Medical transcription, or MT, is an allied health profession dealing with the process of converting the voice-recorded reports that physicians and other health care professionals dictate into a text format. Medical transcriptionists listen to the voice recordings of physicians and other health care professionals and create written records from these recordings.
Types of Medical Transcriptionists
Medical transcriptionists may be specialized in diverse medical departments that include general practice, dermatology, pain management, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology and radiation. Medical transcriptionists can work in hospitals, clinics, coroner's offices, medical examiner's offices and other related institutions. Specialization in a specific medical field has the benefit of increased hourly payment rates. Medical transcriptionists have the benefit of telecommuting, rather than traveling to and from the workplace each day.
Education and Skills
A medical transcriptionist's job is to listen to voice recordings dictated by physicians and health care professionals, transcribing them into medical reports, administrative material and correspondence. One of the essential skills of a medical transcriptionist is the ability to understand dictated reports that include medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, treatment assessments and diagnostic procedures. Requisite knowledge to translate medical jargon and expand abbreviations is necessary. Knowledge of the style of medical reports and other administrative material is required. The employable educational level is a post-secondary training in medical transcription.
Work Environment
Medical transcriptionists find work in hospitals, clinics, laboratories, physician's offices, medical libraries, research centers, government medical facilities and transcription service offices. A large number of medical transcriptionists work from home. The health problems associated with this job are back, neck, wrist or eye problems from sitting in the same position for long periods of time. The constant pressure for absolute accuracy can be quite stressful. Regular employees work the standard 40-hour week; self-employed transcriptionists work irregular hours and part-time.
Work Methods
Medical transcriptionists transcribe recordings made on digital or analog dictating equipment. The Internet has become a popular mode to transmit documentation, and many transcriptionists receive the dictation over the Internet, transcribe and return the transcribed documents. There are hand-held personal computers and personal data assistants that use software for dictation. Transcriptionists who work in specialized fields like pathology use speech recognition technology to transcribe the documents.
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