Finding Affordable Transcription for Interviews, Focus Groups, Conferences and More

You may have been conducting research interviews, focus groups, market research, but whatever your reason for recording conversations you?ll be looking for an affordable transcription service. There are many transcription services available but sometimes an affordable transcription service can seem hard to find. Transcription is not cheap, because it is a lot more involved than copy typing, but that doesn?t mean you can?t find an affordable transcription service, and by providing good quality recordings you can make the transcription more affordable, as it will take less time to complete.

You may have planned to do the transcription yourself, but if you are not a fast touch-typist and do not have specialist transcription equipment then you have probably now realised that it?s going to take you a very long time. I have had clients come to me saying it was taking them 20 hours to produce a transcript of a 1-hour recording. That?s why they ended up using a transcription service!

The most important thing to remember is that it?s just not possible to type as fast as you speak. Even an experienced transcriptionist will be able to average four times as long for a good, clear one-to-one interview ? so an hour of recording will take an average of four hours to transcribe. A focus group may take six hours or more per hour of recording. (Industry standards obtained from the Industry Production Standards Guide (I998), published by OBC, Columbus, OH, USA) Transcriptionists also have to make sense of what?s being said, punctuate the speech correctly and use the right homophones (words like there/their/they?re that sound the same but are spelt differently.)

So how can you make sure that your transcript is clear, in order to get an affordable transcription price? Basically, the easier you make the transcription for the transcriptionist, the more likely they are to be able to give you an affordable transcription quote.

First of all, use the best recording equipment you can afford, and make sure it?s fit for purpose. This means that for interviews you should record with an external microphone rather than one built into the recorder, which is only designed to pick up one voice dictating. For focus groups you should have several microphones so that all participants are close to a mike.

If you?re conducting interviews then, if at all possible, conduct them in a quiet room, as background noise will dramatically increase the time taken to transcribe the recording, as the transcriptionist may have to listen to sections several times in order to capture the interview speech. It is helpful to spell out your interviewee?s name at the beginning of the tape, before starting the interview, and speak out any information you would like on the transcript header e.g. the date, the job title of your interviewee etc. You may also want to conduct a ?debrief? session at the end of the recording, when you are alone, in order to quickly record your impressions of the interview. For research interviews this is often part of the methodology.

Focus group transcription will cost more than a one-to-one interview transcript, but you can still get an affordable transcription service if you work to make your recording as clear as possible. Again make sure the recording is conducted in a private quiet room. Air conditioning can affect a recording, but so can opening a window, so if it?s a hot day it?s worth making a couple of test recordings before you start to see if there are problems! It?s really important to firmly chair a focus group too. Remind all the participants that all their views are valid, there are no rights and wrongs and, while you?re interested to see if they agree or disagree with each other, they should try not to talk (or shout!) over each other to make their point. Saying this at the beginning is important but it?s even more important, if you want affordable transcription, to remind participants each time things start getting a bit ?out of hand? that they need to speak separately for the sake of the recording. Finding the balance here between letting the talk flow and making sure you get a good recording is quite an art!

Conference recording is best left to the professionals if possible! Often these days a venue will provide recording facilities of good quality, included in the price. A microphone needs to be set up for the speaker and there should also be people in the audience with ?roving? microphones to take around to any audience members wanting to ask a question.

Digital recording systems provide the best quality and many transcriptionists only work with digital now, so if you want to give yourself the widest field then it?s certainly worth considering digital.

Any information you can provide to the transcriptionist about your recording will help, and may help toward an affordable transcription service. For example a list of key words will reduce the time spent ?Googleing?, searching the internet to find out how to spell technical terms, names of organisations etc. If you can provide this info it certainly saves time, and saving time saves you money, again reaching toward that goal of an affordable transcription service. Technical work will always be more expensive than non-technical, but providing a ?crib sheet? of key words should reduce the cost.

Most transcriptionists work in a standard format, whether that be tabular, tabbed, interviews shown as initials or full names etc. Again most are happy to work to your specifications, but the standard format might well be cheaper, so think carefully about whether you need something different or not. Find out what the standard format is in advance if it concerns you, and you may be able to adapt it to your needs. If, for instance, it?s essential that you have speakers in different fonts or different colours, this will add to the price. It might be more cost-effective for you to put this in when the basic transcript is returned to you!

Finally, give some serious thought to whether or not you need a verbatim transcription. Verbatim transcription includes every repeated word, every ?um? and ?erm?, all those ?filler? phrases like ?you know? and ?know what I mean? that may be repeated a hundred times in one interview, and can also include pauses, coughs, throat clearing etc. if required. Needless to say if this takes longer. If the transcriptionist can filter out all this stuff the transcript is quicker. In my company the cheapest level is what we call ?intelligent verbatim? which cuts out all these fillers but leaves the rest exactly as it?s spoken. Different transcriptionists work this differently though, so always check when you?re phoning for your quote. Here are some brief examples. Somewhat more expensive is edited, which corrects the grammar and any mispronounced words as well as knocking out all the fillers.

Verbatim

So, anyway, you know, I said ?er, ?Well, Susan, I really think you, you shouldn?t be um asking, er, me that.? And she, erm, er, she, she, well, she said, ?Look Mark, I dunno what you mean,? know what I mean?

Intelligent Verbatim

So anyway I said, ?Well, Susan, I really think you shouldn?t be asking me that.? And she said, ?Look Mark, I dunno what you mean.?

Edited

So I said, ?Well, Susan, I really think you shouldn?t be asking me that.? And she said, ?Look Mark, I don?t know what you mean.?

You can see that a whole extra line of typing is required for the verbatim work in just those two sentences.

There are occasions when verbatim is required ? depending on your topic it might be required for legal reasons, or you might be studying the language itself and the way it?s used. But if you really don?t need it, don?t end up paying for it!

There are many excellent reasons for interviewing groups of people, but don?t do this in order to try to reduce the transcription cost! As already stated, it takes much longer to transcribe a group of more than two or three people (including the moderator/interviewer) because of the time taken to distinguish the different voices and the fact that people will inevitably talk over each other, especially when they get excited, enthusiastic, impassioned or angry.

And finally, remember that the cheapest transcription quote might not be the most affordable one in the end. There is an oft-quoted phrase: if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Will it really be cost-effective to send your hard-won interviews to the cheapest service if what comes back is gobbledygook and you have to go through the whole thing correcting every other word? How much time will you then waste that could have been spent more productively on your core business?

Penguin Transcription (http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk), part of Penguin Office Services (http://www.penguinofficeservices.co.uk), offers an affordable transcription service by tailoring each quote to the exact requirements of the client. The more information the client can provide us with, and the better the quality of the recording for transcription, the more affordable the transcription service will be. Why not visit our site and fill in an enquiry form at http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/PTS_enquiry_form.html to receive a quote for your transcription requirements.

This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.

Digital Versus Analog Recordings for Transcription

Firstly it is useful to understand the differences between digital and analog audio. This applies to any recordings, not just to recordings of voice for transcription. Analog machines, such as tape cassette recorders, record sounds as wave forms, the way that the sound occurs in nature. Digital machines record sound by taking samples of the signal and storing them as bits of data, in the same way as a computer stores information. Because of the way the sounds are recorded digital recordings have a higher signal-to-noise ratio. Noise here refers to any background noise but when comparing analog to digital recordings it really refers to recorder-induced noise such as ?tape hiss?. So the quality of the digital recording is better. That alone is a good reason to consider using digital recording rather than analogue tapes!

There are other good reasons though. Not least of these is the fact that copies of analog recordings deteriorate in quality, so sending a copy of your master tape to a transcriptionist can result in a poor quality transcription, because the quality of the audio is poor. Digital recordings can be copied again and again with no deterioration in quality because all that?s being copied is a series of bits of data.

Of course when using digital recordings you do need to check that your transcriptionist can transcribe from the file type you are using, or convert it. Most transcriptionists will be able to transcribe from any standard analog cassette and many can transcribe from micro and mini cassettes and video. So long as they have the relevant tape transcription machine they can transcribe the tape. Not so, unfortunately, with digital.

Most digital audio file types are compressed and a codec (the algorithm used to reduce the number of bites contained in large files by eliminating redundant data) and the transcriptionist or transcription software will need access to the codec that has produced the compressed file. However, this is often not an issue as PCs and many types of transcription software come with a variety of codecs already installed. It is certainly important to check with your transcriptionist though that they can work with your file type. Please see my separate article on digital file types for transcription for more information on this.

Digital file types are also easily manipulated and this can be useful when recording for transcription. If there are parts of the file you do not want transcribed it is a fairly simple matter to remove those parts and only send the transcriptionist the parts that should be transcribed. Alternatively, because a digital recording indicates where you are in it second by second, you can send the transcriptionist instructions such as ?transcribe between 3 minutes 20 seconds and 60 minutes 10 seconds.? This does not work on analog media as, even if you and your transcriptionist both have tape players with minute counters, the level of accuracy is quite poor.

Another huge benefit from the point of view of the transcription itself is that in a transcription from a digital recording your transcriptionist can mark the precise time that an inaudible word occurs. If that time is 3 minutes and 22 seconds then you can go back to your copy of the recording and almost instantly find 3 minutes and 22 seconds, play the word, and hopefully fill in the blank. With an analog recording on tape the transcriptionist can mark an inaudible word but it's not possible to note the time with any degree of accuracy and you will either need to flick back and forth through the tape to find it or listen through the whole recording.

There are various ways to make a digital recording. Perhaps the commonest when recording for transcription is onto a card, in much the same way as a digital camera records pictures onto a card. The recorded files can then be transferred onto your computer and sent to your transcriptionist via email (if compressed), FTP, file sharing sites or, in some cases, a file-sending box located on the transcriptionist?s website.

Minidiscs have an excellent sound quality but many transcriptionists are unable to transcribe from them as the data needs to be transferred to PC first and then usually converted for use in transcription programmes.

DVDs and CDs also need to be converted before use in transcription software.

Recording can also be done directly onto a computer hard-drive using various types of software and an external microphone. However, when conducting interviews the presence of a laptop and large microphone might be rather intrusive.

However the recording is made and stored, it should be possible, with the right equipment and software, to convert the file into something you can download onto your PC and send to your transcriptionist by one of the methods mentioned above. So digital recordings not only improve on quality but can save you time and money. Recordings can be ?instantly? transferred to the transcriptionist instead of posting audio cassettes, you save money on postage costs to and from your transcriptionist and a better quality transcription will cost less to transcribe as it will take less time.

All in all, in a comparison between digital and analogue recording for transcription, digital recordings come out well ahead.

Penguin Transcription (http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk), part of Penguin Office Services, offers an affordable transcription service by tailoring each quote to the exact requirements of the client. The more information the client can provide us with, and the better the quality of the recording for transcription, the more affordable the transcription service will be. Why not visit our site and fill in an enquiry form at http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/PTS_enquiry_form.html to receive a quote for your transcription requirements.

This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.

Benefits of a Medical Transcription Business

You have decided to start a home based business. Now the problem is choosing which business to pursue. Usually, before a person decides to begin their business, a lot of research needs to be done. Your demographic area determines if the product you have to sell will be in demand by the public. Marketing a product that is already saturated in the area in which you live spells disaster for your business in its infancy. This article cuts through all of that research and presents you with a home based business product whose demand will continue to increase over the coming years.

Medical transcription is an at home business that offers tremendous benefits for those who choose to pursue it. One benefit of this business is setting your own hours of operation. The problem with traditional office jobs is that they are not structured to accommodate children’s school schedules, family illnesses, and emergencies. My children go to school late so going to work at an earlier hour means leaving them home to see themselves off to school in the morning. The flexible hours that this home based business provides allows you to tend to family issues as they arise. You don’t have to get permission to leave work because you are the boss!

Another benefit of a home based business like this is the low overhead. “Overhead” refers to the costs involved in operating your business that are subtracted from the bottom line to determine your business profits. Other new businesses that require a building or need to employ workers will have higher operating costs including employer provided health insurance.

At home, the cost to you will be limited to the equipment used to retrieve the dictation, a computer with word processing software (if you don’t already own one), a desk, a chair, and a phone. Most of what you need, you may already have. Also, these things can be written off on your taxes as a business expense, and that includes the square footage of the room that you choose to be your base of operations. Less overhead costs equal more profits for your business.

Medical transcriptionists are employed in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and transcription services. Most companies that hire medical transcriptionists require hospital experience. Length of service differs from company to company. The beauty of this field is that you can work in the hospital setting to gain the necessary experience and grow your business at the same time. Working part-time in a hospital or office will give you a feel for the industry in your particular area. Joining a professional medical transcription organization will help you network among others in the profession to increase your business.

Beginning any new business requires time and hard work. A medical transcription business offers low overhead, flexible work schedules, and a product that will stay in demand as long as there are doctors. These benefits make it appealing to those who are tired of the grind and want a more balanced family life.

For more information on starting a medical transcription online information and help getting started as an MT visit - http://www.askthemt.com/ – an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions

Why Medical Transcription is a Great Way to Work from Home

Are the confines of a "nine to five" job not for you? If you are looking for an occupation that offers a change of pace, think about starting your own home based business. A home based business provides a work schedule that is centered on the needs of your life and not the other way around, which is typical of a traditional job.

If a home based business is a venture you want to pursue, consider a business in the medical field. Besides computers, the medical field is one of the fastest growing areas of employment. As current medical professionals age out, the need to replace them is urgent.

Medical transcription is a growing career that can be managed as a home based business. The job of a medical transcriptionist is to accurately translate a doctor's audio dictation into text form for patient medical records. A medical transcriptionist needs to have good communication and language skills. The most important skill is a working knowledge of medical terms including drug abbreviations, surgical terms, laboratory test abbreviations, laboratory values, medical specialty terms, and anatomy. Good word processing skills are also needed to present a professional finished product to your clients.

A medical background is not a necessity for a home based business in medical transcription. Online and correspondence courses are offered to provide all the training you will need to pursue this career. This is an added bonus. You can train at home to start a business at home! These programs will not only teach you medical terminology, but also familiarize you with the latest equipment and software used in the transcription industry.

Working from home in the medical profession is a career that will always be in demand. As long as doctor's practice, they will dictate medical procedures to make their lives easier. Someone will also be needed to translate these dictations into text documents. So, you won't have to worry about your business becoming defunct in a couple of years unless you want it to. There is job security in the medical transcription industry. You can grow your business as much or as little as you want. The sky's the limit.

So, if you are the type of person who is ambitious, entrepreneurial, an effective listener and communicator, the home based medical transcription business is the perfect way to work from home. You can break out of the traditional job mold forever.

For more information on starting a medical transcription online information and help getting started as an MT visit - http://www.askthemt.com/ - an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions

Medical Transcription Tips-Staying Organized

When operating a business, it is important to be organized. The day to day operations will run smoother if your "i's" are dotted and your "t's" are crossed. Here are a few tips to keep you organized when running a medical transcription business.

1. What day is it? Keeping a daily schedule of events will help you to manage your time. Since you are running an at home business, you are the secretary also. A desk calendar will give you the ability to look at the whole month at a glance when scheduling work over the phone. Your quick scribbles can then be transferred to a monthly planner that can be taken with you wherever you go. This avoids the problem of missed deadlines and too many projects scheduled at one time.

2. Invest in a filing cabinet. No office should be without one. Invoices and contracts should be filed appropriately so they are easily called upon if needed. Keep folders for each client. Any correspondence should be filed in these folders, too. Utilizing a filing system avoids a big pile of papers on the corner of your desk. Filing should be done on a weekly basis.

3. Invest in bookkeeping software. Programs like Quicken or MS Money should be purchased for your business. Good recordkeeping is vital to a strong business. Keep track of money coming in from clients and money going out for expenses like equipment and office supplies. An accurate accounting of your finances will make filing the yearly tax forms a breeze.

4. Install a separate telephone line. The important thing about establishing a business in your home is to keep it separate from all other household business affairs. The last thing you want is your young child answering a call from a client. A separate telephone line allows all calls related to the business to be routed to a separate answering machine so missed calls can be identified and promptly returned.

5. Purchase business cards. The point of any business is to grow. You never know who you may meet at a party or other event. Business cards are a great networking tool. They advertise what you are all about and can increase the client base for your particular services.

Your medical transcription business will grow by leaps and bounds with a little business savvy. Treat your home office as if it were a separate entity. To keep up with the changes, organization is needed to keep things from getting out of control.

For more information on starting a medical transcription online information and help getting started as an MT visit - http://www.askthemt.com/ - an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions

Medical Transcription - A Profession Whose Time Has Come

Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and transcribing the dictation made by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, regarding patient status, treatment procedures, prognoses, diagnoses etc.

The Medical Transcriptionist may also edit the text that is produced by voice recognition software, and requires extensive knowledge of medical pharmacological and anatomical terms.

Medical Transcriptionists in the past would listen to dictations and type it themselves, but with voice recognition software this has become mostly unnecessary. Today the medical transcriptionist usually just edits the output of the software which can range from a few corrections to major changes, because voice recognition software still has not been perfected.

The purpose of medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist remains the same as it was in earlier times, to keep a record of a patient's medical status and treatment. Ancient medical transcription has been noted as writing on ancient cave walls and in documents of lost civilizations.

Not until the late 20th century was Medical Transcription recognized as a profession. Prior to that those that did Medical Transcription were given menial labels such as typists, medical secretaries, dictating machine operators, or word processors.

For those who practice medical transcription, this was and is a highly unjustified job title since the profession requires a wide knowledge of highly technical medical terms. Thus, in 1999, MedicalTranscription was assigned its own job classification and those practicing it were officially called Medical Transcriptionists.

The profession of Medical Transcription has basically been underground, and most people have not heard about it. Nonetheless, Medical Transcription is essential in the ever growing health care industry.

Health care staff do not have the time to write every single bit of information they gather from patients. As a result, the demand for qualified Medical Transcriptionist professionals is rapidly growing, in addition to the fact of the increasing numbers of new medical procedures coming into the mainstream, doctors simply don't have the time to personally transcribe all their findings.

The profession of Medical Transcription is very versatile as well. After a few years of education, Medical Transcriptionists can acquire work from medical transcription firms who receive dictations made by doctors and turn these orders over to medical transcriptionists to be transcribed.

As part of that versatility, a Medical Transcriptionist may be able to work full or part-time from home. The American Association for Medical Transcription is the governing body in the United States that certifies Medical Transcriptionists.

Although you may not need certification to work as one, a certification from the AAMT will certainly increase you're "market value" and credibility.

Medical Transcription has grown out of its infancy of merely listening and transcribing the words dictated by a doctor. Medical Transcription has matured and now requires specific education and knowledge regarding medical language, Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, physical anatomy, physiology, disease processes, medical science and procedures, medical instruments, pharmacology, laboratory instruments, laboratory test results, medical reference material techniques and many, many more.

Carol Benkman is free lance writer who does research and writing in a variety of fields ranging from outdoor sports, animals, animal rescue, to technical fields such as medicine, psychology, engineering and spirituality.

Medical Transcriptionist From Home

Medical transcription is a career offering earning potential from working at home. A person needs to listen to audio notes of the doctor on a patient. Then he has to transcribe it into a written document. This is then sent back to the doctor for approval.

A medical transcriptionist needs to have knowledge about medical terms, physiology, anatomy as well as the abbreviations used. The person should also be fluent in English and have good grammar and punctuation skills, as well as an aptitude to work on a personal computer and with the software for word processing. It is also important for a transcriptionist to have good hearing and listening skills. Employers generally give applicants a pre-employment test and favor individuals with experience.

An aspirant can earn a medical career diploma from home in one year by studying for as little as one hour a day. The student can also earn as well as learn by working part time with a clinic or doctor, during the duration of the course. There are various colleges, recognized by The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT), offering courses that certify a medical transcriptionist. These colleges boast dedicated and expert instructors and support staff to help complete the work.

To educate students, different regional accents and background noises are used in the educational recordings. The students are tested on their speed of picking up words, keyboard skills, command of the English language, knowledge of the human anatomy and medical terminology. Medical terminology and abbreviations are also taught. On successful completion of the course, the student is awarded the Medical Transcription Certificate.

A medical transcriptionist is an important part of any health care team. A good transcriptionist with knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, and medical record keeping is a valuable asset to any hospital, clinic or physician.

Medical Transcriptionist provides detailed information on Medical Transcriptionist, Medical Transcriptionist Jobs, Medical Transcriptionist Training, Medical Transcriptionist Salary and more. Medical Transcriptionist is affiliated with Electronic Medical Record.

Medical Transcriptionist Online

Medical transcription is a career that involves creating lucid and readable medical documents from the audio tapes on which the doctors have made notes. These documents are then used for keeping medical records and insurance reimbursement.

It is important for the transcriptionist to be able to understand medical terminology, physiology, human anatomy, pharmacology and diagnosis. They must also be able to understand and translate abbreviations and medical jargon into their expanded forms. They should be able to apply the particular principles that are involved with medical records. They should also ensure the legal and ethical necessities required for keeping patient information confidential.

Most health care services pass on audio transcript to medical transcriptionists using digital or analog dictating equipment. The Internet is a very convenient and popular medium for transmitting notes. Transcriptionists obtain dictations over the net and are able to promptly send the transcribed documents to clients.

Medical transcriptionists work by initially listening to recordings on a headset and using a foot pedal to pause the recording when required. They type the text onto a personal computer or word processor, editing for grammar. The documents they mainly write include history of patient, consultation reports, physical examination reports, diagnostic imaging and even operative reports. They are also expected to produce discharge summaries, autopsy reports, progress notes and referral letters. The documents are then sent back to the client and once approved are filed among the permanent documents of the patient.

Another method uses speech recognition technology, which translates sound into text and creates drafts of the reports. This is most often done electronically. These reports need to be formatted, edited and checked for any medical mistakes. Medical fields using standardized terminology, such as pathology or radiology, benefit the most from speech recognition technology. Speech recognition technology is expected to become more popular once it becomes more sophisticated and advanced.

Medical Transcriptionist provides detailed information on Medical Transcriptionist, Medical Transcriptionist Jobs, Medical Transcriptionist Training, Medical Transcriptionist Salary and more. Medical Transcriptionist is affiliated with Electronic Medical Record.

Medical Transcriptionist Job Openings

Medical Transcription is a career that is emerging as a big job provider for many. It is not a traditional job or a desk-bound 9 to 5 job. There are avenues by which transcriptionists can work from the confines of their homes, do part time jobs or freelance. It has lot of flexibility as far as working hours are concerned.

A medical transcriptionist is part of a health care team. Their knowledge of, physiology, anatomy, medical terminology and medical record make them important to any physician. These skills are in demand and also can allow someone to earn a lot of money. Transcriptionists are generally employed in hospitals, by physicians, in transcription service offices and other such places. Experienced medical transcriptionists progress to supervisory and managerial positions. They are also in a position to freelance from home and do editing, consulting or teaching in the various accredited schools. Some further educate themselves and train to become medical coders, medical records and health information technicians and administrators.

Job opportunities, in the coming years, are expected to rise for medical transcriptionists. Their employment is predicted to grow faster than the average for all occupations. It is expected that jobs for medical transcriptionists will increase to a high of 23% by 2012. The demand for transcription services will increase because of a growing aging population. Older age groups usually receive more medical diagnostic tests, treatments, and medicine trials that require recording. Thus, more transcriptionists will be needed to revise patient records, amend records from speech recognition systems, and recognize discrepancies in medical reports.

Medical transcriptionists earned $13.64 for an hour in 2004. The highest 10 percent earned $19.11. Average hourly earnings were $13.83. In the offices of physicians and in business support services, they were paid an average of $13.40, hourly.

Medical Transcriptionist provides detailed information on Medical Transcriptionist, Medical Transcriptionist Jobs, Medical Transcriptionist Training, Medical Transcriptionist Salary and more. Medical Transcriptionist is affiliated with Electronic Medical Record.

Medical Transcriptionist - A Closer Look

Medical Transcriptionist jobs have been around since doctors first took the Hippocratic Oath. Ancient cave writings indicate that records of what medical treatments were being performed have been kept for thousands of years. Back then, it was for different reasons but today, medical transcription and in particular, the medical transcriptionist profession has been quietly taking steps forward and is "suddenly" making itself known to the world.

In a nutshell, a Medical Transcriptionist transcribes dictated matter by phone or from electronically recorded messages by doctors, nurses or other health care professionals, into records of treatments, procedures and up to date patient status reports.

Surprisingly, Medical Transcription wasn't "official" recognized as a profession until 1999 when finally; the United States Department of Labor assigned the profession its' own job code, in order to monitor statistics about the field. Until that point, medical transcriptionist jobs were unjustly given the title of medical secretary or typists.

Today, the American Association for Medical Transcription, which overlooks the profession, administers testing and upon passing the test you earn the title, "Certified Medical Transcriptionist" (CMT) which lends additional credibility to your knowledge, skills and abilities over those that are uncertified. Although certification isn't required for gainful employment, CMT status certainly has its' advantages like; the assurance to your employer that you are highly qualified and this in turn, increases your "market value" as an employee.

Medical Transcriptionist take on the role of converting the spoken words, of health care professionals, into written text either as hard or soft copy. But of course, with the dawn of new technology, this task is becoming increasingly less time consuming per unit produced. A good example is the ever-increasing use of voice recognition software.

Sounds great but the questions arises, if technology is transforming the profession now, then will technology transform the profession to such an extent anytime in the foreseeable future that it more or less makes the role of humans in the profession obsolete? I think the best way to respond is by using an example. Has the technological advances in every aspect of the medical profession reduced the role and importance of doctors and nurses? The answer to that question is clear and the same applies to the field of medical transcription.

Although transcription programs continue to evolve and become more and more adapt they will never be able to replace the trained human mind. They certainly allow for aspects of the translation process to speed up but they will never be able to compensate for all the differences in diction styles like accents, grammar, pronunciation and the list is as varied as the doctors doing the dictation.

Basically, the evolving transcription software programs are simply a tool but like all tools they are only as good as the skilled craftsman using them. In fact, because of these software shortcomings, transcriptionists need to be very adept at editing; especially in the correct use of grammar and the ability to proofread. And because most transcriptions start via the recorded message listening and strong keyboard skills are becoming more and more an essential.

Sure, voice recognition software has made the whole transcription process easier than it was in the past. Back "in the old days" when a medical transcriptionists had to listen to every single word and then transcribe it via stenograph, by long hand or more recently into a word processor but thanks to technology the editing skills mentioned above are becoming increasingly more important because voice recognition software is taking over more and more of the tedious hand entry portion of the job.

Medical Transcriptionist job training covers a wide curriculum including general knowledge of a wide variety of medical topics like medical language, Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, biology, anatomy and physiology body systems. A medical transcriptionist also needs to have a fair knowledge in diseases; how they progress and how they are treated because this process makes up a large portion of the medical dictations that they are responsible for transcribing.

In addition, medical science, surgery, surgical procedures and terminologies, surgical and laboratory instruments are also an important part of the transcriptionists knowledge set. And, if that's not enough prosthetics, pharmacology, laboratory test results and their interpretation must also be understood and mastered. As you can see, a medical transcriptionists knowledge base must be wide and deep.

Medical transcriptionist jobs can be applied in a variety of health care settings, either as full time employees of firms that are need of these kinds of services to doctors and other healthcare professionals or as part time transcriptionists that from home for private clients.

This article may be reproduced only in its entirety. Kevin Erickson is an entrepreneur and writer. For other articles he's written visit: Medical Transcriptionist | Online Paralegal Program | Online Nursing Program