Medical Records

The doctor will probably just give you a print out of drugs taken and treatment given, takes a few seconds. You then can present this to your new Italian GP, names of drugs may differ, but you should not worry about the need for it to be translated. As long as you just gen up on some basic Italian for whatever you have been treated for, you should be fine.

Honestly I wouldn't bother with a translation into Italian. Unless your translator is a medical consultant it is likely to lead to confusion. Nearly all descriptions of diseases/conditions are (at least in Europe) written in a sort of universally understood pig latin, and if you need to visit a hospital you can be assured that all the doctors will understand English. (Thay may be unwilling to speak it, but they will understand.) Actually, the same goes for vets. Because all of these medical types are obliged to refer to literature published in English, their understanding is probably greater than yours! I was a (known English speaking) captive audience in a hospital, where the primario - who had never uttered a word of English - asked me for clarification on the third person singular of the verb 'to envelop'.  I had to think hard about whether there were two 'e' s involved....Hey - at least his article in the Lancet came out perfect!

Having worked in Italian hospitals I would fully concur with the above. The only time I would consider suggesting a translation of medical notes is if you suffered from some particularly rare or complex medical condition, in which case I would question the sense of moving away from the specialist treatment you would require and into a competely different health service. Fillide is absolutely corrrect. All medical journals of international reputation are in English and as the cost of translating  from English into Italian the more reknowned and weighty medical tomes  would be extortionate for such a limited market, it simply does not happen, therefore most of the Drs, certainly at registrar and consultant level, do speak (but not until pushed!) and understand a high standard of medical English. I would however take a copy of any prescriptions and any patient information leaflet provided with the medicine itself to provide the Dr with the generic drug name and of course dosage. Whilst the brand name will probably be different, the generic drug name will be the same. Good luck with the move.

I totally agree with the above statements. The generic name of the drug is important; however, most Italian doctors or chemists will have access to the Vademecum and will be able to find the local name of the medication. Take with you any recent bloodtest results and any x-ray, scan or other test which are relevant.