There are many good career opportunities in Medical Transcription. Most positions are available at hospitals or dedicated transcription service companies. The positions can be as an employee, an independent sub contractor or wholly self employed.

Medical transcription is a service that has been used for the last fifty or so years. The service keeps records of patients and assists the medical process by providing accurate information to the medical practitioners and allied health providers.

There are numerous medical transcription companies that provide a service to hospitals, clinics, healthcare facilities, laboratories and physician groups. It is an employment group that is always in strong demand, so finding a job is not as hard as others. Many people complete the training and offer their service as a sole operator on a smaller scale.

Traditionally, a medical transcriptionist role is to transcribe dictated recordings from healthcare specialists and physicians. This information is then used to write reports or correspondence, to other doctors, and to keep an accurate record of the treatment.

The process is performed by the healthcare professional providing a tape to the transcriptionist with a report dictated on it. The transcriptionist has a tape player and headset to hear the recordings and a foot pedal for any necessary pauses. These days a portable digital recorder or mp3 player is used by many doctors. The transcriptionist listens to the dictated report, and types it up in the computer, editing and improving the spoken word into a written report.

The biggest change in recent years has been the recordings being made online and subsequently sent online to a transcription service. The medical transcriptionist will then perform their role from the comfort of their home or office, and send back the first draft. Increasingly, voice recognition software is engaged, however the use of a human editor is unlikely to be negated because the voice recognition software will always have difficulty with proper spelling of difficult medical terms, and proper grammar and formatting.

The range of reports that are prepared is quite wide. Some of the common documents that are transcribed include: patient history, summary of presenting symptoms, outcomes of diagnostic tests, results of examination, results from investigations, discharge summaries, reports from procedures, summaries of reports from other specialists, autopsy reports, progress notes and referral letters. The completed documents are returned to the original author by the medical transcriptionist for further approval and correcting.

Medical transcriptionists must learn and be comfortable with a range of terms and terminology from medicine, diagnostic procedures, as well as relevant treatments. They will also benefit from basic knowledge in physiology, anatomy, and pharmacology.

To commence your medically transcriptionist career you will require appropriate training. Training is available in vocational schools and colleges. There are options for learning the skills online as well. It is important that you enrol in a training course that is accredited by the American Association of Medical Transcription or AAMT.

The AAMT awards the Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) certificate to medical transcriptionists who have passed the relevant written and practical exams. It is important that medical transcriptionists keep up to date with their skills as the medical science and techniques constantly change.

Medical Transcription is an excellent career option for young people leaving school or other workers wanting an exciting and rewarding career.