AI Language Strategies and Medical Device Translation Services

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered language strategies can deeply impact medical device manufacturers’ product portfolios. Large Language Models (LLMs) bring rapidly evolving quality, speed, and cost savings, which procurement and MedTech professionals should consider when planning their language strategy. These new technologies can help drive efficiencies and speed throughout the product lifecycle and across all markets, especially if used in combination with medical device translation services.

Siloed Organizations and Missed Medical Device Translation Services Opportunities

Translations and other language services are typically contracted by procurement. As a result, Life Sciences translation services are often requested in a siloed fashion by individual project owners without any cross-functional coordination. Clinical Affairs, Regulatory Affairs, Labeling, and other professionals working on the same product may use three different Language Service Providers with varying levels of domain expertise and offerings. Unfortunately, procurement departments often see language services as a series of standalone activities. In fact, they’re better viewed as a cohesive and strategic process that supports product performance and messaging. The result is:

• Fragmented services
• Lack of visibility across the category
• Missed opportunities for cost savings

Critically, the lack of coordination of language assets can drive inconsistency in:

• Product messaging
• Claims
• Instructions
• Results communication

Language Challenges in Cross-Functional Product Development

The Secret to Less Costly Medical Device Translation Services and Consistent Language Outcomes

A fragmented business practice in large MedTech enterprises often ensures decision-makers miss significant opportunities. Focusing on the content journey of a medical device throughout its life, rather than the job at hand, often reveals how repetitive and interdependent the content is. Medical devices follow a design control process. A technical file drives the core information on the product’s safety and performance accumulated throughout its life. Many regulated documents are rooted in this technical file. New information or changes in the file and its related documents will trigger language needs from development to post-market stage of the product. This visibility into shared and repeat content is difficult to obtain without a product language strategy and when jobs are routed through separate Approved Vendor Lists in different functions.  

Content Accumulation from Technical File Through Product Lifecycle

Advantages of AI-Powered Medical Device Translation Services

Regulatory reforms, such as the Medical Device Regulation and the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device Regulation drive an increasing volume of content to support the medical device’s safety and performance evidence. Additionally, the need for language services calls for coordination across countries and higher speed delivery to handle the European Union’s 24 official languages. Large Language Models (LLMS) can offer significant translation speed if their application is carefully planned in a risk-based approach. An AI language strategy can be designed to suit the risk-profile of the device, its intended use and/or the types of content involved. Lionbridge works to help our customers design fit-for-purpose language strategies that take the full product lifecycle into account and drive speed, cost-savings, and language consistency.

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