Medical transcription

Medical Transcription (MT) means converting into written form, the dictation by the physicians and other healthcare professionals regarding patient assessment, workup, therapeutic procedures, clinical course, diagnosis, prognosis etc. in order to document patient care and facilitate healthcare services. A Medical Transcriptionist is a medical Language specialist who, using a computer and accessories like headphones and a foot pedal, transcribes the recorded audio into electronic data. This data is further scrutinized for grammar and clarity by a proofreader.

Let’s start from the beginning. It flows from the need for documentation of medical records and the inability of hard-pressed doctors to sit and write those reports themselves. In Western countries, particularly the US, maintaining extensive medical records is mandatory-and vital-for each patient treated. The fact that medical insurance claims and lawsuits are decided on the documented case history makes this all the more necessary.

Further, doctors are frequently invited to deliver lectures at medical colleges. This implies preparing extensive notes on case studies to be handed out to participating students. So, what does a harried medico do? Simple: he or she just speaks into a tape-recorder, these days, into voice recording PCs. That’s faster, and can be done even while walking from one hospital ward to the next. These tapes, or audio files, have to be converted into written statements, which is what medical transcriptions are all about.

With the rapid change of outlook in Indian healthcare and privatization of the insurance sector, documentation of all patient records will become mandatory in the future. Thus medical transcription will hold a vital link in altering the Indian job scenario. What the doctors do is to hand over their audio records to a company that gives them transcripts- in clean, perfect English- for filing and reference. Naturally, these companies need people who know the language to do the actual transcriptions, and won’t charge them the earth. India, given the high English literacy levels, and the weak rupee, provides the ideal location for conducting these transcriptions.