Medical Transcription - An Emerging Profession
By: Kevin Erickson
Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and
transcribing the dictation made by doctors or other health care
professionals regarding patient status, treatment procedures,
diagnoses, prognoses, etc. With medical transcription of dictated
data from physicians, the medical transcriptionist may also edit
the text that is produced by voice recognition software. Medical
Transcription is the translating of dictations made by a doctor. As
a result, it requires an extensive knowledge of medical,
pharmacological and anatomical terms.
In the past medical transcriptionists would listen to dictations
and type it themselves, but with the dawn of technology and voice
recognition software, this has become unnecessary and today, for
the most part, the medical transcriptionist merely edits the output
of the software. However, the editing process can range from a few
corrections to major changes because voice recognition software
still hasn't been perfected and probably never will be due to the
wide variety of speech variations and dictating habits of health
care professionals.
Aside from medical knowledge, a quality transcription requires a
transcriptionist to have excellent listening skills because they
must be able to simultaneously interpret dictation while typing,
they must also have an exquisite knowledge of English and grammar,
proofreading and editing skills, a high state of analytical skills
in order to analyze and convert spoken words into meaningful
writing, as well being adept in the use of transcription equipment
and computers.
Medical Transcription has been seen as writing in ancient caves and
in documents of lost civilizations, but still the purpose of
medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist remains the
same and that is to keep a record of a patient's medical status and
treatment.
However, it wasn't until the late 20th century that Medical
transcription was recognized as a profession. Initially, those who
did medical transcription were labeled as typists, word processors,
medical secretaries or dictating machine operators. This was and
still is a highly unjustified job title for those who practice
medical transcription because the profession requires a wide
knowledge of medical terms. Thus, in 1999, Medical Transcription
was assigned its own job classification and those practicing it
were officially called medical transcriptionists.
Medical Transcription as a profession is very underground and most
people might not have heard about it. However, medical
transcription is an essential profession in the every growing
health care industry... especially to health care staff that does
not have the time to put into writing every single bit of
information that they gather from patients. As a result, the demand
for qualified medical transcriptionist professionals is continually
growing and because the number of new procedures coming into the
market doctors don't have the time to transcribe all their
findings.
Medical Transcription as a profession is very versatile as well.
Medical transcriptionists, can acquire after a few years of
education, work from medical transcription firms. Medical
Transcription firms receive dictations made by doctors and in turn,
these orders are turned over to medical transcriptionists to be
transcribed.
A medical transcriptionist can also work full or part-time at home.
Currently, the American Association for Medical Transcription is
governing body in the United states that certifies Medical
transcriptionists, although you won't need a certification to be
able to work as one, a certification form the AAMT, will surely
increase you're "market value" and credibility.
Medical transcription is no longer merely listening and
transcribing the words dictated by a doctor. Medical Transcription
is evolving and now requires specific education centering on
medical language, knowledge of Greek and Latin prefixes and
suffixes, anatomy, physiology, disease processes, medical science
and procedures, medical instruments, pharmacology, laboratory
instruments, laboratory test results, medical reference material
techniques and many more.
Kevin Erickson is a contributing writer for: www.total-transcription.com and www.eyeonnursing.com and www.totalparalegal.com. This article may be reproduced only in its entirety
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