Making money from home with medical transcription

What is medical transcription?

Medical transcription is a form of data entry in which we convert audio files to text files using much grammar, common sense, style and some theoretical medical knowledge. This field is for those who feel data entry monotonous and want to use some analytical brain of their own because this is needed for completing the audio file to a very neat and good text file. This job does not only need typing skills but also listening skills, which in turn needs lot of concentration, analysis of context and grammar, sentence structure etc, and fast reading through lines, which of course comes through practice.  It can be done on part-time basis from home one you feel confident in your knowledge and be independent to work from home.

Where do we learn this course?

We have lot of training institutes and online websites that offer this course for individuals who try to pursue this course. They charge some amount, which if we work with dedication and interest we can surely and easily earn in some months depending on the individual's capacity and interest.

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The only one thing that pays here is quality quality and quality. Nothing pays here than the quality of files the individual is delivering to satisfy the customers' needs.  We get files mostly from US, UK, Australia based hospitals.

What are the qualifications needed to become a successful transciptionist and be stable in the market?

Good English knowledge with decent vocabulary and very good command over grammar punctuation will take you to greater heights in short span of time.  When I said quality it not only medical terms but overall file should be free of grammatical, punctuation errors.  We have lots of resources to enhance the knowledge of English both online and offline.  Reading newspapers, watching English movies without subtitles will help in our day-to-day practice.  Apart from that can take up some vocabulary and listening exercises online.

Another good qualification will be decent typing speed at least 70 wpm for the start.  Again we have lots of sites to help us improve our typing speed.

www.thetypingcat.com

www.typingtest.com

www.learntyping.org  for beginners and all levels

www.typingmaster.com   

What is the amount expected as remuneration/salary/pay if working from home?

Okay, so now you have got your training, you have decent typing speed and good command over English and medical language what will be the payment for a transcriptionist?.

Normally the payment is calculated per line basis and it is mostly 65 characters with space sometimes it is 62 character with space.  If a document contains 650 characters with space, divide it by 65 i.e. 650/65 gives you 10 payable lines.  Rates of payout varies from company to company depending on the quality you provide.  Each company has its own error marking system which marks the errors in files and decide the output quality of a file delivered.  So from the start itself it is always  a nice practice to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.  

Some websites that gives useful information and update regarding this field are

http://www.mtdesk.com/

http://www.mtbot.com/

http://www.mtworld.com/

http://www.mtdaily.com/

http://www.mtindia.com/

http://www.medword.com/

Basic infrastructures needed for doing transcription from home. One need a fast computer with at least 128-256 RAM, 40-60 MB hard disk, quality headsets, foot pedal (optional as some transcription software can be controlled with keyboard), transcription software that plays your audio files like Express scribe etc. Internet connection is a must but the speed can be according to the company's requirement, some may be downloaded from FTP server, which does not need to be always online, some will have to be done always online as the files will be downloaded as and when you do the files.   Now most files are online as speech recognition has actually reduced the typing time but MT has to be aware the all that machine types may not be right and it is the MT's job to make the report error-free for final production.

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Some software that you will find useful are good dictionary, preferably American English if you are doing job for an American company, otherwise British. Medical dictionaries will be provided by the company you are working with but some may ask payment for that.   These dictionaries are exclusively for medical words but of course you can search with search engines like google, yahoo, etc but authorized medical dictionaries like Stedman's and Quick look drug reference are preferable.

Websites for still more information and updation of knowledge and training details.  You may need registration here.

http://www.ahdionline.org/

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I have been in this field for more than 10 years and have seen the evolution this field has taken.  I will be more than happy to guide anyone interested to take up this field as a career.  Please leave comments and contact me via email if you have any queries and I will answer with the knowledge I have.  Please follow for more updates on how to setup home transcription and more.

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