The life sciences industry is at the forefront of innovation, driving advancements in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.
However, amid the global nature of research, clinical trials, and regulatory processes, language barriers have become a significant obstacle.
Let’s explore the challenges faced by the life sciences sector in the realm of language and how hiring a professional language services provider, like Teneo Linguistics Company (TLC), can effectively eliminate these obstacles, fostering seamless communication and propelling business growth.
Challenges in the Life Sciences Industry
Global Collaboration
Problem: Life sciences companies often collaborate on an international scale, engaging with researchers, clinicians, and regulatory bodies from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Solution: TLC offers professional translation and interpreting services, ensuring that all stakeholders can communicate effectively, and facilitate smooth collaborations and knowledge exchanges.
Regulatory Compliance
Problem: The life sciences industry is subject to stringent regulatory requirements. Accurate translation of documents such as clinical trial protocols, patient information, and regulatory submissions is crucial for compliance.
Solution: With over 15 years of experience working with the life sciences industry, TLC ensures precise translations, helping companies navigate regulatory landscapes and reducing the risk of errors that could lead to costly setbacks.
Patient-Centric Communication
Problem: Communicating with patients in their native languages is essential for informed consent, adherence to treatment protocols, and overall patient satisfaction.
Solution: TLC tailors patient communication materials to diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, fostering trust and understanding between healthcare providers, researchers, and patients.
Scientific Publications
Problem: Publishing research findings in reputable journals requires accurate and culturally appropriate language usage.
Solution: TLC ensures that scientific manuscripts are not only translated accurately but also maintain the integrity and clarity of the original research, enhancing the global dissemination of scientific knowledge.
Multilingual Training Programs
Problem: Training programs for professionals involved in the life sciences industry need to be accessible to a diverse workforce.
Solution: TLC will adapt training materials, ensuring that employees worldwide receive consistent and comprehensible information, promoting skill development and compliance with industry standards.
Benefits of Professional Language Services
Accuracy and Precision
Professional language services guarantee accurate translations, reducing the risk of misunderstandings, errors, and potential legal or regulatory complications.
Time and Cost Efficiency
By outsourcing language services, life sciences companies can focus on their core competencies, saving time and resources while ensuring high-quality linguistic support.
Cultural Sensitivity
Language professionals with expertise in the life sciences industry understand the importance of cultural nuances, ensuring that translated materials are culturally sensitive and appropriate for the target audience.
Enhanced Reputation
Clear and accurate communication, facilitated by professional language services, contributes to a positive reputation within the industry and among stakeholders.
In the highly regulated and globally interconnected life sciences industry, overcoming language barriers is crucial for success.
As the industry continues to evolve, embracing professional language services is not just a strategic choice but a necessity for those aiming to thrive in the dynamic landscape of life sciences.
With more than 18,000 language services providers worldwide, it can be challenging to separate the great from the mediocre.
So where does Teneo Linguistics Company fall in this long list of vendors? This piece will discuss just some of the ways TLC stands above competitors in the language industry.
1. TLC doesn’t lean on larger corporations for support.
Customers have direct access to and work with TLC decision-makers.
Many language services providers out there are subsidiaries, which means they are under the direction of a parent company. TLC sets its own high-quality standards and is not just a cog in a large corporation’s machine.
2. Customers get the same level of systems and programs.
TLC is known for its excellent business practices and its use of a combination of human talent and AI software that rivals that of larger language service providers.
TLC excels in providing highly accurate and efficient technical translation services and is committed to quick turnarounds with a 100% on-time delivery rate. There are thousands of professional, experienced linguistics in TLC’s database who are proficient in more than 180 languages.
3. TLC provides language services to a wide range of industries.
The industries TLC serves include life science organizations, government agencies, manufacturing companies, legal firms, and education/e-learning.
Life Sciences – Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, medical offices, etc.;
Government – Federal and state government, public health, law enforcement, and local government;
Manufacturing – Medical device and pharmaceutical distributors, software, construction, electronics, materials, etc.;
Legal firms – Company legal counsel, law offices, and individual attorneys;
Education and E-learning – Educational materials within any business and public education testing materials.
Individuals in the community needing translations are also a big part of TLC’s customer base. This primarily consists of personal document translation for official purposes.
TLC can translate a variety of personal documents, including birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, academic transcripts, driver’s licenses, passports, and medical records.
4. Services are tailored and performed by hand-picked staff
TLC tailors its language services to fit a client’s individual needs without pressure from a holding company. This also allows TLC to carefully select its global linguists and other employees to ensure the highest quality of language services. No one has a say in the hiring process except TLC management.
Teneo Linguistics Company is a certified small, woman-owned business specializing in translation and interpreting services in more than 180 languages.
As a healthcare professional, it is your job to protect patient data from being compromised.
Failure to secure patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) can damage your reputation, result in hefty HIPAA violation fines, and expose affected patients to identity theft.
But it’s not just the medical organization itself that must comply with HIPAA regulations—ALL business associates of the organization must comply.
So if one of your business associates violates HIPAA—it’s YOUR organization that will be considered responsible.
Your translation services provider is considered a business associate.
Life science and medical translation projects require transferring, uploading, and downloading documents (including ones with PHI) between you, your translation vendor, and their resources.
With all those documents being transferred from one place to another, it begs the question—
Does your translation services provider exercise HIPAA-compliant translation processes?
What is HIPAA – Compliant Translation?
Your translation vendor should treat patient PHI with the same high-security measures and priority as your organization does.
The safe and secure transfer of files/documents for translation is key to HIPAA-compliant translation.
If your translation vendor requests or sends files with PHI through email—this is a HIPAA violation!
If a data breach occurs in your or your vendor’s email client, and documents with PHI were attached to emails—the culprit would have access to your patient’s personal information, which could result in identity fraud.
And according to HIPAA regulations, a breach like that would require you to inform ALL affected patients that their information had been compromised.
You lose patients’ trust, your reputation suffers, and the financial losses would be severe.
Ask your translation vendor…
Is the translation process HIPAA-compliant?
Are translators trained in HIPAA-compliant processes?
Many translation services vendors have their own HIPAA-compliant project management portal for your staff to securely upload documents for translation, and to safely download completed files. The same portal is used to grant document access to translators working on your project.
Encrypted file-sharing platforms or FTP clients like Citrix ShareFile can also be used for transferring files securely.
Translators should be trained in proper HIPAA-compliant procedures when handling documents with PHI. Procedures like:
Ensuring all files with PHI are deleted from their computer after a project is complete.
NEVER sending completed translations through email.
If documents with PHI are accidentally sent by email, then the email must be deleted from the inbox AND from the “Deleted” folder.
Even with all the HIPAA training you and your team go through, slip-ups happen and sometimes a document with a patient’s PHI is sent non-securely through email and other avenues. Again, if this happens, the email should be immediately deleted in all email folder locations.
Let’s go over the basics of PHI and HIPAA compliance.
What is PHI?
PHI stands for Protected Health Information. It is defined as any personally identifiable information used by a HIPAA-covered entity or business associate in relation to healthcare services.
There are 18 identifiers that are included under the HIPAA Privacy Rule:
Names
All geographical identifiers smaller than a state, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census: the geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and the initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000
Dates (other than year) directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, and discharge date.
Phone Numbers
Fax numbers
Email addresses
Social Security numbers
Medical record numbers
Health insurance beneficiary numbers
Account numbers
Certificate/license numbers
Vehicle identifiers including serial numbers and license plate numbers
Device identifiers and serial numbers
Web URLs
Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers
Biometric identifiers, including finger, retinal and voice prints
Full face photographic images and any comparable images
Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code (except the unique code assigned by the investigator to code the data)
Any files or documentation with this information MUST be handled properly under the HIPAA Security Rule.
What is the HIPAA Security Rule?
The main goal of the HIPAA Security Rule is to protect patients’ PHI while allowing medical organizations and other HIPAA-covered entities to utilize new technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care. These organizations are required to maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protecting PHI.
As an experienced language services provider, Teneo Linguistics Company only uses HIPAA-compliant translation processes because we care about protecting the privacy of patients, and care about the success of our clients. Our project management staff and language professionals are trained to protect PHI in all projects, and with exact detail. If your organization is interested in life sciences translation services, please contact us!
