What Is A Transcriber?

A transcriber is a person that transcribes recorded information to written form. Companies use transcription to shift the burden of typing from highly paid executives and professionals to lower salaried employees. Executives and professionals, such as doctors, dictate and then a transcriber transcribes the work to document form.

Although most of us are familiar with medical transcribers, transcribers work in a variety of fields and in a variety of circumstances. Many transcribers work in offices while others are self employed, working on a contract basis. Today there is a great deal of work available online for transcribers.

Professional business people will hire a transcriber on contract to transcribe for them. The contract will define the relationship between the professional and the transcriber along with what the rate of pay will be. It will address matters relating to confidentiality and file storage, as well as how you will handle files on your computer. Well laid out contracts are beneficial to everyone.

As a transcriber working independently, accuracy is your number one concern. However, the quicker you can transcribe the better for you so here are some tips to help you.

Make sure your Dictation equipment is in good working order. If you use software on your computer make sure it is operating optimally. Clean and service your Dictation equipment regularly and replace the tapes frequently. Tapes wear and although they will still work, the quality of the recording depletes.

Make sure you are working from a good ergonomic chair to avoid injury and to stay comfortable. You’ll be a lot more productive if you are comfortable. So don’t skimp on the right chair and the proper desk. Remember, if you are self employed and injure yourself you won’t be making any money. Is that enough incentive not to go cheap?

Try to keep your work environment quiet. Fast, accurate transcription depends on it. Speed and accuracy goes up the less ambient noise there is. So although it might not always be possible, it’s definitely worth striving for in order to reduce your error rate and help speed up your completion time.

Speaking of errors – they simply are not acceptable as a transcriber. And some individuals, especially some doctors, are really bad at dictating. So there are a couple of tricks you can try if you cannot understand something. Play with the tone by removing as much bass as you can, and try slowing or speeding the tape up. Sometimes a mixed speed will help catch the word.

Another trick that sometimes works is to listen to the recording through the regular speaker instead of the headphones. If confidentiality isn’t a problem, you can also have someone else listen to see if they can understand it. And sometimes taking a break and coming back makes it seem clearer.

Remember no guessing! If you simply can’t understand a specific word or phrase, you will have to leave a blank in the transcription - noting that the area needs clarification by the dictator. If it’s feasible you can contact the dictator right away asking for clarification.

If the dictator is consistently bad at dictating, tell him or her. You’ll be doing yourself and other transcribers a favor by telling that person they need to improve their skills. And if things don’t get better, as a contract transcriber you can drop the client.

A career as a transcriber can be rewarding and interesting, and the pay can certainly be good.

Source : http://www.articles2k.com

Gray Rollins is a featured writer for iDicatating.com. To learn more about transcriber software and transcriber services, visit us.

Online Medical Transcription Marketing

Whether you already have your own MT website, would like have one or need to learn how to get traffic to your website, this online medical transcription marketing tutorial can help.

It’s estimated there are 3 billion websites on the net. And as more and more people start learning the benefits of having a web presence that number is expected to grow.

Having a website is no longer for the big elite corporations or those with huge marketing budgets. In fact, having a website is fast becoming a necessity in today’s competitive business environment. Small or large just about any business will benefit from having a web presence.

Building a website is easy. You don’t need to learn HTML (computer code) or hire expensive web designers. There are a number of affordable tools which will make it really simple.

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The Perfect Medical Transcriptionist

As a medical language specialist, we are responsible for the accuracy and professionalism of the patient’s medical report. Is there such a thing as the perfect MT? I say there is, and as an owner of a several successful MT businesses, I can tell you exactly what employers like me are looking for.

When thinking of the perfect MT (medical transcriptionist) several things come to mind. First the MT should have the necessary medical knowledge needed to make sound judgment calls when the dictator misspeaks or gives a wrong word accidentally. A good transcriptionist knows the difference between aphasia and aphagia and when to use which term. In addition, many times the physician will dictate a surgery note on the right foot when, in the last sentence, accidentally says left foot. A good medical transcriptionist has been trained to catch that.

Good medical knowledge starts with a top rate MT school and the learning continues throughout the career of the MT. (That’s why experienced MTs are usually preferred over new graduates, except in certain cases.) The transcriptionist should understand the physiology of the human body and know why body systems work the way they do. They must know the drug names, dosages, and usages for hundreds of medications. They will know when the drug is dictated as 50 mg that it is actually in 15 mg because 50 mg would be an overdose. They must know lab normals so as not to put a ridiculous number when this is what they “hear” the dictator saying. This is all necessary not only for the accuracy of the report, but ultimately for the safety of the patient whose report is being transcribed.

The perfect MT should have an excellent command of the English language. Not only must we know grammar and punctuation, but also our spelling should be exact. As healthcare becomes more and more competitive in today’s world, the professionalism of reports is paramount in the specialist’s mind as he endeavors to impress his colleagues with prompt, professional consultation reports. A report with no punctuation, spelling, or grammatical errors goes a long way in differentiating an excellent MT from an average one.

Now, for the remainder of the qualities of the perfect MT, put yourself in the service owner’s shoes. What other attributes would you, as an owner, need from your people in order to make your business successful? It’s a well-known fact that in addition to top-notch medical anatomy, physiology and terminology training, the perfect MT should have certain characteristics which cannot be learned. This being said, however, these characteristics are vital to the success of the transcription service and the transcriptionist’s career.

The first characteristic which comes to mind is dependability – old fashioned reliability. A good transcriptionist does what he/she says and says what he/she does. It does no good to hire an employee who comes from the best online school with a 4.0 grade average and perfect punctuation and grammar skills, if the employee does not turn her work in on time. Dependability is, in fact, so important that it is the #1 thing that service owners look for in a subcontractor or employee. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had a subcontractor take 2 hours’ worth of dictation, only to find that barely 20 minutes of the work was actually transcribed. This obviously leaves the service owner to scramble to get the work done urgently by another subcontractor (who already has their work for the day) and to have to explain to the client why the work was not turned in on time as promised. (Good communication requirements on the part of the service play a big part in solving these issues.) This affects the reputation of the service and could ultimately cost the service the contract.

In severe cases or in cases of contractual obligation, the client must be given a discount on the work that is late, leaving the service owner with little to no profit for that day’s work and, more than likely, costing them money in the long run since the discount was in excess of the profit the owner would have made for the day. Therefore, a transcriptionist that keeps her word is worth her weight in gold.

Another characteristic equally important is that of attitude, yet another attribute that cannot be learned. How much more pleasant is it to work for someone who is appreciative of you, or even neutral, compared to someone that constantly complains, nitpicks, and whines? While transcriptionists are looking for good employers, good employers are also looking for transcriptionists with these attributes. A good attitude for an MT would consist of not complaining when the doctor dictates an extra few reports for the day (flexibility on the part of the transcriptionist), going the extra mile when the dictator asks for format changes (patience), and keeping the service informed of specific requests the dictator asks for (conscientiousness). A good transcriptionist will stay on an account for an extra few days after notice has been given, rather than leaving the service owner high and dry without someone on the account. A good transcriptionist will take constructive critique in a good manner and leave her ego behind. A good transcriptionist, therefore, works together with the service owner in almost what could be construed as a “partnership,” where each party does his best to help the other achieve their mutual goals. In this case, both the transcriptionist and the service owner work in synchronicity to serve the client, which ultimately serves the patient himself.

Another characteristic that comes to mind in a great transcriptionist is that of willingness to take on more than is necessary. So many times, employees will say something to the effect of “that’s not my job.” A great transcriptionist will gladly jump in and do what is necessary to get the job done. Although not mandatory to do more than promised, service owners know that being able to call on someone who will help them in a pinch makes the MT more valuable than a co-worker who will not.

Of course, good transcription service owners realize that perfect MTs don’t grow on trees. If you do your job well and have the characteristics mentioned above, you should expect top pay in your profession as well as a pleasant work environment. For the at-home transcriptionist, a pleasant work environment, in my opinion, would consist of few, if any, interruptions from the service owner, consistent work from the service (so as to guarantee a paycheck), and protection from cherrypickers (finicky transcriptionists who take the best work and skip over the harder, more difficult work.) I can think of at least a dozen more attributes that the service owner should possess, but that is best explained fully in a separate article.

The bottom line is…in order to become more valuable to your employer (more valuable = better compensation,) begin to think like an owner. If you see an opportunity for improvement, mention it. If you can help out in emergencies, do so. Above all, never forget that a perfect transcriptionist begins with the proper training. Adhering to these recommendations will ensure a transcriptionist that is happy, productive, and is making the income she deserves.

About The Author

Margery Hinman, CMT, is owner and Director of Education for MT Advantage Career Center, a comprehensive, online, advanced medical transcription training program. With over 20 years in the transcription industry, Margery owns a number of transcription services and has mentored and trained hundreds of students in the field of transcription. She has taught medical transcription at Tidewater Community College and has authored and published the MT Advantage Career Center curriculum as well as other numerous articles throughout the years. For a free e-book on medical transcription please visit www.mtacc.net. You can reach Margery at MargeryMTACC@aol.com.

Source : http://www.articlecity.com/

RP medical transcription execs forge ties with US group

MANILA, Philippines--Medical transcription executives based here met personally with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) in the US and discussed current industry concerns such as data privacy and certification.

MTIAPI (Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines Inc.) officials met with their US counterparts during the recent MTIA convention in Long Beach, California.

MTIAPI president Myla Rose Mundo-Reyes joined industry leaders from India and the Caribbean in a panel discussion during the said convention.

According to Reyes, the discussion corrected some negative perceptions about offshoring and provided potential clients with enough information on "where to go, who to talk to, and what to consider" when exploring outsourcing opportunities abroad.

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Jobs Online Doing Transcription

Good news, online transcription positions don't have to be purely medical. There are many different types of transcription services available, the key is finding the one that captures and keeps your interest. Transcription services can involve E-Books, Tele-seminars, Business Meetings, Webinars, Radio Talk Shows, Talk Show Interviews, Focus Groups, Meetings, Home Study Courses and various business based correspondences. And clients will range from Authors, Seminar Speakers, Talk Show Hosts, Coaches and Business or Marketing Managers.

Equipment is one of the most important factors when considering a home based career in transcription services. It is best to do some research on the equipment that a professional transcription service would use. It could be as easy as purchasing transcription software, a head-set and a foot-pedal, but some companies may require you to have more elaborate equipment. Depending on the type of transcription they specialize in, a company may require you to have a secure internet connection and firewall for file transfer activities.

As different types of transcription, such as interview transcription, may have more than one speaker, it will take a high level of concentration to provide a professional output. For example, a radio talk show will be formatted differently than an e-book. Files that have more than one speaker may require more attention to formatting detail. Be sure to check with your client before starting to transcribe the files, and be clear on all expectations, it will save you a lot of time. In terms of file output formatting, make sure the word processor or transcription software you use has the proper output formats. Most basic word processors have file conversion capabilities such as RTF, HTML and Plain Text, so this is not a major issue.

Unlike medical transcription, which has a clear knowledgebase, general audio transcription will cover a wider area of topics. You may not be familiar with the topic and technologies you may be covering, causing a multitude of misinterpretations that at times, may be very difficult to catch. Be sure to set aside some time to perform proofreading to find misused or misspelled words. Errors in brand names, buzz words and other concepts can be harder to detect. As a basic spell checker can be invaluable, it is not necessarily error proof, therefore the human element is very important.

In terms of turnaround time, this element is based entirely on your typing skills and the deadline that has been defined by your client. Some projects can be finished in a day, while others may take 3-5 to complete. It will certainly depend on what you need to do, your time frame, the content topic, and how important precision and quality are to your client. Be sure to determine whether your client wants precision, or faster and more immediately presentable results.

Author Resource:- Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work at home and home based business opportunities. Find legitimate work at home opportunities today at: http://www.HomeNetPro.com

Conference Transcription - What the conference organiser needs to know

This article aims to provide advice to conference organisers in obtaining transcription that is accurate, timely and complete. It suggests ways in which the conference organiser can help the transcriptionist to ensure that the transcription is good quality and free of errors.

The most important piece of advice I would give as a transcriptionist is that if you're going to have your conference transcribed you should arrange for completion of the transcription even before the conference even takes place! Of course you are going to want to send the transcript (or your interpretation of it) out to your speakers and delegates as soon as possible after the conference takes place, but a conference is a significant chunk of work to transcribe.

Let's take an example of a conference where the talks (and possible workshops etc.) total 5 hours. Even if you have excellent audio recording equipment and supremely clear speakers, with minimal question and answer sessions or workshops (the point of which I will explain in a moment) the time taken to transcribe is going to be four times as long as the recording - so you're looking at an absolute minimum length of time taken in this example of 20 hours. Twenty hours of work is probably a minimum of three days work for one person, and there's a very good chance it will take longer.

Now if you start ringing round transcription companies once you have the recording ready to send, and you're hoping to have the transcript returned to you in two or three days, you're probably going to be out of luck. A good, established transcription company, employing fully trained and competent transcriptionists who are able not just to type but also to proof-read and edit, recognise the correct homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently), and punctuate English correctly, is probably not going to be sitting there waiting for your call. Although you might strike lucky they will probably be booked up for at least a few days!

So if you book in your recording before the conference and agree to send it on a certain date, they will be able to turn it around for you much faster.

Now, why might it take longer than four times the length of the recording? There are wide variety of reasons. Four times is the industry standard for a good, clear one-to-one interview with no background noise, good recording quality and no strong accents. It also does not take into account the possibility of specialist or technical terms, with which the transcriptionist will need to become familiar. So if you have any of those issues there will be extra time involved.

Question and answer sessions are often tricky because of the range of different voices involved. This applies to the audience but also to a panel if you are having panel sessions.

What can you do to reduce the time and therefore the cost? Firstly you can make sure that you have 'roaming microphones' that can be carried around the audience, so that questions are actually audible on the recording. Also a good conference recording set-up so that your main speakers can be clearly heard and individual microphones for each member of the panel.

Another very useful tip is to provide the transcriptionist with both a speaker list and a delegate list. Then during the conference ask the chairman to ask all delegates to state their name and position before asking the question. The transcriptionist may not be sure of the spelling but can then refer back to the delegate list to insert the correct spelling into the transcript. The same applies, of course, to speakers.

It is also very useful to provide the transcriptionist with any supporting material on the conference that you have available as this will help to establish 'key words', words that may be not in common usage but particularly relevant to the topic of the conference. A good transcriptionist will also probably be able to search out most unusual words using Google or a similar search engine, but this takes extra time, and if you have already provided material to help time will be saved.

Finally, if at all possible (and you may be at the mercy of the conference venue) make a digital recording, rather than a recording on cassette tapes. Digital recordings have a variety of advantages (please see some of my other articles for details) but importantly they are usually better quality than tapes and they can be worked on by more than one transcriptionist at the same time, meaning that your transcription will be completed sooner.

Source : http://penguin-transcription.co.uk/

Medical Transcription as a Home Business

The medical transcription industry continues to grow. As the need for individuals in this field keeps growing, the options for working at home also grow.

Starting a medical transcription home business is a good area to start in if you would like to work at home and receive the same pay you would if you were in the office. There are a couple of ways to work in your home-based MT business. One way is to find a traditional employer who gives you all the benefits of working in-house, but who allows you to do this from home. This is more likely to happen if you have worked for this employer in an office already. Another way to set up a medical transcription business is to accept clients through advertising. This would be a freelance MT business.

If you are going to start your own business, remember that it might take some time getting clients. Don't forget that you are not limited in location. You may be able to find clients for your medical transcription business through the internet. As demand increases, the needs for your services will increase.

Though you want to charge the going rate for medical transcription, working from home allows you to be flexible with fees. You can charge somewhat higher than somebody working in an office because your client does not have to pay for insurance or a pension for you. Working in your own home business also allows you to set your own hours. If you want to work full time, you can. If you want part-time hours, this is not a problem. If you want vacation time, just be sure you don't accept work that will not get done before you go.

If you like to be there to take your children to school and pick them up afterwards, a medical transcription business is a good option. It will pay more than most work-at-home jobs but offer all the benefits of being at home. You don't have to worry about the commute or the parking. With a medical transcription business, you can work in the morning or, if you are a night owl, work in the evening.

Many people prefer to work from home. Few can actually make a living this way. Medical transcriptionists are among these few, and opportunities are expected to grow in the coming years.

If you are interested in a job that allows you the flexibility to stay home, consider a medical transcription business. It is one of your best options for working from home.

Source : http://www.showmomthemoney.com/

Medical University of South Carolina Rolls Out AssistMed Transcription Platform With InterSystems Ensemble

InterSystems Corporation today announced that the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has implemented the second-generation DictAide medical transcription platform from AssistMed, Inc. AssistMed's solution addresses MUSC's need to reduce costs tied to medical transcription while improving quality and staff productivity. An InterSystems application partner, AssistMed interfaces DictAide with third-party systems using InterSystems Ensemble®, the rapid integration platform named #1 interface engine by KLAS for the past two years.

Ensemble's strengths combined with DictAide's rich feature set—which includes advanced speech recognition, predefined templates, and support for dictation via multiple input devices—allows doctors to trust even further in those all-important transcriptions of patient notes while bustling through their day. The MUSC network presently includes 24 medical and surgical clinics with doctors from all locations providing dictated input that is transcribed by AssistMed and loaded into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) via a bi-directional HL7 interface. “With Ensemble's rapid development and deployment technology, we were able to go live with this interface in just a few weeks after the project started,” Allan Mcleod, AssistMed's Vice President of Customer Support, said. As a result, authorized clinicians in any MUSC network location have easy access to doctors’ transcribed notes that now reside in the secure EHR.

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Now doctors jump into BPO bandwagona

After engineers and lawyers, now doctors are also gearing up to join the BPO brigade, with the outsourcing firms opening up alternative career options for medicos.

With more and more outsourcing firms moving into healthcare sector and medical transcription, the job opportunities for doctors and nurses in the country are getting widened, an industry expert said.

In a BPO firm, the job of a doctor can include medical billing, transcription and coding for the US hospitals.

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.

However, some companies like the Patni also provides high-end knowkledge process outsourcing where a doctor is required to study the reports of elderly patients and do risk assessment and prepare reports for health Insurance companies in the US.

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VIVA Transcription's Scholarship to Help Provide Medical Training

Stanford Student Heads to Papua New Guinea to Work With Residents

VIVA Transcription, a leading provider in medical transcription services, announced today that it has established a scholarship to help foster Stanford University's International Medical Options program.

VIVA has donated directly to this cause in the past but this year their contribution will be in the form of a scholarship -- supporting a student to travel to Papua New Guinea where she will provide health education to local villages and medical training to local medics. The chosen student, Gloria Hoang, will leave for Papua New Guinea on June 21, 2008 for her educational, philanthropic adventure.

"As a medical transcription company interacting with physicians and medical professionals on a daily basis, VIVA is very aware of the lack of basic, and often crucially needed, medical care in this poor country," stated Manuel Prado, CEO of VIVA Transcription. "We created this scholarship to not only recognize an individual like Gloria, who is volunteering her time and expertise for this valuable program, but also to provide much needed medical assistance and education to the residents of this struggling country."

Stanford's International Medical Options project provides medical assistance to those in need in both Papua New Guinea and Vietnam -- nobody is ever turned away. In additional to providing medical aid, the team of volunteers also leads a training program for local medics and, in doing so, encourages these newly trained medics to pass their knowledge down to future generations.

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Start a Medical Billing Business

The medical billing service business is an important link between the doctors, health-care providers, patients and insurance companies. Without an efficient medical billing service several doctors and health-care providers would have to wait too long to get their legitimate dues. The same applies to patients. They are fully dependent on medical billing service operators to get their insurance claims processed fast. Learn More.

Target Market

The medical service billing business has a wide target market. It includes family practitioners and medical specialists like geriatrics, pediatrics, osteopaths, obstetricians, oncologists, mental health practitioners etc. It also includes social workers, nursing homes, ambulance services, pharmacists, home-health practitioners, medical equipment providers and bionic body parts providers.

The large and diverse market makes it easy for the beginner to start the medical service billing business. You may first target that market in which you have some previous work experience and contacts. If, however, you are new to medicine then you should start by targeting specialist doctors. Also, you should start with small to mid-sized practices.

Start-up Costs

If possible, you should start your medical billing service business from home. This saves you money that you would otherwise spend on renting an office. You can spend this money on other business necessities like computer system with modem, printer and fax machine, reference materials, phone with voice mail or answering machine, stationery, office supplies and postage.

You also need to buy billing software whose cost ranges from $500 to $10,000. This is a very vital component of your business, and you must spend some time in deciding which software to use. Another important business need is clearinghouse, the name used to refer to companies that transmit medical claims electronically. These clearinghouses charge different fees for different work, and you can end up paying anything up to $300 for their services.

You should also not forget the doctor who may charge a sign up fee that may go up to $50.

Operations

You must know all aspects of the medical billing service business if you want to run the operations smoothly. These include entering patient information, name of the referral source or physician, and CPT and ICD-9 codes from the super-bills and day sheets. After this, the electronic claims are transmitted directly to insurance carriers or to the clearinghouse.

Income & pricing

The annual gross revenues of a medical billing service business range from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on the size of the business. The first six months are the most difficult. You have to run around clearinghouses and doctors to organize the business.

There are three ways in which you can charge your clients. These are:

Percentage basis: In this case you charge the health provider a percentage of the money he or she collects per month as opposed to the amount of money billed. The percentage may vary depending on the going rate, the procedures provided by doctors and the patient volume.
Per claim: This is the preferred method of those concentrating mainly on straight claims billing with little or no practice management tasks.
Per hour: This is the least popular method. It is used for clients whose billing rate is very low.
Marketing

The best advertising for a medical billing service business is through the doctors' grapevine. Also you should be good at networking to get good referrals. Start talking to everybody you know and tell them that you're now running a medical billing service business. Start with your own doctor tactfully. Your doctor may give some referrals and tips on how to approach other doctors. Doctors will pay more attention when you have been to another doctor. Also call all other providers you know directly or indirectly. Start with approaching physicians specializing in an area you're interested in. You can even ask your attorney, accountant, insurance and real estate agent to share their list of physicians with you.

Source: http://wah-articles.work-from-home-directory.com

Productivity council to provide medical transcription training

TIRUCHI: Tiruchi Productivity Council (TPC) has decided to step into its 50th year of existence by offering a 180-hour training programme in medical transcription through a tie-up with U.S. based itrans Solutions that has an operational base in Coimbatore.

Based on a survey carried out to determine the nature of job that would suit bright graduates of arts and science colleges the most, the TPC decided upon Medical Transcription programme, the Council Hon. Secretary Raja Mutthirulandi told ‘The Hindu.’ The TPC will conduct a free seminar during the third week of this month.

The training would be offered for a maximum of 50 candidates in two batches at the TPC’s own premises in Woraiyur in the city. Candidates completing the training programme also have the option of working for itrans Solutions. The TPC will also admit candidates identified by the Tiruchi District Tiny and Small Scale Industries’ Association (TIDITSSIA) to groom them as entrepreneurs.

TIDITSSIA is keen on adding value to the entrepreneurship ventures in the Business Process Outsourcing segment, said the Association president S. Sridharan, who is also the president of TPC. For further information, contact TPC at the dial of 0431–2762320 or email tpcsecretary@gmail.com.

Medical University of South Carolina Rolls Out AssistMed Transcription Platform With InterSystems Ensemble

InterSystems Corporation today announced that the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has implemented the second-generation DictAide medical transcription platform from AssistMed, Inc. AssistMed's solution addresses MUSC's need to reduce costs tied to medical transcription while improving quality and staff productivity. An InterSystems application partner, AssistMed interfaces DictAide with third-party systems using InterSystems Ensemble®, the rapid integration platform named #1 interface engine by KLAS for the past two years.

Ensemble's strengths combined with DictAide's rich feature set—which includes advanced speech recognition, predefined templates, and support for dictation via multiple input devices—allows doctors to trust even further in those all-important transcriptions of patient notes while bustling through their day. The MUSC network presently includes 24 medical and surgical clinics with doctors from all locations providing dictated input that is transcribed by AssistMed and loaded into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) via a bi-directional HL7 interface. “With Ensemble's rapid development and deployment technology, we were able to go live with this interface in just a few weeks after the project started,” Allan Mcleod, AssistMed's Vice President of Customer Support, said. As a result, authorized clinicians in any MUSC network location have easy access to doctors’ transcribed notes that now reside in the secure EHR.

The leading database provider in clinical healthcare, InterSystems develops and markets innovative database and integration software. Its product line includes the InterSystems CACHÉ® high-performance object database, InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration platform, and InterSystems HealthShare platform for regional and national EHRs. AssistMed provides clinical documentation solutions to organizations on an enterprise scale, with innovative online technologies that integrate healthcare information from hospitals, physician offices, patients, and communities.

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Voice Recognition And Medical Transcription

Let’s dig a bit deeper into voice recognition.

As you already know, doctors are busy people. This is never more obvious then when they’re dictating their notes. It’s understandable they’re busy, and as their MT, I can surely forgive them but will the latest voice recognition software be as forgiving as me?

Not likely.

As a transcriptionist you will have typed through background noise, patients moaning, doctors eating their lunch, personal conversations (oops they forgot the recorder was on) and other incomprehensible noise. Not to mention, ESL doctors with heavy accents and very tired ER doctors after a long shift!

At this time there is no voice recognition software which can handle this type of voice recognition. It is impossible for the software to determine actual speech from mistakes in conversation, background noise, heavy accents, etc.

So what does this mean for our future?

Rumors of MTs being out of r a job have been around long before I became an MT. Eight years later, there are still no real advances in this field.

Can voice recognition ever replace transcriptionists?

Sure it can.

If a doctor is willing to sit down and take the sufficient time to train his voice recognition software to recognize his voice and speech patterns (this takes time and is not done automatically), yes it is possible.

If the doctor thereafter dictates very clearly, using proper punctuation in his speech (stopping for periods, pausing for commas) without any background noise or interruptions. Yes, it is possible.

Will the document be 100% accurate?

No.

Remember medical records have to be in compliance with a number of very strict regulations. Most doctors, will not trust voice recognition enough to send these records through without at least a quick glance through.

Even under the best dictating circumstances the report will still need to be proofread and edited. So, yes under the “perfect” circumstances, voice recognition can replace a transcriptionist.

Is it likely? Not unless every physician out there is willing to take the time, energy and ongoing effort to train their voice recognition software and maintain a certain standard of dictation.

I don’t see that happening any time soon. Doctors are busy people, remember? ;)

If anything, us MTs should embrace voice recognition and use it as a tool to help us in our MT careers. If applied properly, it can be a time-saving tool. So why not use it for our purposes?

As with any business to stay ahead of the game you have to adapt to change and technology. Learn how to use it to your advantage instead of being frightened by it. That’s the only way to stay ahead of the competition…. Voice recognition or otherwise.

Source : http://online-medical-transcription-course.com/

Comat gets into medical transcription training

Comat Technologies, a player in e-governance and information communication technology development projects, has launched a training programme in medical transcription for the rural youth.

The course will be conducted from a studio, which will be beamed to Comat's Nemmadi kendras across Karnataka, using VSAT technology, a satellite communication system.

According to the company, the training course would be of 4-6 months duration covering subjects like science (human anatomy), English grammar, English typing and American accent training.

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Transcription Tips

TIPS FOR GETTING HIGH QUALITY COURT/INTERVIEWS/ FOCUS GROUPS TRANSCRIPTS

1. First of all do a test of the equipment and all microphones and play it back to ensure the equipment is hooked up properly and that you are getting a clear recording. Check your recorder for hums, faulty microphones, bad connections or loose wires. Make sure the tape is recorded on the correct speed.
2. Use high quality tapes. They are less likely to jam, break or distort voices. Do not use a tape twice.We can also transcribe digital files, DVD’s, CD’s, i.e. MP3’s, WAV files, etc.
3. Always use an external microphone, and if possible use an individual microphone for each person.If there are no microphones, have anyone speaking sit close to the recording device.
   
4. Please instruct everyone at the hearing/interview or focus group to speak loudly and clearly into the microphones or position the person(s) in front of the recording device. If they do not speak into recorder or microphone the tape will not be clear. If necessary, remind them again during the session.
5. For legal proceedings, please have each person (attorneys, clients, etc.) introduce themselves and spell their names, when introducing themselves. Ask that only one person speak at a time and remind them again during the hearing/interview if necessary. Try to eliminate side conversations. It will also help greatly if people do not interrupt each other. (It makes it very difficult to transcribe when more than one person is talking at the same time.)
6. Beware of background noise (fans, air conditioners, sirens, ruffling papers, open windows and doors, etc) in the room that creates extraneous noise and can affect the quality of your audio.
7. If someone in the room has a persistent cough, ask him/her to turn away from the microphone or recording device when coughing, so the other people’s words are not overshadowed and the transcriber’s ears don’t burst. (Just a little joke on the ears.)
   

Source : http://www.wordtechsecretarialservice.com/

Nuance to acquire eScription

Speech and imaging solutions firm Nuance Communications has signed an agreement to acquire eScription, a leading provider of computer-aided medical transcription technology.

By uniting the strengths and resources of Nuance and eScription, the combined organisation can deliver scalable, highly productive solutions, as well as accelerate future innovation to transform the way healthcare provider organisations document patient care.

Spiraling costs across the healthcare industry, a shrinking pool of domestic medical transcriptionists (MTs) and mounting regulations for electronic clinical documentation are driving healthcare provider organisations to re-evaluate the way they create and manage medical reports.

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