Collaboration and communities of practice in the field of medical ontology translation

Abstract

This article provides insight into the collaborative translation of medical ontologies and how translators’ needs, commitment and desire to learn and share knowledge can be the seeds of a community of practice to support this type of translation. It is based on the experience of a project to translate 7,500 respiratory system concepts from SNOMED CT® into French. The project was guided by the following principles: (1) translators are bilingual medical experts in the field in which the terms to be translated are used; (2) linguistic advice is available during translation; (3) translating experts accept, correct or replace terms already translated by a web-based translation tool using a prepared lexicon. The project results were characterised by low acceptance of computer-assisted pre-translations due to inadequate lexicon preparation and insufficient alignment of the concepts to be translated with the expertise of the translating expert. These issues were solved to a considerable extent by web-based communication between translators, suggesting the need for well-structured collaboration between highly specialised field experts. Based on this observation, we discuss how a community of practice built on the motivation and needs of the translating experts could significantly support the quality and efficiency of medical ontology translation.