What Is Medical Transcription?
Medical transcribing is, of course, also used in a wide range of non-COVID-related settings. What is medical transcribing? We’ll cover that below, as well as exploring areas such as HIPAA compliance and specialised areas of medical translation.
If you need a medical transcript, I invite you to read on.
Medical Transcription – Defined
What is medical transcription? It is the process of transcribing medical information from audio files. These files are recordings of healthcare practitioners’ voices. Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals record their notes, then the medical transcriptionist – meaning a professional transcriber with medical knowledge – types it up.
The medical transcription definition includes the transcribing of any dictated medical material, from case notes to lecture content. In some instances, physician dictation takes place over the phone. Increasingly, given the technology available these days, doctors’ dictation (and that of other medical professionals) is provided to the transcriber as a voice file through a smart phone app or over the internet.
What Makes Medical Transcription a Specialised Field?
What is a medical transcriptionist? A medical transcriptionist is a transcriber who has in-depth medical knowledge. It is this knowledge requirement that makes medical transcription a specialised field.
The definition of medical transcription clearly assumes detailed medical knowledge and experience on the part of the transcriber. Without such experience, the process of producing the medical transcript would be long and arduous. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done by an intelligent transcriber without a medical background, but it would take much, much longer and be a far less efficient and cost-effective task.
The reason that medical knowledge is a requirement for this specialised area of transcription is because medical transcribing involves:
- Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Extensive medical terminology knowledge
- Experience in the medical field
- Pharmaceutical terminology knowledge
A Transcriptionist with Experience in the Medical Field
Anyone can sit down with a medical dictionary or jump online and read about medical terms. However, I think it takes someone with first-hand experience of the medical field to really understand the context in which those terms are being used. And, of course, that understanding is what will make the transcription process faster, easier and more accurate.
Pharmaceutical Terminology Knowledge
I find that knowledge of pharmaceutical terminology can also help to make medical transcription more efficient. If the transcriptionist is familiar with a wide range of medications, including their usage and their brand names, then they will be able to handle mentions of them during the transcription process much more efficiently than those who lack that knowledge.
The Different Areas of Specialisation of Medical Transcription
While we define medical transcription above as a specialised service, it’s also worth noting that there are several specialist disciplines within the overarching medical transcription umbrella. Just as different types of doctors and different departments handle different conditions, so too do different types of medical transcribers.
One of the reasons for this is the huge amount of specialist terminology that a single field of medicine can require knowledge of. Another is that the transcriber’s medical experience may well have centred around a particular area of healthcare. Some examples of medical transcription specialisations include:
- Fertility
- Cardiology
- Bariatrics
- Endocrinology
- Family health
- Psychiatry
- Neurology
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