Clinical Assessment Translation

The translation of clinical assessments is a very specialist area, which demands a real understanding of the subject matter in order to achieve a successful result.

How to Translate Clinical Assessments

In order to ensure the success of translation, localisation and adaptation projects in this area, we believe that the work carried out prior to the start of the project is absolutely vital. Creating and validating a clinical assessment or measure in the original language is an involved process. Translation of the same requires a similar level of involvement.

Comms Multilingual can advise further on best-practice processes for translation and validation of clinical assessments.

Definition of the Audience for a Clinical Assessment

Firstly, what is the target population for the translated clinical assessment? This should be established and communicated early on to the team, to ensure that vocabulary and phrasing is appropriate. This might include method of delivery of the assessment (i.e. paper/online/orally) as well as the expected reading level of the target population.

It is also important to bear in mind that different audiences globally speak in different dialects, so spoken Arabic will differ from region to region, in the same way as English, French, Spanish or Portuguese.

Pre-Translation Analysis of a Clinical Assessment

Prior to beginning the translation, a conceptual analysis should be carried out. The aim here is to build a relationship between the client’s internal review team and the clinical assessment translators.

This involves developing a shared understanding of the underlying meaning of the assessment items, clarifying any ambiguities and nuances. Read more about conceptual analyses alongside our other linguistic validation services.

Clinical Assessment Translation Processes

Once the translation is underway, this will generally involve multiple translators, proofreaders and reviewers – whether a forward and back translation or dual forward translation process is used. What is required to satisfy a particular regulatory body will differ slightly from location to location, so it is worth looking at existing precedent or documentation to guide the process applied.

Previous Clinical Assessment Translations

Amongst others, we have been involved in the translation, localisation and adaptation of tests and assessments for the following:

• Affective disorders
• Alzheimer’s
• Autism
• Cognition in schizophrenia
• Emotional disturbance
• Inferential creative thinking
• Neuropsychological tests
• Oral word association
• Performance-based skills
• Sensory processing
• Social responsiveness
• Specific levels of functioning
• Temperament in children
• Visuospatial memory
• Working memory

Clinical Assessment Translation Case Study

If you would like to read about our case study about the translation, localisation and adaptation of a battery of tests aimed at testing the levels of cognition in patients with schizophrenia, please click below.

This includes some details on the process steps offered by Comms Multilingual, although these will naturally be tailored according to whether cognitive debriefing is carried out by us or by the client.

Read Clinical Test Battery Translation Case Study

Clinical Outcome Assessment Translation & Localisation

We understand the need to ensure equivalence between languages in COA translations. Our processes meet the needs of medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers who need to document the validity of their translations.

Very often, a simple translation will not suffice – there are further aspects that require consideration. This is where the adaptation and localisation of clinical assessments comes into play.

As an example of items that need to be adapted and localised, participants are sometimes asked to do calculations involving money to determine cognitive and functional skills. It is necessary to take the following steps to ensure that this is done properly:

• The amount has to be localised into the local currency.
• Amounts need to be adapted to ensure that they are meaningful locally. When Italy had the lira as its currency, you couldn’t just take one US dollar and change it to one lira as this was an amount that was never used in Italy as it had practically no day-to-day worth.
• Amounts also have to be relative. For example, the test may require someone to role-play going into a shop and calculate the change received after a purchase. If they hand over a 50 dollar bill to purchase groceries, this 50 dollars may represent a monthly salary in other countries, so the calculation would then not be meaningful.
• In the USA, you have the dollar, quarter, dime, nickel and penny. In many countries in Europe, you have only the euro and the cent, therefore calculation difficulty is altered.