What needs care when translating medical certificates and reports?

In-depth Answer

Medical documents are where small errors carry outsized consequences, because figures and units are themselves the substance.

Four areas need care.

Test values and units must be carried over as written, never converted — unit conversion is a clinical judgment outside a translator's remit.

Drug names should follow the source, keeping the generic name given, or the brand name if that is what appears.

International diagnostic codes must be copied character for character.

And illegible physician handwriting must be marked illegible rather than guessed.

Note too that medical documents often support time-limited filings such as a visa health examination, so confirm with the receiving body whether results must come from a designated panel provider — in some cases a perfectly accurate translation of the wrong provider's report will still not be considered.

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