Fundamental Information About Medical Transcription Reports

By Kathleen Clark


Medical transcription is a field within the medicine profession that deals with transcription. Doctors, physicians and other specialists in medicine make voice-recorded reports that are converted into written form. The process of transcribing results in medical transcription reports in written form. The written reports that are produced may be typed on a computer word processing software or may be hand-written.

Evidence of keeping medical records goes back to the beginning of writing. There is evidence indicating that people kept health records in ancient caves in the form of writings. The modern version of the profession began in the early twentieth century, following the need for standardizing medical data for research purposes. Stenographers took the place of physicians in taking shorthand notes from dictations given by doctors.

People who specialize in this profession are referred to as transcriptionists. Over the years, the profession along with the equipment used have evolved a lot. Previously, manual typewriters dominated the field but today they have been replaced with electric typewriters. Later, electric typewriters were replaced with word processors and then computers. Today, speech recognition, abbreviated as SR and also referred to as continuous speech recognition is being adopted at a high rate.

The term medical language specialists is the other name for transcriptionists, often shortened to MLS. The equipment used for the work is called a medical transcriber. A transcriber can be any machine or equipment. Certificate, degree, and diploma courses are available for qualifying as a transcriptionist. Most learning institutions are also incorporating distance learning in their curricular.

Transcriptionists gain enormous training and mastery of skills in performing simultaneous tasks. They master health terminology and are able to edit, listen, and type transcripts at the same time. Some of the courses that learner take include health terminology, grammar, punctuation, anatomy, editing, record types, typing, anatomy, record formats, and health documentation. In most countries, registration and certification is not usually mandatory, but most transcriptions are usually registered or certified.

Being successful as a transcriptionist takes certain abilities and skills. These skills come in handy in tackling the many responsibilities and duties that transcriptionists are required to handle. Some of the abilities include above-average memory, grammar, communication, and spelling skills. Besides that, they need to be able to check, sort, verify, and count numbers with accuracy. Ability to precisely follow both written and verbal instructions is mandatory because there are a lot of instructions that need to be followed in the profession.

Doctors usually dictate very fast, which makes fast typing skills very necessary. The transcripts are kept safely for future references. Therefore, transcribers need to have good skills in record maintenance for the transcripts. It is also crucial to have skills and knowledge in operating computers and other computing gadgets.

The demand to document health records is always growing. That has led to many countries outsourcing people with skills in transcribing records. The value of global transcription services market was 41.4 million in the year 2012. It is expected to grow by 5.6 percent all the way to 2019 from 2013.




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