HEALTHCARE TRANSLATIONS
Positively affecting health outcomes through health literacy and healthcare translationsHEALTHCARE TRANSLATIONS
Positively affecting health outcomes through health literacy and healthcare translations
Our Story in Healthcare
What are healthcare translations? Healthcare translations are the adaptation of patient information, health plan information, pharmaceutical information and more that is required for understanding and comprehension to enable patients who speak a language other than English to be in better control of their healthcare needs. Healthcare translations also enable organizations that provide healthcare information to be culturally and linguistically competent.
We began specializing in the healthcare translations area about 15 years ago. Back in 2008, there was also a lot of interest in Plain Language writing from healthcare organizations as an initiative to improve English healthcare communications with health plan members to meet the guidelines for Medicare and Medicaid. This initiative was to make communications more understandable and written at a 6th grade level. This was 2 years before the Plain Language Act was signed into Law. The CDC, NIH and other government agencies had been using plain language strategies and promoting health literacy strategies well before this time. Since this time, reading levels have also varied by State. We added English communication specialization to our expertise in healthcare communications. From English into other languages, we connected the lifecycle of those communications.
Melissa Wurst, President of Language Solutions, has been actively involved in outcomes for the patient. She first served in the Peace Corps in the 1990s during the A.I.D.S. epidemic and became an A.I.D.S. educator under the Ministry of Health in Thailand. Currently, she serves as the past Chair and current member of the Oncology Patient Family Advisory Council of Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis, Member of all PFACs at Siteman (Emergency Room, Heart & Vascular, and Women and Infants), Board member and past reviewer of clinical trials involving gene therapy with Castle IRB, Member of the HOMERUN PFAC, and Member of The National Health Information Technology (HIT) Patient Family Advisory Council. She is also a PCORI Ambassador, having served on the Steering Committee of a PCORI funded project to improve hospital outcomes and identify the top research questions with the i-Hope survey. Her particular interests as a patient advocate are in reducing healthcare disparities.
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HEALTHCARE TRANSLATION
Medicare / Medicaid Communications
Example of CMS Letter Translated in Farsi
Healthcare translations in over 40 foreign languages for your diverse member populations.
What is healthcare translation? For health plans, each state and health plan have different member needs and language is one of those needs as well as requirements for healthcare translation. Medicare Part C health plans and Part D sponsors are required to translate their materials into any non-English language that is the primary language of at least 5 percent of the individuals in a plan benefit package service area. In addition to healthcare translations, we also serve health plans with Braille conversion.
We can help you with the Medicare Part C and D model materials provided by CMS. Any health plan is free to develop their own healthcare translations as well per CMS guidelines. Our priority with clients will be on creating healthcare translation assets for your organization so that updates to those documents every year can be leveraged with your existing translations using Translation Memory.
- Proprietary glossaries of Spanish terms used by various health plans
- CMS Model Docs and Translation Memories from CMS healthcare Translations
- Government grade level regulations (Readability Testing) for Medicare / Medicaid
- In person foreign language interpreting services
- 24/7 over the phone interpreting services
From our Healthcare Translations Blog
5 quick tips about Healthcare Translations
Need tips about healthcare translations? Healthcare Translations appear in many different types of Healthcare Communications. Our clients range from Health Plans, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, Pharmaceutical Companies to Medical Device Manufacturers, and each focuses on...
Cultural Competence in Healthcare Communications
How well are we doing with cultural competence in healthcare communications? Increasingly more diverse health populations complicates healthcare marketing and education efforts. We look at programs like open enrollment, pharmacy benefit communications, disease state awareness communications and other patient education.
Section 1557: Develop a Language Access Plan
Health Organizations receiving funding from the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicare or Medicaid services will need to comply with Section 1557 anti-discrimination law. Covered entities are encouraged to develop and implement a language access plan to ensure they are prepared to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to each individual that may require assistance.
Healthcare Translations for diverse communities
The means to decreasing cultural and language barriers lies in the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to increase understanding and improve quality of care in healthcare.
Language Access in Healthcare Translations
Language Access in Healthcare settings still seem to be in its infancy. With the ACA in full play, healthcare organizations should try to stay ahead of the evolving Language Access law by providing meaningful access to healthcare information in other languages. This does not only include language interpreting assistance, but also investing in translation of written materials and digital content.
Case Study
Translations for Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Contact us to help you with any
Patient Facing Healthcare Communications
Translation of Prescription Benefit Communications requires an understanding of how people communicate about their disease management.
- School Preparedness Education
- Disease Management Education
- Patient Guides
- Value Formularies
- Patient Letters
- Prescription Benefit Programs
- Drug recall letters (24hr. turnaround)
Testimonial
” …. To me, it shows you care about details and the outcome of the translation. You’re thinking about things that we wouldn’t or didn’t think about and could cause issues further down the road.”
From our Healthcare Translations Blog
Build trust and respect for patients
In our work with healthcare translations and health literacy communications in English, we consume a lot of research on what moves the patient to better outcomes and how we can build trust and respect for patients to improve healthcare.
Could Prescription Discount Programs Drive Further Hispanic Patient Engagement?
Prescription Discount Programs are an alternative way for many uninsured or under-insured Americans to get lower cost prescription drugs. Many of these discount programs are just a few years old, but the potential to reach a large Hispanic audience is likely going to be a growth strategy. In this post, we’ll look at these programs, what role they might play in the growing Hispanic Health Population and how they might even play a role in driving Hispanic Patient Engagement.
A Study on Healthcare Terminology
Download our White Paper on healthcare terminology This white paper on healthcare terminology used by health plans is prepared for professionals in the healthcare communication industry, translation industry and benefit consultants. In preparation of the new Open...
Don’t just translate your healthcare communications, localize them for the target audience!
In customizing your content for the intended reader, you have to consider their literacy level, their age, their gender, their culture and their language. This post will focus on localizing that information for the reader from another country.
Healthcare Engagement
Healthcare engagement is a hot topic in the healthcare industry. Healthcare communications become more personal and topics in healthcare marketing are more focused to specific needs of members. We’ve looked at our services and defined how these services can can connect stakeholders in healthcare to achieve better health outcomes.
Case Study
Healthcare Outcomes
Our expertise in the Healthcare communications Industry has allowed us to help managed care organizations communicate more effectively with their foreign language speaking member base, as well as their low literacy population.
Effective communication can help healthcare organizations overcome challenges that exist today:
- Improve drug adherence
- Achieve government grade level regulations for Medicare / Medicaid
- Increase patient comprehension
- Promote effective disease management
Quality Standards in Healthcare Translations
Our dedication to quality is ingrained in our organization with our commitment to continuous process improvement with Baldrige for Performance Excellence. Our certification of ISO 9001:2015 became a tool in our toolbox for quality and we constantly are working on tools for our client’s success. Our focus on the client is a core philosophy of our company where YOU become the priority.
Our Quality Standards for Healthcare Translations:
- ISO 9001:2015 Certified Translations
- WCAG and 508 compliant for Braille
- HIPAA Certified as a Business Associate
- Medically Certified Interpreting Services
PHARMA MARKETING TRANSLATION
Certified Translations for Pharma Marketing agencies
This is where you need detailed and
organized Project Management
Your dedicated and localization certified project manager will be a consistent lead over your project and keep you informed, adhere to the guidelines and your specific requirements. We realize that choosing a language service provider is about trust.
- Drug marketing brochures
- Patient education brochures and flyers
- Chronic disease management guides
- Important Safety Information/Prescription Information
- Websites on pharmaceuticals
- Digital banner ads
- Product name testing
- Package inserts and labels
- Cannabinoid pharmaceuticals
- Drug registrations
Healthcare Delivery
- Digital expertise
- Wearables, apps, portals, online surveys, banner ads
IBC and IRB Clients
- Regulatory Translations meeting requirements of 21 CFR 50.20
- Informed Consent and Clinical Trial document translations
- Patient recruitment documentation
- Marketing materials
- Medical Interpreters (In person and Over the Phone)
- Management of back translation and Review for IRB
- Plain language and health literacy expertise
- Certificate of Translation Accuracy for all translations
Medical Device Translations
- Patents
- Instructions
- Installation,operating manuals
- Regulatory Compliance documents
- Manufacturing process descriptions
From our Healthcare Translations Blog
Top Tips on International Pharmaceutical Marketing Translation
Begin at the Beginning International pharmaceutical marketing translation is a critical aspect of reaching global markets and ensuring effective communication with healthcare professionals and patients around the world. International pharmaceutical marketing...
Patient Education Healthcare Translation
The costs of patient education healthcare translation may seem high, but the costs of neglecting to provide this resource are likely to be even higher. And arguably more importantly, the benefits of patient education healthcare translation can easily outweigh the...
Healthcare translations for Hispanics with HIV
In our work with healthcare translations, we do quite a bit of patient education for Hispanics with HIV. Some of the challenges when working in healthcare translations for a particular population are to find the current terminology that is being used.
Managing Back Translation
Back-translation is the process of translating a translated document back into the original language. The goal of this process is to ensure that the target and source language accurately match.
Healthcare Translations for diverse communities
The means to decreasing cultural and language barriers lies in the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to increase understanding and improve quality of care in healthcare.
The trouble with translating “authenticity” in Patient Education
The article describes two initiatives, Fit2Me by AstraZeneca and Living Like You by Novartis, that are raising the stakes when it comes to patient education campaigns.
Case Study
BENEFIT COMMUNICATIONS
Open Enrollment Translations
Don’t wait until October rolls around!
Translation of open enrollment materials is incredibly complex as it involves different services and different options for different employee groups with data that has to be written into clear options that are selected against an uncertain future. Open Enrollment is often the only period where employees and their families make informed decisions about their healthcare coverage.
- Accurate use of Insurance Terminology in United States
- Relevant Cultural Examples
- Accurate Language Support Information from multiple sources
- Consistency of Materials (See Translation Memory)
Our expertise in HR Translations…your benefit
- HR & Benefits
- Compensation
- Corporate Wellness
- Employee Engagement
- Retirement and Pension
- Proprietary glossary developed by LSI for open enrollment materials in Spanish (compilation of different Spanish terminology used by multiple health plans) which is used for Open Enrollment materials
- Quality Ingrained – ISO 9001:2015 certified and Baldrige for Performance Excellence since 2008
Enrollment Portals
Online Enrollment Portals and Benefit Portals are integrated with other systems for employees to get to their benefit information. This integration also requires a lot of coordination of context between the different systems requiring technical expertise:
- Translation Memory Management (Consistent Translations)
- Terminology Management (Consistent Terminology)
- Content Management Engineering and Localization (Efficient extraction and return of content to the system)
- Context Management (Preflight and Testing of Content, testing of Variable Data in context)
From our Corporate Communications Blog
Healthcare marketing to Millennials
When designing healthcare marketing to Millennials, consider that 21 percent are Hispanic and speak a foreign language at home. Millennials, who account for 75.3 million people in the U.S., are more racially and ethnically diverse than any prior generation. Their...
5 Reasons for Translating Open Enrollment Communication Materials
Here are five reasons for Benefit Managers and Consultants to consider Translating Open Enrollment Communication materials.
A Study on Healthcare Terminology
Download our White Paper on healthcare terminology This white paper on healthcare terminology used by health plans is prepared for professionals in the healthcare communication industry, translation industry and benefit consultants. In preparation of the new Open...
Healthcare Translations for Open Enrollment with Hispanic Employees
Complex decisions require effective communications and despite the growing bilingualism of Hispanics, there is still a great need for adequately translated and consistent messaging across many different healthcare and benefit providers.
Health Disparities and the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate services
Addressing health disparities in healthcare translation. Cultural and linguistic competency affects trust, rapport, communication, and adherence.
Case Study
HEALTH LITERACY
Health Literacy Writing and Design
We have been involved in Plain Language and Health Literacy for healthcare communications since 2008. This was a natural evolution of our services to include this since one of our main areas of expertise has been in Healthcare and Pharmaceutical foreign language translations.
Working in English content allows us to be involved in the whole content lifecycle and development of materials. It gives us the insight to be part of shaping the content to achieve specific objectives and for our translators to fully understand the strategies that are used in the source English writing. This also allowed us to serve another client need as the demand for these services has grown. Our Health Literacy Division has expert writers in the field with over 25 years of experience. Let us share that expertise with you.
- We offer Health Literacy Writing for below 6th grade levels, implementing adult learning theories, cultural strategies and a variety of motivational techniques to keep the reader engaged and move them to action.
- We can also help with Health Literacy Design of books, pamphlets, brochures and web sites. There are over 200 rules in effective Health Literacy design to follow. This includes line lengths, font choices, colors and images. The choice of images in a book is an art in itself. You want images that truly represent your target audience and are not generic images taken from a subscription based site that you may see in many other publications. You want your readers to see themselves. Our books below are all award winners.
Platinum Award for Consumer Empowerment at the URAC Quality Summit
Winner of Silver Medal at the NHI Award 2010
Merit Winner of the 2013 ClearMark Award in Plain Language
Diabetes Management
Plain Language Writing
Grade Level Testing
Medicare and Medicaid requirements vary per state on grade level requirements as well as the acceptable methods for assessing readability.
Read more about:
Readability in English – We use the Flesch Kincaid method for English Rewriting along with considerations towards names, numbers and variable data. 
Readability in Spanish – Readability in Spanish is not measured equally. Find out how we approach Plain Language readability in Spanish and the preferred method for testing.
Fry Readability Graph
Plain Language Strategies:
There are many strategies in plain language writing and it takes time, experience and a lot of practice. The first step is awareness that your communications need to be clear. We always say “you need to strip the nice to know from the need to know.” Below is a Before and After letter in healthcare communications written in Plain language . What differences do you notice about the letters? Which one would you rather receive?
BEFORE/AFTER
What does good Health Literacy Design look like?
Organization
Explain How to use the information and What’s inside.
Actionable Information
Give the reader Clear action items.
Motivational Techniques
Questions are phrased in a real and meaningful way.
Use of Testimonials
Readers are more likely to follow advice from their peers.
Check Boxes and Fill-in-the-Blanks
Gives the reader a reason to interact and go back to the document.
Organization
Text boxes highlight important information.
Images
Use images of peers that show the desired behavior.
Images
Behavior in images should correspond with the text on the page.