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Medical transcription or MT is an allied profession that involves converting or transcribing voice recorded reports of physicians into text format. These professionals are called medical transcribers or medical transcriptionists.

The history of medical transcription dates back to the very beginning of medical care. Back then, medical care practitioners had thought to put on record the conditions of their patients and what methods they implemented for the cure of these patients all for the purpose of study in medical science. These are evident in the earliest forms of documentations found in walls of caves, wooden tablets, metal tablets, and hieroglyphs that eventually evolved into temple walls, parchment, paper and most recently electronics. The evolution of medical transcription went along with the changing times as well as the different recording devices invented. At this period, the physicians themselves were the ones putting the data into record.

By the 1900's, upon the standardization of medical research, medical stenographers came into the picture by taking the dictations of the doctors into shorthand writing. It became imperative at this time that medical data be kept in files and stored in filing cabinets and storage rooms of hospitals. Physicians may view these files whenever the need arises and it came to a point when several carbon copies of these files were made in order to have an easier access.
 
Over the years, computers became accessible to the general public and the desktop computers eventually replaced the filing cabinets and storage rooms. Instead of handwritten records, data became electronic files that are printed out only when the data is being needed making the process more concise.
 
The 21'st century became a more productive year for medical transcription as a career. Technology has become more sophisticated and the voice recognition system and speech-to-text system were developed. These electronic systems have aided well in the process of acquiring the medical notes. Though these systems had the ability of translating voice into words, its capabilities are still limited. It still takes human skill to understand informal English language, slang, comments, and even expressions made by the physicians upon recording their data, thus the rise of medical transcription courses.

Training courses were made for medical transcribers and they had more structure in learning medical terminology, communication and memory skills, above average typing skills and other requirements needed to have a career on medical transcription.  Both the technology advancement and MT training courses greatly improved medical transcription itself contributing greatly to the future of medical study.

One celebrated career in the modern allied profession is the one responsible for translating a patient's medical records into an electronic format - the medical transcriber. As the rise for medical advancement came through, medical transcription became one of the more sophisticated careers, since it involves state of the art technology and provides a lucrative income for the medical transcriber (MT).

There is no formal education for the medical transcriber yet. What there is, are trainings and special courses one could take to become more apt as a medical transcriber. In the U.S. for example, one must have a high school diploma or General Education Development certification, plus 1 to 3 years of experience in the related responsibilities. In the Philippine setting, before one can undergo the 3 to 6 months of MT training, he must have attained a college degree.

It may all sound encouraging and easy at first but not quite. First and foremost, it is very essential that an MT is knowledgeable of the medical terminologies. The medical language is very complex and encompasses the different branches of medical science. The MT is a medical language specialist in that sense. The medical transcriber must understand the form of the medical language and how it is used in medical data. This language also includes Greek and Latin suffixes, prefixes, and roots biological science, including anatomy and physiology of all body systems and various disease processes, medical science, medical and surgical procedures, involving thousands of instruments, supplies, appliances, and prosthetic devices, pharmacology, laboratory values, correlating laboratory test results with a patient's diagnosis and treatment, use of medical reference materials and research techniques. Apart from these, a medical transcriber needs to have good communication (written and verbal) skills because it is his responsibility to put into formal content the medical data he is hears. He must be accurate with details and have great understanding of the English grammar.

A medical transcriber works with an electronic machine that requires him to use several controls, including footpedals for playback. A physician records his medical notes or data via a recording device that is hooked up to a central server located at the hospital, or to a transcription service establishment where the recording is being kept. This recording shall be accessed by a transcriptionist who then listens to the dictation and then translates it to the specified format for the proper medical record. Therefore, the MT should never guess or assume details as the medical record is also considered a legal document. If the MT allows himself to type in false data, it may lead to a wrong diagnosis and medication. The patient is at great risk as his health also depends on this document.

The duties and responsibilities of a medical transcriber may also include consulting references of medical cases and terminologies, distribute transcribed reports and collects the dictation records, follow up on lacking dictations or details, perform quality assurance check, and sometimes keep copies of the dictation recording for future use.


The medical transcriber plays an important role in the field of medicine. While it may be a lucrative career, it is a very serious job. As the medical world advances and evolves, medical transcription will progress as well.

These are the services offered by a growing number of providers across the nation that began earlier in the United States, a multi-billion dollar industry with a recorded growth rate of 15% each year. Medical, legal, business, are just some types of transcription services. Let's take a closer look at what each type of transcription is about.

Medical transcription - a type of service whereby one accurately and quickly transcribes medical records  such as history and physical reports, clinic notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, office notes,  letters, laboratory reports, x-ray reports, pathology reports, and psychiatric evaluations dictated by doctors and others . It is mainly receiving dictation by tape, digital system or voice file using ear phones, a foot pedal for start-pause control and a word processing program.

Medical transcriptionists need excellent language and listening skills, wide knowledge in medical terms and an updated computer ability. As their experience in hospitals get longer, they are paid higher and make more money as they subsequently pursue as independent contractors and get paid by the hour per line transcribed, the reason why  a skilled Medical Transcriptionist prefers to work from home. Becoming a medical transcriptionist is possible for an experienced word processor, one who is enriched with medical vocabulary and formats.  In the Philippines today, a number of Medical Transcription Centers are offering specialized training for this field.

Legal transcription - the service of transferring legal information from recorded dictation to hard documentation using transcribers and computer word processors. Legal transcriptionists duties include drafting and filing legal documents, assisting attorneys to prepare for trials, time- setting and tracking important deadlines, organizing and maintenance of client files, assisting attorneys to prepare for trials, documenting relevant facts and information pertaining to a lawsuit, all these and many other tasks can be performed by a legal Transcriptionist  possessing  ample keyboard skills, a good spelling ability and a high learning and retention curve, who earns a  specialized training about the law, the formats for legal documents in each state or of a particular area, and various court systems and their venues. Legal transcriptionists  primarily serve as a backbone for legal support provided by law firms, public defenders' and prosecutors' offices, courts, public utility companies financial institutions, corporations and corporate legal departments, real estate and title agencies, Insurance companies, state and federal governmental agencies, and community legal service programs. The widespread litigation process triggers an increasing demand for legal support services coupled by a rising need for massive electronic record keeping. A specialized training in this field can be acquired online or through a modernized home training program.

Business Transcription - is the art of transforming audio files into accurate transcripts for companies encompassing all types of industries. From health care, insurance, airlines to the automobile industry, almost all fields are catered by business transcription service. Business transcription play a significant role especially on businesses registered in the stock market. In compliance to one of the rules, that is to conduct a quarterly meeting wherein they need to report on their business level, the people involved and performance of the business to their investors. The details of the meeting is usually captured as a recorded audio file, to present the details of the meeting in text format, a business transcriptionist does the transcribing job. Other than business meetings, transcribing of conference calls, analyst calls, seminar, budget-planning sessions, sales meeting and all other business conversations are among the scope of business transcription.

The prevalence of a growing need in electronic record transferring and record keeping gave way for transcription business to expand its horizons into outsourcing services, fortunately, aside from the realistic cost-effective solution it provides, is projected to generate recession -proof opportunities and most importantly, encourage the next generation workforce to explore the world of transcriptions.