Why should I invest in TransCom’s localization process for my PROs?

TransCom recommends its unique translation and localization process for any PRO-based measuring tool. You may however be concerned about the increased costs of such a process over a simple translation process.

Many recent studies found that translations of measuring tools which have not been properly localized and adapted are a major factor in the failure of multi-national CNS trials, as the data gathered in each country is incomparable with the data from other countries.

For example, one of our clients chose a 10-item list to measure the memory function of patients in their clinical trial, and chose a simple translation process over the suggested method in order to save translation costs.

After gathering initial data from patients, they were surprised to discover that the results in Arabic speaking countries were much better than in other countries. When reviewing their results, they found that two of them items in the English list – house and home – are translated into the same word in Arabic! Thus, Arabic-speaking patients only had to memorize 9 words instead of 10, leading to an easier memorization process and to higher test results.

This small mistake required our client to scrap all data gathered in Arabic-speaking countries, and resulted and much higher costs than the full localization method suggested by TransCom. Needless to say, our client has always used the full localization and adaptation process since.