American Society of Hirudotherapy

Translation QA Dashboard

How safety-critical and regulatory terms are preserved across English, Russian, Spanish, and German.

Last Updated: June 2, 2026Reviewed by: Andrei Dokukin, MD
Editorial transparency \u2014 translation qualityLocale publication coverage

The American Society of Hirudotherapy publishes in four languages: English, Russian, Spanish, and German. A translation is only trustworthy if it carries the same boundaries as the source. The single most important rule is that a regulatory or safety term must never become stronger or weaker when it crosses languages. This page describes the term-preservation checks and shows, per language and per page class, where each part of the knowledge base sits in the review cycle.

The grid below shows publication coverage: English is the source language and Russian, Spanish, and German are published live across every page class (full four-locale parity). Formal automated term-preservation QA verdicts are still in development and are not shown here as live measurements. Nothing on this page is a clinical, diagnostic, or treatment claim.

The term-preservation principle

Each rule pairs the term we must keep with a tempting but wrong substitute. A translation that drifts toward the right-hand column fails the check and is held for bilingual review.

Keep: FDA-clearedNever: approved

Clearance (510(k)) is not approval. Translating the device clearance as drug-style approval overstates the regulatory standing.

Keep: off-labelNever: recommended

Off-label means outside the cleared indication. Rendering it as a recommendation turns a boundary statement into an endorsement.

Keep: investigationalNever: promising therapy

Investigational signals limited evidence under study. Promotional synonyms imply an established benefit that has not been shown.

Keep: contraindicationNever: caution

A contraindication is a hard boundary, not a soft caution. Downgrading the term weakens a safety instruction.

Keep: seek emergency careNever: consider seeing a doctor

Emergency wording is time-critical. Any hedging in translation can delay a reader from acting.

Keep: not for home useNever: best done by a professional

A prohibition must stay a prohibition. A preference-style rendering invites unsupervised use.

QA status by language and page class

Rows are page classes ordered by how safety-critical their language is. Columns are the four maintained languages. Each cell shows whether that combination is the source language or published live.

Source languagePublished
Page classEnglishSource of truthRussianFull parity targetSpanishFull parity targetGermanFull parity target
Regulatory status pagesFDA-cleared vs off-label vs investigational distinctions must read identically in every language.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished
Safety protocols & contraindicationsContraindication, emergency, and not-for-home-use warnings may never be softened.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished
Clinical evidence summariesEvidence-tier wording (RCT, systematic review, case series) must map one-to-one.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished
Patient-facing guidesPlain-language pages carry the highest risk of an over-promising mistranslation.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished
Governance & transparencyEditorial-policy and disclosure language should be faithful but is lower clinical risk.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished
Historical & educationalBiographies and reference material carry no clinical claim; lowest preservation risk.Source languagePublishedPublishedPublished

Coverage reflects published locales (full four-locale parity). Per-page-class term-preservation QA verdicts are not yet published as a live feed; the methodology is described below.

How the checks work

  • Locked glossary. A shared glossary marks safety-critical and regulatory terms as do-not-translate or translate-exactly. Every locale string is checked against it before a page is marked as passing.
  • Boundary-strength comparison. A regulatory phrase carries a strength — cleared, off-label, investigational, contraindicated. The check flags any translation that moves a phrase to a stronger or weaker rung than the English source.
  • Warning integrity. Contraindication, emergency, and not-for-home-use warnings are matched one-to-one with the source. A missing or softened warning fails the check outright.
  • Bilingual human review. Anything the automated checks flag, plus all patient-facing pages, is held for review by a reviewer fluent in both languages before the cell turns to “Checks passed.”
  • No silent edits. Corrections to a translated term are logged the same way as English corrections, so the change history stays auditable across all four languages.

What this dashboard is not

This is a transparency view of editorial process, not a clinical resource. It does not describe, recommend, or evaluate any treatment. The coverage grid reflects real publication status; formal automated term-preservation QA verdicts are not yet a live feed. Its only purpose is to make the society's commitment to faithful multilingual language visible to funders, partners, and the public.

Related

This website provides educational information and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. Medicinal leech therapy carries clinically meaningful risks and should be performed only by qualified clinicians under institutionally approved protocols. FDA 510(k) clearance for medicinal leeches is limited to specific indications; investigational and off-label discussions are labeled accordingly. For patient-specific guidance, consult a qualified healthcare provider.