What is Medical Transcription and What Do they do?
First things first though, what is medical transcription and what is it for? Basically medical transcription, also known as MT, is an allied health profession (yes, in line with physicians, nurse, pharmacists etc.) which deals in the process of transcription, or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians or other healthcare professionals, into text format. It sounds hard for a person without any health profession background but worry not! Because anyone can do it. Well, not anyone who loves watching Grey's anatomy but anyone who has the time to enroll into any MT program offered at any school.
There are tons of schools of offering this program around the country. Medical transcriptionist schools often offer just an introduction to medical transcription, not enough for the best results, usually not even enough to test for or keep an entry level medical transcriptionists job.
Let's go back to MT and what it really is. Let's bring about a picture here, physicians examining patients in hospitals, clinics and medical offices and then they dictate information such as the patient's history, physical examination, diseases, procedures etc. They use medical terminology, often with heavy accents, and often speak so quickly that anyone hearing it should be reading subtitles. Enter, medical transcriptionists, their job is to make sure that you understand full well what the doctor is saying and they do it by typing every word that came out from that doctor's mouth. Easier said than done since a lot of students or transcriptionist often complain about said physician’s dictation. You might think this is an easy job since all you have to do is type down everything but most physicians expect medical transcriptionist to do the formatting, the spelling and to convert that dictated material from the doctor’s shorthand medical slang to formal medical language.
Medical Transcription may be the right career for you if you are able to work behind a computer for hours at a time, independently, with very little interaction with others. Excellent spelling and hearing skills are necessary as well as a good understanding of grammar and punctuation. Continue watching those medical dramas. It will be good for you.
There are tons of schools of offering this program around the country. Medical transcriptionist schools often offer just an introduction to medical transcription, not enough for the best results, usually not even enough to test for or keep an entry level medical transcriptionists job.
Let's go back to MT and what it really is. Let's bring about a picture here, physicians examining patients in hospitals, clinics and medical offices and then they dictate information such as the patient's history, physical examination, diseases, procedures etc. They use medical terminology, often with heavy accents, and often speak so quickly that anyone hearing it should be reading subtitles. Enter, medical transcriptionists, their job is to make sure that you understand full well what the doctor is saying and they do it by typing every word that came out from that doctor's mouth. Easier said than done since a lot of students or transcriptionist often complain about said physician’s dictation. You might think this is an easy job since all you have to do is type down everything but most physicians expect medical transcriptionist to do the formatting, the spelling and to convert that dictated material from the doctor’s shorthand medical slang to formal medical language.
Medical Transcription may be the right career for you if you are able to work behind a computer for hours at a time, independently, with very little interaction with others. Excellent spelling and hearing skills are necessary as well as a good understanding of grammar and punctuation. Continue watching those medical dramas. It will be good for you.
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