Expanding Career Opportunities

What Does It Take to Be a Successful MT?

• Insatiable interest in medicine and all things medical
• Extraordinary attention to detail--listening, proofreading, and editing
• Excellent English grammar skills
• Love of language and words
• Intermediate computer skills
• Aptitude to work independently at a computer for long periods of time
• Skills to organize and use time effectively to meet deadlines
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of personal patient information

Strong Growth Predicted

"The medical transcription profession is projected to grow by 11 percent from 2008 to 2018, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Demand for medical transcription services will continue to be spurred by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive proportionally greater numbers of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that require documentation. A high level of demand for transcription services also will be sustained by the continued need for electronic documentation that can be shared easily amond providers, third-party payers, regulators, consumers, and health information systems. Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to amend patients' records, edit documents from speech recognition systems, and identify discrepancies in medical reports." (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Medical Transcriptionists, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm)

Technological Advances Will Help

Technology is also advancing the field of medical transcription. As voice recognition technology improves, it is only expected to enhance the work of medical transcriptionists. Voice recognition technology will not replace the need for the human eye to edit and review transcriptions for accuracy, as this is vital to medical records. Additionally, digital technology makes it possible to receive dictations as audio files and allows medical transcriptionists to complete and return transcriptions via the Internet. As a result, time and place have become limitless elements of the profession.

Flexible Work Settings

Medical transcriptionists work for medical transcription services, hospitals, and clinics. An increasing number of medical transcriptionists are working from home, either for a large service as a contracted employee, or as their own boss!