ABSTRACT
The past decades have seen increasing focus on health information which is understandable for everyone. This means that expert knowledge and texts must be translated intralingually, i.e. from expert language to plain language. When the target language is not English, many of these texts are translated interlingually as well, and often, we see a combination of intra- and interlingual translation – a situation which places additional demands on the translator.
This chapter explains the paradigmatic shift within health communication which has resulted in a focus on patient empowerment and patient centeredness, and thus, increased focus on lay-friendly and understandable information. The chapter provides a review of the research done so far, and, by means of studies of the translation of patient information leaflets, illustrates some of the many challenges and pitfalls surrounding intralingual/interlingual medical translation.
