Medical Translation

Medical translation puts patient records and healthcare documents into another language without changing what the clinician wrote. Perhaps you were treated in Turkey and your doctor at home or your insurer needs the file in English. Perhaps you are bringing foreign reports to a Turkish hospital. Either way, send them by WhatsApp or e-mail, or bring them to one of our four Istanbul branches, and tell us who will read the translation. A medical translator works on the document only and gives no opinion, so questions about your diagnosis or treatment belong with your doctor.

Patient documents we translate

• Epikriz: what a Turkish hospital calls the discharge summary. It sets out why you were admitted, what was done and what comes next.
• Pathology reports: findings on biopsies and surgical specimens.
• Laboratory results: blood, urine and genetic test printouts.
• Imaging reports: MRI, CT, ultrasound and PET. The written report is translated, not the images on the disc.
• Other records: operation notes, consultation notes, medical board reports, prescriptions, vaccination cards.

Reading a Turkish medical report

Turkish reports follow conventions that catch out anyone translating word by word.

• Abbreviations: KOAH is COPD, BT is CT and TA is blood pressure. MS can mean multiple sclerosis or mitral stenosis, and only the surrounding text shows which.
• Decimal commas: 1,5 mg in a Turkish report is 1.5 mg in English. Read as a thousands separator, the comma changes the number.
• Units: mg/dL and mmol/L stay as reported, together with their reference ranges. Converting them is not the translator's job.
• Dates: 03.04.2026 means 3 April in Turkey. Writing the month as a word stops an American reader taking it for March 4.
• Drug names: a Turkish brand name may not exist in your country. It stays as written, so if you also want the active ingredient shown, ask the doctor who wrote the report.
• Handwriting: an illegible word should be marked as illegible and, if it matters, confirmed with the hospital. Guessing has no place in a medical record.

Pathology report translation

A pathology report usually has gross description, microscopic description and diagnosis sections. In the diagnosis, grade and stage measure different things, so the Turkish “derece” and “evre” must never be swapped. Tumour size, margin status and lymph node counts come across exactly as written. Markers such as ER, PR, HER2 and Ki-67 stay unchanged, as do TNM codes. “Negative” and “positive” are report terms here, not everyday words.

Health tourism: documents in both directions

Patients who come to Turkey for treatment usually need translation twice. Reports from home go into Turkish for the hospital here. The treatment plan, consent form and epikriz then come back in the patient's language. Consent forms need plain wording, because the person signing has to understand what they are agreeing to. For consultations you may also want an interpreter, and a clinic site aimed at foreign patients is a job for our website translation service.

Pharmaceutical and medical device documents

“Prospektüs” is the everyday Turkish word for a leaflet, but two documents sit behind it. The patient leaflet (kullanma talimatı) is written for the person taking the medicine. The summary of product characteristics (kısa ürün bilgisi, KÜB) is written for healthcare professionals. The facts agree, yet the language has to differ. Companies also commission translations of:

• Registration file sections, labels and packaging text
• Clinical trial protocols, informed consent forms and ethics committee correspondence
• Device user and service manuals

For ministry papers going abroad, note that the Turkish Foreign Ministry's Authentication Unit says it can authenticate documents approved by the Ministry of Health's medicinal products unit.

Do you need a sworn or notarized translation?

The institution decides. If only your doctor abroad will read the report, an uncertified translation may be enough. An insurer, consulate, court or employer may ask for a sworn translation or a notarized translation. The sworn translator signs the translation, and the notary then approves that signature and the oath record. The notary does not verify the medical content or the content of the translation. Ask exactly what is required before paying for approvals you may not need.

How to order

1. Send every page. If you photograph them, keep the edges and stamps in frame.
2. Tell us the target language, the recipient and any deadline, and give the patient's name as spelled in the passport.
3. Once the scope and quote are agreed, translation begins.
4. When the translation arrives, compare names, birth date, report dates and file numbers with the original.
5. Collect it from a branch or ask for courier delivery.

What affects price and timing

Cost depends on the length of the file, the language pair, the document type and how legible it is. A handwritten discharge summary takes longer than a clean printout. Notary fees are a separate item when approval is needed. If surgery or a hospital transfer is close, see urgent translation. Quicker delivery can sometimes be arranged, subject to the document type, language and approvals. We can only price a report once we have seen it, so send it for a quote.

About your health data

These documents are special categories of personal data, and your explicit consent to process them is obtained separately.

Official source

• Turkish Foreign Ministry Authentication Unit FAQ (in Turkish)