All Things Transcription

There is a Chinese curse that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” On the surface this does not seem like a curse at all. No one likes to be bored. If you live in interesting times, you do not have to worry about boredom. However, interesting times are often periods filled with strife on both a personal level and a global level. Boredom equals peace, in other words.

Follow up:

Medical transcriptionists are currently living in interesting times. Let’s talk about one of those issues; VR(voice recognition)or SR (speech recognition). I recently saw a quote from the owner of a well-known MTSO. He stated that he believed eventually all transcription would take this form. Of course it will. Both technology and legislation conspire to make it that way.

When you think about it though, it will be quite a while before this change is complete. Now we have to balance keeping our current skills sharp and taking the time to ensure that our skills are updated as the technology changes. The skill it takes to be a medical transcriptionist doing straight transcription perhaps can be modified to take advantage of technology and increase both production and quality of work. Quality and quantity equals a win/win situation for the medical transcriptionist.

I asked some forum friends for their opinions about VR editing and got some interesting responses. It seems that there are some medical transcriptionists who enjoy it very much. These folks can make 2 to 3 times more than they can at straight transcription. However, this figure seems to depend on some variables such as cpl, platform (ease of use), and quality of dictation. In other words, VR production depends on some of the same things that straight transcription depends on.

Of course, the other side of that coin is the folks who hate VR. It is boring and VR is not what they signed on for as a medical language specialist. I can understand this. This type of production work can be tedious and mind numbing. It isn’t for everyone, just as other types of production jobs are not a good fit for some people.

VR technology is in its infancy. Sure, it can do some amazing things. However, we have not yet reached the point where the technology has the ability to create a document from voice without human intervention at some point during the process. Certainly a gradual shift will occur in exactly what that intervention is. As far as I am concerned, I think I will be well past retirement age before I need to be concerned with VR making me obsolete.

Medical terminology alone can flummox the most sophisticated system currently available. Let an ESL doctor dictate esophagogastroduodenoscopy and see what happens. I know all of you have listened to the same phrase over and over again to find in the end that it was something really simple, but the way the term was pronounced made it completely foreign. The machine does not listen over and over; it just transcribes what it “hears.” This produces some often incredibly amusing errors that some mere human has to correct.

In the end, if we continue to learn and grow as professionals, I believe the profession will continue to grow. The changes may be hard and cause some chaos initially but I believe that it will all fall into place.