ISO 9001 
ISO 17100 
ISO 18587 LinguaVox provides clinical research translation services for CROs, sponsors, hospitals, investigators and clinical operations teams. We manage multilingual projects in more than 150 languages, combining specialist translators, project management, terminology control and review workflows according to what each assignment requires.
Translation for the clinical research sector
Clinical research is multilingual by nature: a single study may run across several countries, each with its own language, ethics committee and document expectations. The content has to be controlled for terminology, version and reader. An informed consent form written for participants needs plain, accessible language and often has to satisfy a local ethics committee; an investigator brochure written for clinicians is a different document entirely. Treating both as generic medical text would miss what each is for.
For that reason we do not assign work on language pair alone. The document type, the target reader, the destination market, the format and the level of review all shape the workflow, and we confirm them before quoting.
Documents we translate
Typical documents include clinical trial protocols and amendments, informed consent forms, investigator brochures, patient questionnaires and diaries, ethics committee and regulatory correspondence, case report forms, site and monitoring documents, patient recruitment materials and training documents. Many of these exist in several versions over the life of a study, so version control is part of the task: when a protocol is amended, the change has to flow accurately into every affected document and language.
For patient-facing instruments such as questionnaires and outcome measures, we can apply a linguistic validation process — typically forward translation, back-translation, reconciliation and review — so that each language version captures the same meaning as the original.
Specialist translators and quality control
Projects are assigned to translators with clinical research experience and the right language combination, working in line with good clinical practice expectations for documentation. Where the assignment includes bilingual revision, a second qualified linguist checks the translation against the source, and the project manager reviews files, instructions and delivery format before completion. For consent forms and other participant materials, readability and accuracy are treated as equally important.
This supports ISO 17100-based workflows for professional translation. For suitable, lower-risk content, full post-editing of machine translation may be considered, but consent, protocol and other participant- or regulator-facing content is normally handled by human translation with revision.
Version control and multi-country studies
The hardest part of many clinical research projects is not a single translation but keeping a whole document set aligned across countries and amendments. We use translation memories, glossaries and structured delivery folders so that successive versions stay consistent, so that the same term is rendered the same way for every site, and so that an amendment can be propagated cleanly. This keeps the sponsor, the CRO and the sites working from genuinely equivalent documents.
Countries, sites and delivery
In a multi-country study, each country brings its own language, and sometimes more than one, so a single protocol can generate a large, structured set of documents. We coordinate these by language and by country, prepare site-ready packages where helpful, and deliver against study milestones rather than as a single drop. We work with the formats clinical content arrives in — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, editable PDF, HTML and XML — and keep delivery folders organised by version and country so monitoring teams can always find the current file. Country-specific requirements, such as the way consent material is expected to be presented, are confirmed with the client at the start; we prepare the translations to meet them, while approval of any document remains with the relevant ethics committee or authority. As amendments arrive through the life of the study, translation memories let us update only what has changed while leaving approved text untouched, which shortens turnaround and keeps every site aligned. Because timing in clinical research is tight and unpredictable, we also set expectations clearly in the quote about realistic turnaround for each document type, so that a sponsor or CRO can plan submission and site activation around dependable delivery dates.
Related services
Clinical research translation often connects with medical and pharmaceutical translation, legal and certified translation, regulatory writing support, desktop publishing and terminology management. The right combination depends on the files and on how the content will be used.
How to request a quote
To prepare an accurate quote, send the files, the language combination, the deadline, the countries and sites involved and the intended use, with any previous versions, glossaries or style preferences. For multi-country studies we can organise staged deliveries, separate files by language and country, and keep a consistent structure across all of them, so translation fits your study timelines.
Frequently asked questions
Can you translate informed consent forms for local ethics committees?
Yes. We translate informed consent forms into clear, accessible language for participants and can adapt them to the expectations of the countries and committees involved. We confirm any local requirements with you, though approval of the documents always rests with the relevant ethics committee.
Do you provide linguistic validation of patient questionnaires?
Yes. For patient-reported outcome and quality-of-life instruments we can run forward translation, back-translation, reconciliation and review, so each language version is conceptually equivalent to the original. Tell us the instrument and the countries and we will propose a suitable process.
How do you manage protocol amendments across many languages?
We use translation memories and structured delivery so that, when a protocol is amended, the changes flow accurately into every affected document and language while unchanged text stays consistent. This keeps all sites working from equivalent, up-to-date versions.
Can you support studies running in several countries at once?
Yes. We coordinate the same content across the languages each country requires, keep terminology aligned across sites and can deliver on a staged schedule to match study milestones. We confirm the language and country list before starting.
Do your translators follow good clinical practice expectations?
We assign translators with clinical research experience and can work with documentation practices aligned with good clinical practice expectations, including controlled terminology, version tracking and, where required, bilingual revision by a second linguist. We can also work under non-disclosure agreements for confidential study material.
