The global dissemination of SNOMED CT® increases the need to provide the terminology in many different languages. SNOMED CT® has a built-in framework to manage different languages and dialects. Currently, entire or partial translations of SNOMED CT® are available in US English, UK English, Spanish, Danish, Swedish and Canadian French. Translations in other SNOMED International Member countries and elsewhere are also in progress.
In addition, SNOMED International has created a starter set of SNOMED CT concepts, along with a number of translations of the set. This starter set is available in Chinese, Japanese, French and German. The Starter set has been created using available usage data, to provide a set that contains concepts which can be described as high usage
Translation Project Owners (TPOs) should strive to ensure that translations comply with the principles on which SNOMED CT® was originally based (comprehensibility, reproducibility, usefulness) and that the information contained in the translated concepts is semantically equivalent to that contained in the core source terminology (international release).
The basic objective of any SNOMED CT® translation is to provide accurate and unambiguous descriptions of SNOMED CT® concepts in the target language. Therefore, a principle of concept-based translation must be used. Defining a set of national linguistic guidelines, including syntactical, morphological, and orthographic rules, to support that approach, is also crucial.
General linguistic principles
Recommendations or policies established by a national language council, authority or board should, in general, be followed
"Comparing different methods to obtain an initial translation" is a report produced by NICTIZ in 2016. The report details a review of four different approaches used to create translations using a benchmarking approach. A copy of the report iOS available <HERE>
https://icd.who.int/dev11/Help/Get/translation_general/en
"Although Google Translate provides translations among a large number of languages, the accuracies vary greatly. This study gives for the first time an estimate of how good a potential translation might be using the software. Our analysis shows that translations between European languages are usually good, while those involving Asian languages are often relatively poor. Further, the vast majority of language combinations probably provide sufficient accuracy for reading comprehension in college".
To access document click <HERE>
"Google Translate has only 57.7% accuracy when used for medical phrase translations and should not be trusted for important medical communications. However, it still remains the most easily available and free initial mode of communication between a doctor and patient when language is a barrier. Although caution is needed when life saving or legal communications are necessary, it can be a useful adjunct to human translation services when these are not available."
To access document click <HERE>
Article is a small sample study, but gives examples of unwanted translations, such as the following:
Phrase | Translation |
Your wife is stable | Your wife cannot fall over |
Your husband had a cardiac arrest | Your husband’s heart was imprisoned |
Your husband had a heart attack | Your husband’s heart was attacked |
Your wife needs to be ventilated | Your wife needs to be aired |
Your child’s condition is life threatening | Your child’s state is not life stopping |
Your child has been fitting | Your child has been constructing |
Your child will be born premature | Your child is sleeping early |
Your husband has the opportunity to donate his organs | Your husband is now ready to donate |
We will need your consent for operation | We need your consent for operating (such as machinery) |
Did he have high fever at home? | Your home temperature was high |
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"A Finite-State Approach to Translate SNOMED CT Terms into Basque Using Medical Prefixes and Suffixes"
To access document click <HERE>