On this page the Translation User Group presents some recurring challenges when translating SNOMED CT into different languages.
We divide the challenges into fire categories:
1 Grouper concepts
2 Cultural and linguistic nuances
3 Ambiguity and inconsistency
4 False friends
In each category you can find some examples. Each example consists of a presentation of the challenge and one or more alternative strategies to solve it.
If you have feed-back or want to suggest a new example, please send an e-mail to the chair of the Translation User Group or a comment on this page.
Case 1: Grouper concepts: Digit of hand and finger
Challenge
SNOMED CT makes a conceptual difference between digit of hand, finger and thumb, the two latter concepts being subordinate concepts to the first:
In clinical settings in Norway and several other countries, the hand and fingers are not conceptualised this way. The hand consists of five fingers, one of them being the thumb. Thus, finger is a superordinate concept to thumb and the rest of the fingers. In Norwegian context, finger has the same meaning as digit of hand in SNOMED CT. In English-Norwegian dictionaries, digit is translated as either finger or toe.
This is not only a matter of anatomy. Several concepts in the disorder hierarchy make this distinction, such as 827109000 |Subluxation of digit of hand (disorder)|, 263054007 |Subluxation of finger (disorder)| and 263055008 |Subluxation of thumb (disorder)|
What should the translator do?
The translation of digit of hand and finger is not straightforward and will affect several concepts in different hierarchies. It is highly recommendable that the translator reports the issue to the translation project owner, who should provide a solution which takes into account terminological and linguistic considerations (see below).
The translator may offer a solution when reaching out to the translation project owner.
Which translation strategies could be adopted?
Strategy 1
One straightforward strategy would be to translate digit of hand as “finger”, finger as “finger” and thumb as “tommel”, as proposed by the dictionaries:
digit of hand: finger
finger: finger
thumb: tommel
However, this strategy would not only violate the principle of concept-based translation, it would render duplicate translations in such cases as subluxation above: Both subluxation of digit of hand and subluxation of finger would beget identical translations.
Strategy 2
Another strategy is to translate the anatomical meaning of the concepts according the the following schema:
digit of hand:finger
finger: andre til femte finger (=second to fifth finger)
Thumb:tommel (=thumb)
Note that the translation of finger is not an established term, but rather an explanation of the meaning.
Strategy 3
Grouper concepts might be omitted in the translation process if deemed especially difficult and not being used in a clinical setting. If the grouper concept belongs to the body structure hierarchy, such as digit of hand, one should make sure that there are no corresponding concepts in for example the disorder hierarchy which are being translated.
Proposal
In Norway, we adopted strategy 2 to comply with the concept-based approach. Strategy 3 was not an option because several disorder concepts with the attribute finding site ‘finger of hand’ had to be translated.