese, ensuring that it did not affect the viewers' understanding, resulting in a cohesive educational material presented as a Japanese version of the video.

●Authoring

In addition to the translation (localization) of e-learning content (Storyline), we translated files such as Word and PowerPoint as attachments and converted them to PDF for use. We paid attention to details such as the overall layout, text font, and font size, ensuring visual consistency. This led to the best learning experience without compromising the quality and value of the translated content.

●Debugging/Operation Verification

We have confirmed that the translated content works correctly using our LMS, allowing learners to operate smoothly. By verifying and correcting various aspects such as interactive elements and slide transitions, we have provided an optimal learning experience for learners.

This is a project to localize a large number of training programs, and various innovations were necessary due to the prolonged situation of multiple programs being conducted simultaneously.

In narration recording, scheduling adjustments for studio or on-site recordings pose significant challenges, so we adopted "home recording" where narrators record from their homes. This allows us to eliminate the need for scheduling adjustments and on-site recording times, ensuring a more flexible production schedule.

To ensure compliance with deadlines and maintain quality, we emphasized communication between our internal team and external partners, sharing progress reports and necessary information at appropriate intervals, which I believe enhanced the overall transparency of the project and allowed us to proceed smoothly.

Through such innovations and collaboration between internal teams and external partners, the project was successfully completed. Moving forward, we will continue to strengthen our cooperation both within and outside the team, and we are committed to delivering efficient and high-quality deliverables in large-scale projects.

Our pharmaceutical and medical translation services play a crucial role in facilitating the understanding of healthcare professionals. Advances in medicine directly impact each of our lives. To understand and properly utilize these advancements, accurate information transfer is essential. We hope that Human Science's translation services can contribute to this effort.

For details about our human science pharmaceutical and medical e-learning material translation services, please see the page below.

>Pharmaceutical and Medical e-Learning Material Translation