The 3H Medi Solution Global team was established in 2017 to serve global, English-speaking companies with clinical trials and patient recruitment in Japan. 3H Medi Solution has services from site selection to patient recruitment in Japan. 3H Medi Solution also owns 3H Clinical Trial Ltd., “Seikatsu Kojo Web” (Clinical Trial Website), through which they have accumulated a database with a patient pool of over 750,000 and 3H CTS, a site management organization. With a unique combination of web advertising, newspaper ads, events, call center services, and much more, 3H Medi Solution has established itself as the leading patient recruitment company in Japan.
Our client was looking to localize a big and important clinical project where they would be interviewing a set of patients about a particular health issue. This entire exercise had to be localized from Japanese to English. They require both transcription and translation services. We had a tight timeline in which we had to create the localized content for them to share with their end client.
Since our client is from the medical clinical trial industry dealing in patient recruitment and retention services, we had to be clear about how this industry functions. The project entailed patient interview recordings that the client wanted to localize from Japanese into English for patient research and insights. They approached us for their localization requirements and shared the recorded patient interviews in Japanese, which we had to transcribe and then translate into English.
Since this project involved patient interviews about a particular ailment on which the client was conducting research, we had to be very careful with this sensitive information. We had to ensure that all the data remained secure and was not tampered with at any stage of the localization process. We provided the linguistic team relevant instructions around this. We also had to put together a team of linguists well-versed in the pharma clinical trial and patient recruitment industry.
Interviews/audio recordings include different dialects, accents, tones, and styles . Also, the Japanese language has different writing styles: Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana, and Furigano, so it became very important to understand these while transcribing the audio recordings. We had to identify linguists who were well versed in the subject, and native Japanese-speakers would handle these recordings.
The operational workflow for this project had to be designed in a way that the client would first review the transcripts and provide the necessary feedback/approval on it. Post-approval of the transcripts, we would then initiate the translation part of the process, where we would be carrying out a 3-step localization process of translating, editing, and proofreading the transcribed scripts of the audio interviews. Keeping in mind the various medical terminologies during these conversations, the quality of localization expected by the client was of very high standards.
We constantly received the interviewed files from the client, and we had to complete the transcription and translation process for each file within the specified time. Due to the mix of services required, we had to ensure proper planning and delivery in a phased manner so that the quality review and finalization could be done on time.
We helped 3H Medi Solutions localize passive interviews from Japanese to English for a particular ailment that their client was researching. This was a critical clinical trial project for the client in which we played a crucial part in localizing the sensitive content. We met all client requirements through some of the key efforts mentioned below.
The clinical trial project was an important one where our client was conducting patient interviews, which would be essential for the research. Moreover, we have a pool of Japanese freelancers who have expertise in the medical / pharma industry and have been a part of some major localization projects executed by us. Therefore, we selected the right linguists with knowledge of clinical trials/research subject area using an in-house linguist selection tool that works on AI-based algorithms, making the selection spot on.
When localizing content from Japanese to English, we had to be particular about the different Japanese styles. Since the project involved patient interviews as a part of the clinical trial, we had to mainly concentrate on some of the key areas of localization like maintaining the consistency in using medical terminologies, which was one of the essential aspects of the project. Any deviation or mistranslation in the medical terminology would give a completely different outcome of the research. Therefore, the SME linguists were provided the required style guides & glossary, which helped them maintain uniformity across the terms while carrying out the transcription and translation process.
The operational workflow was broken down into two parts: transcribing the audio files, and using a translating, editing, and proofreading (TEP) approach. We received a regular flow of patient interview recordings which our transcription experts transcribed, and the output was shared with the client for their review/sign-off. Post-sign off, the Japanese transcripts / SRT files were sent to the SME linguists for translation, which included some layers of transadaptation, considering the content was being translated from Japanese to English. Post-translation, the files were sent to our in-house English editors with expertise in the medical / pharma industry to carry out a final review of the translation and provide any improvements from their side. Then, the files were sent to the client for the final review / sign-off. In this way, we implemented a very stringent and double-layered checking process to ensure high-quality localized content was shared with the client.
It was an intense and fast-paced project. Therefore, to meet all client requirements, we had to deploy our best team, who had experience in handling complex projects and managing client expectations. The PM lead who handled this account has worked on similar projects for other clients, so she had a good experience with the finer details involved and how we could execute them well. Coordinating between stakeholders like the client, their reviewers, transcription experts, and linguists was critical and managed efficiently by our project lead. The client, in the end, was very pleased with all our efforts, especially the way it was led and executed .
