Medical
Transcription - A Profession Whose Time has Come by Carol Benkman
Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and transcribing
the dictation made by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, regarding
patient status, treatment procedures, prognoses, diagnoses etc. The Medical
Transcriptionist may also edit the text that is produced by voice recognition
software, and requires extensive knowledge of medical pharmacological
and anatomical terms.
Medical
Transcriptionists in the past would listen to dictations and
type it themselves, but with voice recognition software this has become
mostly unnecessary. Today the medical transcriptionist usually just edits
the output of the software which can range from a few corrections to major
changes, because voice recognition software still has not been perfected.
The purpose of medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist
remains the same as it was in earlier times, to keep a record of a patient's
medical status and treatment. Ancient medical transcription has been noted
as writing on ancient cave walls
in documents of lost civilizations.Not until the late 20th century was
Medical Transcription recognized as a profession. Prior to that those
that did Medical Transcription were given menial labels such as typists,
medical secretaries, dictating machine operators, or word processors.For
those who practice medical transcription, this was and is a highly unjustified
job title since the profession requires a wide knowledge of highly technical
medical terms. Thus, in 1999, MedicalTranscription was assigned its own
job classification and those practicing it were officially called Medical
Transcriptionists.The profession of Medical Transcription has basically
been underground, and most people have not heard about it.
Nonetheless, Medical Transcription is essential in the ever growing health
care industry.Health care staff do not have the time to write every single
bit of information they gather from patients. As a result, the demand
for qualified Medical
Transcriptionist professionals is rapidly growing, in addition
to the fact of the increasing numbers of new medical procedures Click
here for the rest.
