The End of an Era of Medical Transcriptionists
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(name)
Professor _____
English Composition 101
(date)
The End of an Era of Medical Transcriptionists In the past, radiologists dictated patients’ medical reports utilizing digital dictation system transcribed by medical transcriptionists. With advancement in technology, voice recognition system has taken the place of medical transcriptionists. Voice recognition has decreased the turn-around-time of dictated reports and proven to be cost-effective. Although this may be true, the software has problems distinguishing between words that sounds-alike, has a high number of transcribed mistakes, and has difficulty interpreting normal pace of speech. For these reasons, medical transcriptionists are better suited for the job of transcribing medical dictations because they can recognize the context of the words being used, are trained to look for discrepancies in medical dictation, and radiologist can speak at an ordinary level. Voice recognition is a computer that transcribes medical dictations. According to The American Journal of Roentgenology “with the use of voice recognition, radiology reports are available to referring physicians in seconds” (para 5). Expediting the turnaround of radiology reports found “this has decreased the number of times radiologists get interrupted from physicians for results” (Seltzer et al. 893). Consequently, hospitals that use voice recognition have phased-out medical
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transcriptionists to save on cost. However, the computer is not able to differentiate between words such as four, fore, for. For instance, if a radiologist dictates “this is an eight-year old who was stung by a bee in her right eye”, voice recognition cannot decipher which homophones to use. This is a major flaw in the software. The radiologists have to make sure the computer transcribes the right words. Whereas medical transcriptionists have brains and are able to distinguish words based on context. Voice
(name)
Professor _____
English Composition 101
(date)
The End of an Era of Medical Transcriptionists In the past, radiologists dictated patients’ medical reports utilizing digital dictation system transcribed by medical transcriptionists. With advancement in technology, voice recognition system has taken the place of medical transcriptionists. Voice recognition has decreased the turn-around-time of dictated reports and proven to be cost-effective. Although this may be true, the software has problems distinguishing between words that sounds-alike, has a high number of transcribed mistakes, and has difficulty interpreting normal pace of speech. For these reasons, medical transcriptionists are better suited for the job of transcribing medical dictations because they can recognize the context of the words being used, are trained to look for discrepancies in medical dictation, and radiologist can speak at an ordinary level. Voice recognition is a computer that transcribes medical dictations. According to The American Journal of Roentgenology “with the use of voice recognition, radiology reports are available to referring physicians in seconds” (para 5). Expediting the turnaround of radiology reports found “this has decreased the number of times radiologists get interrupted from physicians for results” (Seltzer et al. 893). Consequently, hospitals that use voice recognition have phased-out medical
____ 2
transcriptionists to save on cost. However, the computer is not able to differentiate between words such as four, fore, for. For instance, if a radiologist dictates “this is an eight-year old who was stung by a bee in her right eye”, voice recognition cannot decipher which homophones to use. This is a major flaw in the software. The radiologists have to make sure the computer transcribes the right words. Whereas medical transcriptionists have brains and are able to distinguish words based on context. Voice