Medical transcription

Medical transcription, also known as MT, is an allied health profession, which deals in the process of transcription, or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals, into text format

Transcription

Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken-language source, as in the proceedings of a court hearing. It can also mean the conversion of a written source into another medium, as by scanning books and making digital versions. A transcriptionist is a person who performs transcription.

In a strict linguistic sense, transcription is the process of matching the sounds of human speech to special written symbols, using a set of exact rules, so that these sounds can be reproduced later.

Allied health professions

Allied health professions are clinical healthcare professions distinct from medicine, dentistry, and nursing. They work in a healthcare team to make the healthcare system function.

History

The evolution of transcription dates back to the 1960s. The method was designed to assist in the manufacturing process. The first transcription that was developed in this process was MRP, which is the acronym for Manufacturing Resource Planning, in 1975. This was followed by another advanced version namely MRP2. But none of them yielded the benefit of medical transcription.

However, transcription equipment has changed from manual typewriters to electric typewriters to word processors to computers and from plastic disks and magnetic belts to cassettes and endless loops and digital recordings. Today, speech recognition (SR), also known as continuous speech recognition (CSR), is increasingly being used, with medical transcriptionists and or "editors" providing supplemental editorial services, although there are occasional instances where SR fully replaces the MT. Natural-language processing takes "automatic" transcription a step further, providing an interpretive function that speech recognition alone does not provide (although MTs do).

In the past, these medical reports consisted of very abbreviated handwritten notes that were added in the patient's file for interpretation by the primary physician responsible for the treatment. Ultimately, this mess of handwritten notes and typed reports was consolidated into a single patient file and physically stored along with thousands of other patient records in a wall of filing cabinets in the medical records department. Whenever the need arose to review the records of a specific patient, the patient's file would be retrieved from the filing cabinet and delivered to the requesting physician. To enhance this manual process, many medical record documents were produced in duplicate or triplicate by means of carbon copy.

Basic MT knowledge, skills and abilities

• Knowledge of basic to advanced medical terminology is essential.
• Average verbal communication skills.
• Above-average memory skills.
• Ability to sort, check, count, and verify numbers with accuracy.
• Demonstrated skill in the use and operation of basic office equipment/computer.
• Ability to follow verbal and written instructions.
• Records maintenance skills or ability.
• Above-average typing skills.
• Knowledge and experience transcribing (from training or real report work) in the Basic Four work types.
• Knowledge of and proper application of grammar.
• Knowledge of and use of correct punctuation and capitalization rules.
• Demonstrated MT proficiencies in multiple report types and multiple specialties.

Applications

Health care

In the health care domain, even in the wake of improving speech recognition technologies, medical transcriptionists (MTs) have not yet become obsolete. Many experts in the field^[who?] anticipate that with increased use of speech recognition technology, the services provided may be redistributed rather than replaced.

Speech recognition can be implemented in front-end or back-end of the medical documentation process.

Front-End SR is where the provider dictates into a speech-recognition engine, the recognized words are displayed right after they are spoken, and the dictator is responsible for editing and signing off on the document. It never goes through an MT/editor.

Back-End SR or Deferred SR is where the provider dictates into a digital dictation system, and the voice is routed through a speech-recognition machine and the recognized draft document is routed along with the original voice file to the MT/editor, who edits the draft and finalizes the report. Deferred SR is being widely used in the industry currently.

Many Electronic Medical Records (EMR) applications can be more effective and may be performed more easily when deployed in conjunction with a speech-recognition engine. Searches, queries, and form filling may all be faster to perform by voice than by using a keyboard.

Dictation

Dictation can refer to:

• Dictation, when one person speaks while another person transcribes what is spoken.
• A machine/device used to record this speech for transcription.
• Dictaphone, a company that manufactures these devices, and which are often known generically by this name.
• Digital dictation, the use of digital electronic media for this purpose, and often computerized speech recognition.