Medical Dictation

As an allied health profession, medical transcription deals with the transcribing of voice recordings of doctors, nurses or other health professionals into text format.  Usually the text is entered into a  computer as digitized text.  The text can then be printed and placed into the patient’s physical records.  Furthermore, since the information is now stored on the computer, it can also be archived electronically in an easily searchable and retrievable format.

The process of converting from speech to text is typically accomplished in two different ways.

• A trained professional listens to the recording while typing the words they hear into a computer.
• The health care professional speaks into a microphone and the speech is recognized by special software installed on the computer and converted to text automatically.

The first method of medical transcription requires a trained medical transcriptionist to listen to, understand and transcribe the information to a written form.  A clear voice recording of the speaker is also needed.  Usually, the person doing the transcribing must be able to stop the recording at any point,  re-wind the recording, and play specific parts again.  This will often be accomplished with foot pedals, since the persons hands are already busy on the keyboard.

This person should possess a unique set of skills and knowledge in order to perform the functions of transcribing quickly and without error.

A transcriptionist must:

• Be able to understand the unique and sometimes very complex vocabulary of the health care profession.
• Be able to listen attentively for long periods of time.
• Be able to type at a very quick rate in order to process the information in a reasonable amount of time.

The second method of medical transcription requires the use of special software.   The software must be able to receive the recorded voice,  recognize its content as words, and accurately transcribe the words as text.  Usually the person doing the speaking must be able to speak clearly enough for the software to recognize what is being said.  Typically, they can see the text being produced as they speak, and can make real-time corrections if needed.

There are many software products available to transcribe speech to text.  However, the software needed for medical transcription must be very specialized.  Not only does the software need to recognize normal, everyday speech, but it must also be capable of understanding the complex jargon of the health profession.  Amazingly, such software is available today and is quite functional.