Evolving Medical Transcription Model

Gartner Industry Research released a new report on the future of medical transcription. The report outlines the much talked about “Editor” Model of medical transcription, in which medical transcriptionists spend the majority of their time correcting, reformatting and augmenting the material already created by speech recognition programs.

The report also discusses another dictation approach that have left some industry experts worried. The “Once-and-Done” Model (OAD), which appears to be rapidly gaining acceptance in the ambulatory, single-physician and small physician’s practice marketplace.

The report goes on to explain the model: “In the OAD model, a physician performs dictation while seated at a computer terminal. Speech recognition is used to convert the physician’s voice directly into text, and this same physician is responsible to correct errors in speech recognition, as well as to format the document appropriately…A clinical decision support system may then examining this content to determine whether any alerts or warnings are warranted based on the information that has just been generated.”

Although Gartner hails the OAD model as the next big thing in medical transcription with little disadvantages, not all industry experts agree. (Click here to read the October Cover Story of For the Record Magazine – Once & Done Transcription: A Bold Spin or Off Target?) Whether you agree or disagree with the emergence of this new medical transcription model, it’s certainly something that MTSOs should be watching closely.