| There are many people involved in medical office | | | | used to convert the audio into words while the |
| administration who play a very important role in | | | | transcriptionist listens to the recording via |
| the medical service industry. One such often | | | | earphones and makes corrections in the file. As |
| unseen worker is the medical transcriptionist. The | | | | the recording is automatically transcribed into a |
| medical transcriptionist, via the use of transcription | | | | word processing program, the transcriptionist uses |
| equipment, is trained to transcribe a doctor or | | | | a foot pedal to stop and start the recording and |
| other health care worker's comments, reports or | | | | to perform other editing tasks. It is becoming |
| notes into words that are saved in a patient's or | | | | increasingly rarer for a transcriptionist to type the |
| hospital's medical records. These records are then | | | | words physically, although they still have a very |
| used in the medical billing and coding industry, to | | | | important role to play in listening to, editing and |
| prepare patient's invoices and to apply for health | | | | correcting the transcript as it is recorded on file. |
| insurance rebates. It is a highly specialized position, | | | | Transcription equipment needed to perform this |
| one that requires training to understand medical | | | | task will depend on how the audio recording is to |
| terms, legal issues that may arise from medical | | | | be converted into words. If there is a need for a |
| practices and on the practical side, how to use | | | | typist to transcribe a taped recording manually, |
| transcription equipment to effectively do this. | | | | that is passed on via a small micro cassette then |
| Not so long ago, transcriptionists would listen to | | | | the transcriptionist will need a player, commonly |
| words that were recorded onto a small mini tape | | | | referred to as a transcribing machine, which plays |
| cassette and then physically transcribe the tape | | | | the tape and has a foot pedal attached that can |
| by typing out the words he or she heard into a | | | | rewind, fast forward or stop the tape. The speed |
| word processor. Nowadays, in many instances this | | | | of the recording is controlled by dials on the |
| job has been made quite a bit simpler. Dictation is | | | | transcribing machine. If speech recognition |
| now received either by tape or via a | | | | programs are used to record the words into a |
| pre-recorded voice file such as a wav file, and it | | | | file, then only a foot pedal is required. These foot |
| can be sent by email or dialed in over the phone | | | | pedals generally plug directly into the computer via |
| and recorded. Speech recognition programs are | | | | a USB connection. |