How to get certified as a medical translator?
Thread poster: Rana Elshabasy
Rana Elshabasy
Rana Elshabasy
Egypt
Local time: 15:50
English to Arabic
Feb 26, 2017

Hi everyone,
I want to ask about Medical translation certification (online) for someone who has a medical background. I'm graduated from the faculty of pharmacy and most of the programs I found were talking about teaching medical terminology and physiology which are not beneficial for me as I studied these branches in-depth before. Can anyone help?


 
Joseph Tein
Joseph Tein  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:50
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
+ ...
There isn't any certification. Feb 26, 2017

I translate medical texts from Italian and Spanish into English.

There is no official or internationally recognized medical translation certification, as far as I know. Most translation agencies will have you take their own in-house test, and will send you work once you have passed their test.

In addition, I think that if you have a good professional profile in ProZ and have earned a lot of KudoZ points, you will attract offers from companies that are looking for c
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I translate medical texts from Italian and Spanish into English.

There is no official or internationally recognized medical translation certification, as far as I know. Most translation agencies will have you take their own in-house test, and will send you work once you have passed their test.

In addition, I think that if you have a good professional profile in ProZ and have earned a lot of KudoZ points, you will attract offers from companies that are looking for competent translators in your language pair(s).
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R A Translations
R A Translations
Netherlands
Local time: 14:50
Portuguese to English
+ ...
I second your opinion Feb 27, 2017

I am also a pharmacist (in fact, Pharm.D. with specialization in Biochemistry) and quite often I have to answer some odd questions, being one of them the fact that I do not have a degree in translation nor any type of translation certifications.
However, I have been working as a professional translator for 14 years, in addition to working in the pharmaceutical industry (I am a Senior Data Manager for clinical research) for more than 11 years, plus my Pharm.D. and my specializations (Bioche
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I am also a pharmacist (in fact, Pharm.D. with specialization in Biochemistry) and quite often I have to answer some odd questions, being one of them the fact that I do not have a degree in translation nor any type of translation certifications.
However, I have been working as a professional translator for 14 years, in addition to working in the pharmaceutical industry (I am a Senior Data Manager for clinical research) for more than 11 years, plus my Pharm.D. and my specializations (Biochemistry, Data Management, Clinical SAS Programming), so frankly I'm not sure what kind of "credentials" could be more valuable than that! By the way, I was not accepted by Proz as Certified PRO exactly because of that, which I personally find REALLY stupid.

Unfortunately, this still leads me to losing some opportunities just for lacking the certifications and, even though they mean nothing to me at this stage of my career, I would like to take one of these just for meeting the predefined expectations of some silly minds.
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Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 14:50
Italian to English
Honestly? Feb 27, 2017

Ricardo Azedo wrote:

Unfortunately, this still leads me to losing some opportunities just for lacking the certifications and, even though they mean nothing to me at this stage of my career, I would like to take one of these just for meeting the predefined expectations of some silly minds.


I've been translating professionally for over 15 years, but my recent nursing degree was the best thing I have done in professional terms. I truly believe that industry-specific skills such as yours, Ricardo, plus proven translation experience, are worth volumes more than any "medical translation certification". To my mind, anyone who passes up a translator with your credentials (probably) isn't worth working for.

It may be that some agencies require specific "translation" qualifications to satisfy certain quality requirements such as ISO or EN (just talking off the top of my head here): that said, in a field such as medical translation, there really is no substitute for "hands-on" industry experience.


 
Ewa Olszowa
Ewa Olszowa  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 09:50
Polish to English
+ ...
Check your local translators association Feb 28, 2017

I would check with the country you operate if there is any certification for translators offered by official organization authorized to confer certifications. At some organizations in addition to general certification, one can add a specialization field having satisfied the requirements for that.
As for medical translators organization there
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I would check with the country you operate if there is any certification for translators offered by official organization authorized to confer certifications. At some organizations in addition to general certification, one can add a specialization field having satisfied the requirements for that.
As for medical translators organization there is IMIA, but I guess it certifies interpreters http://www.imiaweb.org/
And be careful about any on-line certifications as you can probably find some but they may be worth nothing.
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