Medical device translation · Niantic, CT · ES — VI — HT
Translation & localization for medical devices and life sciences
Havelo is a small translation desk in Niantic, Connecticut that practises one old craft with care: carrying instructions for use, device labels and patient materials out of English and into Spanish, Vietnamese and Haitian Creole — so the dosage, the warning and the symbol mean the same thing on the far side of the page. Every project is certified, read again by a second linguist, and set to FDA labeling conventions. Quoted per project, $300 to $1,500.
Three languages on the desk — and no others
What to expect from a project
These are the house terms, kept short and fixed, the way a print shop keeps its price list nailed by the door.
3
Languages
Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole. A fourth would mean handing your text to a stranger, so we don’t.
2
Readers per page
The linguist who translated it, and one who didn’t — reading against your English line by line.
$300
Smallest project
One patient leaflet, up to four pages, into one language — certificate included.
$1,500
Largest engagement
A full IFU with its carton and unit labels, laid out and certified.
1
Signed certificate
Every delivery carries a certificate of accuracy you can file with your labeling records.
A carton has one sentence to get right, and the person reading it may be frightened, tired, or both.
The route of a file
When a term has no settled Kreyòl or Vietnamese equivalent, we say so in the margin. We will not coin a tidy word just to fill the carton.— Pinned above the review desk, 14 Mohawk Drive
Projects & prices
A leaflet for a patient at a kitchen table and an IFU for a clinician under fluorescent light are written differently — so we price them differently. One project is one source document into one language.
For the reader at home
Plain-language register, short sentences, the words a family actually uses — still exact on every number.
For the clinician & the regulator
Technical register, controlled terminology, every symbol caption and warning formatted to FDA labeling conventions.
Every price is a fixed project price, quoted after we read your file and before any work begins. Need the same leaflet in all three languages? That’s three projects — say so in one message and we’ll quote them together.
Before you send
Because a review desk is only as good as the people reading at it. Spanish, Vietnamese and Haitian Creole are the languages our linguists read natively; for anything else we’d rather point you to someone who does than pass your labeling along unseen.
Yes. We read the file, quote a fixed figure between $300 and $1,500, and that’s what you’re billed. If your engineers issue a new revision of the source mid-project, we quote the changed pages separately, in writing, before touching them.
Send their notes. One round of reviewer comments is part of every project: we answer each point in writing, adopt what makes the text truer, explain what wouldn’t, and reissue the certificate against the final version.
We work from IDML, DOCX, XLIFF and editable PDF and return the same format, set and proofed. Flattened scans can be done, but we’ll look before we quote, because rebuilding a layout is real work.
The delivery date comes with the quote, set by page count and by the time the second read genuinely needs. We won’t offer a date that skips the review — that step is the reason to hire us.
What the desk holds to
Spanish as it’s read in a clinic waiting room. Vietnamese with every tone mark intact on the carton. Kreyòl written the way patients speak it — not French in disguise.
Havelo · Niantic, CT
Begin a project
Tell us the document, the target language and the page count. We read the file, then send a fixed price and a delivery date that leaves room for the second read.
Rather attach the file? patients@havelogroup.com (860) 884-4473
Visit & reach
Most files arrive by email, but the door at 14 Mohawk Dr opens during desk hours for anyone who’d rather hand over a printed proof in person.
14 Mohawk Dr, Niantic, CT 06357
| Mon – Fri | 10–6 |
|---|---|
| Sat – Sun | Closed |
Weekdays 10am–6pm, Eastern time.
A linguist answers, not a switchboard.
Attach IDML, DOCX, XLIFF or editable PDF. Name the revision letter in the subject line so the certificate matches it.
Read this first
Invoiced per project on delivery. ACH transfer, check, or card.
