The Paediatric Clinic at University Medical Centre Ljubljana localised its transnasal-endoscopy patient explainer from Slovenian into English and Croatian with GeckoDub, keeping the clinical terminology proofread and the delivery lip-synced, so families who speak English or Croatian get the same pre-appointment walkthrough as Slovenian speakers.
Why does a patient explainer need translating at all?
Transnasal endoscopy is one way the clinic checks for inflammation in the oesophagus in children old enough to cooperate. It is not the gastroscopy most people picture. The tube is thinner than a pencil, and it is passed gently through the nose while the child stays awake. There is no sedation and no general anaesthetic, only a numbing spray for the nose and throat, the procedure itself takes five to ten minutes, and the child can watch a cartoon through virtual-reality goggles throughout.
The calm is the point, and it holds because the child already knows what is coming. So the clinic films an explainer that walks through the entire visit and sends it to every family before their appointment. It was filmed in Slovenian, and not every patient speaks Slovenian. A child who cannot follow the video arrives carrying exactly the uncertainty the procedure is designed to remove.
How do you keep the medical terms accurate in another language?
Patient-education copy is not ordinary marketing copy. "Transnasal endoscopy", "biopsy" and "local anaesthetic" have to be exactly right, because a wrong word here does not merely confuse a parent, it undermines the trust the appointment runs on.
The clinic used GeckoDub to produce the video in English and Croatian in minutes, rather than rebooking clinicians, a studio and a voice artist once per language. Every specialist term was checked in proofreading so that it is translated correctly. The explainer is led by a doctor and a nurse speaking to camera, so the audio is lip-synced rather than laid over the top, and animated subtitles were added so a child can follow by ear or by eye.
When I saw the videos translated into other languages, it felt like magic. I was really happy we can now address our patients better, and we only had to shoot once.
What changed once the explainer existed in every patient's language?
The explainer now exists in English and Croatian as well as Slovenian, so a family that does not speak Slovenian receives the same clear, unhurried walkthrough as everyone else, in the language they actually think in. The video was localised into these two languages first, matching two of the languages the clinic's patients most often arrive speaking.
For a sedation-free procedure that depends on a calm, informed child, that is not a convenience. Knowing what is coming is part of what makes the visit go smoothly.
Every child should be able to understand what is about to happen to them, and that should not depend on which language they speak.