Medical Translation Resources for Spanish Translators
Medical Spanish translation is an important translation field that requires lots of training and specialized knowledge.
Really, any type of translation field requires specific knowledge for any translator wanting to be the best in that field and do a good job, but this is especially the case with medical translation.
One of the reasons why this area of translation is so important is because it can have a life-or-death impact on someone’s life. The purpose of medical translation and interpretation is to impart health-related knowledge to speakers that don’t speak the same language as the doctors or care providers treating them. And we all know how difficult it can be sometimes to understand health issues in our own language, let alone trying to understand them in a different culture and from someone that doesn’t speak the same language that you do.
This is why the best medical Spanish translators and interpreters not only have excellent linguistic skills, but also have extensive experience working in the medical field and know how to relate to both patients and medical professionals. In addition, they also have a vast repository of medical knowledge, and know where to get more if they run across something they’re not sure about.
They are also willing to keep up-to-date on the medical literature so that they know how to best transmit the ideas from the doctors and nurses to patients, whether its through spoken one-on-one consolations or through brochures, pamphlets, and other medical-related documentation.
As with most other subfields or specializations in translation, the medical Spanish translation field is an area that requires constant knowledge updating by translators and interpreters. In order to help with that, I’ve put together a list of good medical Spanish translation resources that both beginning and more experienced medical translators could use to help them in their profession.
Medical Spanish Translation Resources
Spanish Medical Dictionary
This is a decent free online dictionary of medical terms. The one thing I don’t like about this glossary is that you have to click on each letter to look for a word beginning with that letter. It makes it a bit clunky to search for medical terms this way.
English – Spanish Dictionary of Health Related Terms
Published by the California-Mexico Health Initiative, this is .pdf file containing not only health-related terms, but also terminology related to emergency and disaster preparedness. It’s a very robust glossary, although the PDF format makes it not quite as easy to search and query on.
English to Spanish Glossaries from Proz
Proz.com has a bunch of user-submitted translations on a variety of topics, including Spanish medical translation. While there is a general medical glossary, there are also more specialized glossaries such as those related to cardiology, pharmacology, and even one dedicated to instruments used in the medical field. This is a really fabulous resource for any medical translator.
