Records are encrypted in transit and at rest, access is role-based, and anything a clinician will act on can be routed to a qualified medical linguist — in one workflow, not a chain of email attachments.
To translate medical records, upload the files — patient histories, lab reports, EHR extracts, even scanned pages — choose your languages, and download the translation with medical terminology enforced and formatting preserved.
Used by 1,000+ enterprise brands for translation and localization work.
Anyone translating medical records is asking three questions, in this order.
Is my data safe? A patient record is protected health information. Pasting it into a free web translator means it has left your control — you don't know where it went, who can see it, or whether it trains someone's model.
Will it be accurate enough to act on? A record full of clinical shorthand, drug names and lab values punishes generic translation. Terminology has to be enforced, not hoped for.
Will anyone accept it? A hospital abroad, an insurer processing a claim, an immigration office — each has its own bar, and some require a signed human translation. The honest answers are below.
SOC 2
Type II compliant
An independent auditor has examined how Smartcat handles customer data over time — not a self-declaration. Records are encrypted both in transit to Smartcat and at rest while stored there. This list deliberately leaves out two things — any claim of HIPAA compliance, and a Business Associate Agreement. The FAQ below has the plain answer on both.
Role-based
Access you decide
A reviewer sees the files assigned to them and nothing else, and your organization's records live in your workspace, separated from every other customer's. SSO is available on enterprise plans, so access runs through your identity provider. Full detail on the security page.
30 days
Maximum to delete your records
Under the Smartcat Data Processing Addendum, Smartcat securely destroys or returns the personal data and uploaded content it holds within a maximum of 30 days of a written request. The request has to be in writing, and 30 days is the outer bound, not a same-day erase.
From patient intake to global clinical research, we handle any language pair. Common requests for medical record translation into English:
for setup simplicity, even with complex workflows.
for ease of use, so your team can start immediately.
enterprise brands using Smartcat for translation and localization.
average rating on G2.
A clean source instead of a photographed page. A medical glossary that makes term choices deterministic. A language pair the model is strong in. Set those up once, and the AI draft is reliably good enough to read, triage and prepare. What it is not is a substitute for qualified human review.
Secure medical record translation follows four steps.
Upload — records go into an encrypted workspace, encrypted in transit and at rest, with role-based access controlling who can open each file. Scanned records take the image-based pipeline, selected at upload, to extract the text.
Translate — an AI engine enforces a medical glossary and translation memory that attach to the project and apply to every record in it, so clinical terms, drug names and units stay consistent across the whole patient file.
Route by use — a file translated for internal understanding can ship after automated checks, while records a clinician, insurer or authority will rely on go to a qualified medical linguist for review in the same project.
Export — translated records come back in their original format, with formatting and tables intact.
Machine translation alone is not appropriate for records that inform patient care decisions or official submissions — accountable human review is the standard for those, built into the same workflow.
Follow these five steps to translate medical records securely
1
Upload Your Medical Records
Drag and drop patient histories, lab and imaging reports, or EHR exports in PDF, XML or CSV into an encrypted workspace. For a scan or a photograph, select the image-based PDF pipeline at upload — that is the route that handles handwritten content.
2
Select Your Target Language(s)
Choose from 280+ languages, and attach the medical glossary and translation memory the project should use so terms stay consistent across every record in it.
3
Get the AI Translation
AI translation takes minutes per record. Terminology is enforced from the glossary, and boilerplate that repeats across referral or claims files is reused from the translation memory instead of being translated again.
4
Review with a Medical Linguist
Route records a clinician, insurer or authority will rely on to a qualified medical linguist as a review stage in the same project — your own reviewer, or one you hire from the Marketplace with credentials visible on the profile first.
5
Download Your Translated Records
Download the records in their original format, with formatting and tables intact. Where an authority requires a signed statement of accuracy, the translator who did the work signs it and Smartcat facilitates that attestation as the platform.
10 days → two to three
Turnaround
Smith+Nephew translates specialized medical training content with its own reviewers in the loop, and cut turnaround from an average of 10 days with previous providers to two to three days.
Up to 70%
Cost savings
Stanley Black & Decker cut translation costs by up to 70% while improving quality.
31 hours
Work Time Saved Monthly
Babbel saved 31 hours a month on content updates — time a team can put back into the work only people can do.
An encrypted workspace, enforced terminology, and a medical linguist one routing rule away. If you also need reports, IFUs and protocols, see medical translation software. Free for 15 days with 15,000 Smartwords and full access to translation capabilities, no credit card.
Upload the record, choose English, and the AI produces a draft in minutes with medical terminology enforced from your glossary and the formatting preserved. For a record a clinician, insurer or authority will rely on, add a medical linguist as a review stage before you download.
Yes. Export from your EHR system in PDF, XML or CSV and the structure survives translation — medication lists stay lists, tables stay tables.
Yes, on a different route. The AI PDF workflow does not support documents that are images of text, so you select the image-based PDF pipeline at upload — the one that also handles handwritten content.
Source quality decides the outcome:
For sources like those, add a source layout check stage before translation, so a human confirms the extracted text and layout are right before anything is translated from them — or route the record straight to a linguist. More: translate scanned documents.
Yes. Smartcat supports 280+ languages. Term choices are controlled by your medical glossary and translation memory rather than left to the model, and you can hire expert medical reviewers for any pair.
It depends on three things, and the section above sets them out: source quality, glossary setup and language pair.
The practical rule for a critical record — anything a clinician, insurer or authority will act on without seeing the original — is an AI draft plus a qualified medical linguist as a review stage in the same project.
No. Smartcat does not claim HIPAA compliance, does not sign Business Associate Agreements asserting it, and is not HIPAA-certified today.
If you are a covered entity that needs a signed BAA to process PHI, that is a straight no from us — and you should have that answer before you upload a record, not after a procurement cycle.
What is verifiably true:
To work through what that does and doesn't cover for your workflow, book a demo.
Only people you grant access. Role-based permissions mean a hired reviewer sees the files assigned to them and nothing else, and your workspace is isolated from other customers.
Authorities such as immigration offices and courts often require a translation with a signed statement of accuracy from the translator. AI output on its own is not that.
What you can get is the real thing: the medical translator you hired through the Marketplace produces the translation and signs the statement of accuracy for it.
Smartcat facilitates that attestation as the platform. It is not a “Smartcat-certified” translation, and Smartcat does not assume liability for translation quality. Where signing has to be handled administratively, an account manager can complete it manually on the linguist's behalf.
Where it stops:
And if you are not sure what your receiving authority requires, ask them first: the requirement varies by country and by agency, and it is cheaper to know before you translate.
AI translation takes minutes per record. With human medical review, turnaround depends on linguist availability for your language pair — visible in the Marketplace before you assign, so you are not waiting on a quote to find out.
Yes: 15 days with 15,000 Smartwords, no credit card, and full access to translation capabilities. There is no permanent free plan. Records going to a clinician or an authority still need expert oversight, but the trial is enough to run real files through the workflow first.
Yes. Under the Smartcat Data Processing Addendum, Smartcat will securely destroy or return the personal data and uploaded content it holds within a maximum of 30 days of a written request, unless law or legal process prevents it.
Two caveats:
If your records-retention policy needs tighter timing, raise it at a demo before you upload anything.