Pharma Systems – compassion and empathy in focus
“We’re very pleased with the collaboration and especially the excellent communication with our project manager. It was easy to get in touch and ask questions, and we were kept informed along the way, which made for a smooth process, even though it was a relatively big and time-consuming project.””
Andreas Stridh, Product and Quality Manager, Pharma Systems
Pharma Systems is a Swedish medical technology company headquartered in Lysekil with manufacturing facilities in Estonia and other locations. The company develops, manufactures and distributes products for various types of respiratory systems, including HME filters and bacterial-viral filters, as well as combinations of these functions. The company also manufactures tracheostomy tube accessories for patients with respiratory obstructions.
Pharma Systems’ products are primarily used in anaesthesia, intensive care, paediatric and neonatal care, and in home healthcare. Because the company is a medical technology manufacturer, it operates within a regulatory framework where quality, patient safety and clear product information are essential.
Pharma System's products are literally a matter of life and death. The user manuals in all the languages of the countries it exports to must be accurately translated, completely unambiguous and leave no room whatsoever for interpretation or doubt. And there were also time and cost aspects to consider.
Språkbolaget provided Pharma Systems with translations from English into Arabic, Danish, Finnish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, German and Hungarian.
Tell us about the translations and your choice of agency
“When we were about to translate our updated instruction manuals, it was important to find an agency that was reliable and felt easy to work with,” says Andreas Stridh, Product and Quality Manager at Pharma Systems.
“For us, the choice was not only about the translations per se, but also about ease of communication, accessibility and the sense of being able to get in touch fast, should questions arise,” continues Andreas.
Pharma Systems chose Språkbolaget as a partner, partly for the company's local roots on the West Coast, but not for that reason alone.
“We appreciated how easy it was to communicate with the agency, and that our collaboration felt so smooth and professional right from the start,” says Andreas. “And being located so close to us was naturally another important factor; it was an advantage that the agency was locally based, as it meant we could meet in person should we need to clarify any issues. But in practice, communications worked so well that meetings were rarely necessary.”
“Even though our clientele is international, it’s naturally great to have a locally based customer,” says Ida Norlander, project manager at Språkbolaget. “But as Andreas says, our workflows are so smooth and well-established that physical meetings, however pleasant they may be, are seldom ever necessary.”
“Price also played an important part in our choice,” continues Andreas. “We needed a solution that not only met our quality requirements, but was also reasonable from a cost perspective. So overall, we took into account communication, accessibility, the local presence, price and the general sense of a dependable, well-functioning collaboration.”
What about the choice between AI translation and human translation?
"We definitely saw how AI could help us reach our goals faster, especially in the initial phase," says Andreas. "At the same time, user manuals for medical technology products are not just about the direct translation of words, but also about the right terminology and an understanding of how language is used in a clinical context."
“And this is where it’s really easy to go astray,” confirms Ida Norlander. “AI has an enormous amount to offer the language industry, and can often drive costs down. But as Andreas notes, one uses specific terminology in clinical contexts; a standard way of expression. This can vary from one language to another, and one of our jobs as a language service provider is to judge where AI can play a part, and where it will not work.”
In our discussions with Pharma Systems, we concluded that AI could be truly useful in providing an initial foundational translation, but that it was important to make a thorough initial analysis to determine which languages we could use AI for, and which languages needed human translations from scratch,” says Ida. “Because the quality of AI translation differs so much from one language pair and subject area to the next, we conducted an analysis in consultation with some of our most experienced translators and concluded that some of the languages were well suited for AI, and others not at all.”
“It was important for us to combine efficiency with human linguistic expertise in text reviews, to make sure translations were clear, accurate and suited to the way our products are actually used,” emphasises Andreas.
Tell us about the workflow!
“We based our work on existing English language user manuals that had already been reviewed and approved in compliance with current regulations,” says Andreas. “We then conducted an analysis based on active sales and current markets to determine which languages the user manuals should be translated into. Språkbolaget provided us with valuable assistance in this work.”
“One of the challenges in a project involving so many translators and proofreaders is the communication between them all,” continues Ida Norlander. “If a translator has a query or comment, it’s important to pass it on to the rest of the team to make sure source texts are interpreted and translated consistently and accurately at every stage. There are many medical and technical terms In this type of documentation, all of which must be translated accurately and consistently.”
“When the translations were finished, they were passed on to our distributors and partners in their respective countries,” continues Andreas. "Once there, the translations were reviewed by people who knew the local language and understood how the products are used in their clinical context. This enabled us to combine a structured translation process with local linguistic and practical grounding.”
Any feedback on the translations?
“In general, our partners were very pleased with the first version of the translations,” Andreas replies. “We made some minor corrections, and the work went very well. The distributors came back with comments about the things they felt needed adjusting. Språkbolaget then held discussions with the translators, most of whom agreed that the corrections were reasonable. This allowed the corrections to be handled in a well-structured manner.”
“This is another area where our specialist expertise comes in,” adds Ida Norlander. Communicating with translators across a number of different languages is a delicate task. We know our translators and reviewers well, and we have personal relationships with each and every one of them. We know the kind of questions that tend to crop up, we’re well prepared to tackle them, and we can usually handle linguistic discussions more effectively than our clients, but we also know which issues we absolutely need to raise with the client.”
The end product: an evaluation
“The end product was four major user manuals, each translated into 15 languages. It was a major undertaking, but the collaboration worked very well all throughout the process,” declares Andreas.
“We’re satisfied with both the outcome and the ease of communication during the course of the work,” says Andreas. “We’re very pleased with the collaboration and especially the excellent communication with our project manager. It was easy to get in touch and ask questions, and we were kept informed along the way, which made for a smooth process, even though it was a relatively big and time-consuming project."
“I can only agree,” confirms Ida. “In a project such as this involving advanced, life-critical technology, the customer's expertise is tremendously important. All the same, Språkbolaget was able to provide insights into where AI would work and where it would not, and we oversaw extensive communications with a large number of specially selected translators and reviewers, which would have been difficult for our client to handle alone.”
Språkbolaget firmly believes and hopes that its contribution to this project has helped to ensure that clinicians the world over have received effective information about how Pharma Systems products should be operated.