Medical Transcription

MT is multibillion dollars industry one of the fastest growing field in the health care. Medical transcription is a health profession that covers the process of converting the voice files into the readable text format.  In medical transcription the data is transcribed into the predefined formats known as templates and a transcriptionist has to follow the templates very carefully.  Medical transcription or MT is a highly professional skill, which requires a professional degree and skills.  Transcribers listen to the dictated recordings and transcribe them to the medical reports and the transcribed reports are returned to the client usually through FTP. 

The medical dictations usually include the patient’s history, consultation notes, discharge summary, laboratory reports, X-ray reports, operative reports, pathology and psychiatric reports. To understand accurately the medical dictation/dictated reports, a transcriptionist must understand the medical terminology, medical procedures, anatomy, physiology, medicine, diseases and other related information.

Currently health care providers transmit the dictated recording through the dictation servers or FTP.  Digital recorders are used to record the dictations.  The medical dictation is recorded by the physicians or their secretaries.  Although the speech recognition technology has become more widespread in almost many medical specialties but it can’t be the real substitute of transcribers because their need in the MT field is still alive.

Sometimes there are much complex terminologies, diseases names and unfamiliar accent and speech recognition technology fails to understand them.  The medical transcriptionists are in high demand in all over the world especially in the USA, Canada and Australia. Transcription services ranges from home based businesses to the high tech sophisticated companies. 

In most of the countries like Pakistan, India, Sri Lank and Bangladesh, a MT does not need to require the highly professional degree in IT but only good listening, English language, medical terminologies and basic computer skill is required.

Listening is considered to be the most important skill in MT.  MT has a lucrative career and it’s a very ideal field for the doctors and medical students.  Some of the most common specialties include general medicine, orthopedics, cardiology, radiology, pharmacology, medicolegal, surgical and general labs.  MT business can be setup independently at home.  All you need is to have the direct links with the doctors and health care providers in the USA. 

Setup

• Pentium III to IV computer.
• High speed internet connection.
• Medical, medicine, and English dictionary.
• Billing/Invoicing software. (PractiCount is recommended).
• Ms Office.
• GearXport Software (for downloading the voice files and uploading the transcribed reports and for converting the .dss and .gxe files into the .wav files).
• FTP client.
• Foot paddle with software.
• Headphone.
• Spell Checker software.

MT is a primary method by which doctors, hospitals and medical professionals communicate the patients’ records with the insurance companies and other physicians.
MT is a very lucrative and fastest growing field not only for the doctors and medical professionals but for the simple graduates. Anyone with some basic skills and experience can become a highly professional MT. There are many companies and institutes that provide the MT training.  You can enroll in an online MT training course from your home.