Medical Transcription - A Glamorous Lucrative Career

What is medical transcription?

The process of transcribing doctor-dictated dictations for the purposes of documentation as a medical record is simply termed as medical transcription. The person who transcribes the dictations into a document is a medical transcriptionist or a medical transcription professional. The process originated in the West. The person who did this job used to be called as a medical assistant who used to be with the doctor at the hospital writing down notes instructed by him. Advancement of this process is electronic conversion of the dictations.

Why and who?

For insurance purposes and maintenance of medical records. The major player outsourcing medical transcription work is USA. Canada, UK, and Australia have some. The outsourced countries include India, Philippines, Indonesia to name a few among others. The medical transcription professional needs a wide knowledge of medical terminology, American English, and critical thinking skills that may help him/her to interpret what is dictated to produce accurate documents. The dictator speaks over a hand-held device called a Dictaphone or a electronic recorder or a device which has a 1-button solution to upload his voice into the server. The transcriber downloads them at his location through a server that is provided to him by the organization he works for. He then transcribes the dictations into medico legal document.

Why outsourcing?

Medical transcription happens to be one of the earliest BPO jobs outsourced to India. Indians have strong English communicating skills due to the curriculum followed from the days pre-independence. The time difference of 12 hours between India and USA makes it easier for the doctors/clinics to have their reports on their table at their next visit to the clinic. Furthermore, cost of labor is much cheaper for the outsourcer.

Potential?

Medical transcription has a strong employment in both India and the United States. One can work for a company that serves for the Healthcare Industry. The model also involves working at home as independent contractors. In India, the independent home transcriptionist model is growing to gain much popularity. It is said, still a larger portion of the work is still to be outsourced from US. Both NASSCOM in India and the US Department of Labor have identified this career as having a higher growth potential year by year.

Earnings potential?

As far as the money making is concerned, the fresher in medical transcription earns a starting salary approximately around Rs. 5000 and after 2 years of experience, his money making capability goes to around Rs. 15,000. Careers advancement can lead him to become an Editor or a Leader of a team in a company which could fetch him around Rs.20,000 or more. In these days of growing population and a means to earn money, this is quite decent for an Indian standard.

Allied careers?

Medical coding and billing are showing up as allied careers related to medical transcription.

"This article has been submitted by Arun. S. Shanmugasundaram for http://www.mtgateway.com/ and can be republished without editing provided these lines inside the quotes follow the article."

What Education Does a Medical Transcriptionist Need?

If you are looking for a job in medical transcription, you will need some sort of formal MT training beyond high school. Fortunately, medical transcription education doesn't require the time and cost of a four-year degree.

A good MT education prepares you to transcribe medical reports. To do this, you need to be able to listen to recordings and understand medical terminology. Having the right education helps you do this.

A comprehensive medical transcription course will teach you medical terminology. It is essential for medical transcriptionists to understand medical jargon and identify proper terms to use. A good MT course program will teach you to use appropriate medical reference materials to make sure you get it right. With a good medical transcription education, you will be able to spot errors and edit to make the report clear and to correct grammar. You will learn the standards that must by used for medical records. Medical transcription education is also essential for learning legal and ethical requirements of medical records.

You also need strong computer skills and good grammar and punctuation skills. Pre-employment tests are often necessary, and you won't pass these without medical transcription education. Many medical transcription programs offer on-the-job experience, which will give you confidence when you look for your first job.

Medical transcription education can be attained in a variety of ways. There are certificate programs that last a year. If you want to advance your education, two-year programs are offered at vocational schools. Distance learning works well for medical transcription, so you may not even have to leave your home to learn.

As you can see, medical transcription education is essential to doing the job right. There is no other way to learn the terminology and technology necessary for work in this field. Fortunately, it is easy to find schools offering medical transcription education. You can even learn from home. Whatever your needs are, there is an opportunity for finding the right medical transcription education that will work for you.

For more information on starting a medical transcription career or making more money as an MT visit www.AskTheMT.com - an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions

Voice Recognition And Medical Transcription

You've probably heard different opinions and views on this subject. If you're a medical transcriptionist you may even be concerned about voice recognition taking over your career... and you're not alone.

Let's dig a bit deeper into voice recognition.

As you already know, doctors are busy people. This is never more obvious then when they're dictating their notes. It's understandable they're busy, and as their MT, I can surely forgive them but will the latest voice recognition software be as forgiving as me?

Not likely.

As a transcriptionist you will have typed through background noise, patients moaning, doctors eating their lunch, personal conversations (oops they forgot the recorder was on) and other incomprehensible noise. Not to mention, ESL doctors with heavy accents and very tired ER doctors after a long shift!

At this time there is no voice recognition software which can handle this type of voice recognition. It is impossible for the software to determine actual speech from mistakes in conversation, background noise, heavy accents, etc.

So what does this mean for our future?

Rumors of MTs being out of r a job have been around long before I became an MT. Eight years later, there are still no real advances in this field.

Can voice recognition ever replace transcriptionists?

Sure it can.

If a doctor is willing to sit down and take the sufficient time to train his voice recognition software to recognize his voice and speech patterns (this takes time and is not done automatically), yes it is possible.

If the doctor thereafter dictates very clearly, using proper punctuation in his speech (stopping for periods, pausing for commas) without any background noise or interruptions. Yes, it is possible.

Will the document be 100% accurate?

No.

Remember medical records have to be in compliance with a number of very strict regulations. Most doctors, will not trust voice recognition enough to send these records through without at least a quick glance through.

Even under the best dictating circumstances the report will still need to be proofread and edited. So, yes under the "perfect" circumstances, voice recognition can replace a transcriptionist.

Is it likely? Not unless every physician out there is willing to take the time, energy and ongoing effort to train their voice recognition software and maintain a certain standard of dictation.

I don't see that happening any time soon. Doctors are busy people, remember? ;)

If anything, us MTs should embrace voice recognition and use it as a tool to help us in our MT careers. If applied properly, it can be a time-saving tool. So why not use it for our purposes?

As with any business to stay ahead of the game you have to adapt to change and technology. Learn how to use it to your advantage instead of being frightened by it. That's the only way to stay ahead of the competition.... Voice recognition or otherwise.

Mila Sidman is an experienced MT and owner of www.AskTheMT.com - an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions.