Thousands of medical patients and participants in medical trials must sign informed consent documentation. This is done to ensure that someone clearly understands what the trial or surgery may entail and what kinds of risks they're assuming. Their signatures and approvals to move ahead help give them information and protects your facility from claims of ignoring patient or trial candidate rights.
However, thousands of people who need to give your facility informed contact do not speak English fluently. In those cases, you still need to give them the important information they need. For that reason, translation services are essential. Ensure you ask translation companies these questions before contracting them for informed consent translation services.
1-Are Employees Native Speakers?
For important medical procedures and clinical trials, it's vital that the quality of the translations services you retain is exceptional. The vetting process translating companies use is worth knowing about. In particular, you may wish to use companies that only train native speakers. Native speakers don't have a language barrier when talking with patients and are likely to put them at ease.
2. Are Employees Trained to Meet FDA Standards?
The FDA typically has health literacy suggestions and guidelines that need to be followed when informed consent documents are given to patients. It's vital that whatever translation service you hire understands those requirements. For instance, one requirement is that information must be provided at a certain grade level in order to promote understanding; if your translators are translating your words into words that would be considered more difficult, it could be a problem. Ask about these guidelines and be sure that they're followed.
3-Can They Create a Glossary?
If you plan on an ongoing relationship with a translation service for any informed consent documentation or interviews, it's important that any translators paired with your facility understand both your industry and jargon that may be specific to your own institution. It's worthwhile to have the translation company draw up a rudimentary glossary of terms that each translator can rely on to provide the most accurate translations of the details that must be shared with each individual patient. The glossary should be updated periodically and reviewed by managers both at the translation company and your own facility so that all sides are sure that information will be both clear and understandable for patients.
Help your patients and facility remain transparent and law-abiding with regards to informed consent; ask these questions. Translation services will allow you to adequately serve all of your patients so that you can get on with the medical work at hand.
