Transcription software converts spoken words into written text, allowing doctors to switch their focus from paperwork to patient care. It automatically takes notes during appointments, fills in forms, and maintains patients' electronic health records (EHRs).
Medical transcription software is specially designed to handle medical terminology, pharmaceutical language, and clinical abbreviations at no cost to accuracy, so doctors don’t have to worry about the quality of the documentation.
Read the guide below to learn how medical transcription software helps transcribe patient records, clinical notes, and medical meetings, ultimately improving patient care and streamlining healthcare professionals' workflows.
What Are Transcription Services for Doctors?
Doctors use transcription services for many different purposes, including creating reports, documenting procedures, and taking notes about a patient. Transcription is a helpful tool for doctors because it assumes a portion of their responsibilities, reducing the time that they have to spend on repetitive tasks (like paperwork) to allow them to focus on the tasks that require their technical knowledge.
Medical transcription involves a doctor making a recording of themselves speaking and a trained transcriptionist typing up the information that the tape contains. Medical transcription is carried out by professionals who undergo specific training to learn medical jargon, including the abbreviations used in hospitals daily, and become certified as a medical transcriptionist.
Streamlining Administrative Tasks
Medical records are the cornerstone of patient safety because they ensure that every member of the healthcare team is on the same page, document every aspect of care that the patient receives, and allow clinicians to understand the patient’s history to determine the best course of treatment. Automating record creation allocates more time to clinical duties, as dictating information is faster than writing or typing.
There are two methods of medical transcription, manual and automatic. Manual medical transcription is carried out by professional transcribers who complete specific training to understand medical terminology and pharmaceutical language.
On the other hand, automatic medical transcription involves specialized software that uses artificial intelligence to convert the voice recordings that doctors make into text.
How Does Medical Transcription Software Work?
Medical transcription software works by processing voice recordings made by healthcare professionals, analyzing the speech, and converting the spoken words into text.
Using medical transcription software is better than hiring traditional medical transcribers because it is cheaper, faster, and integrates with the electronic health record (EHR) systems that most hospitals use.
Hospitals must adopt medical transcription software to keep up with the rising trend of electronic health records because it automatically fills in digital forms with the information that the doctor speaks into their computer microphone or cell phone provided for the purpose. Nuance Dragon Medical One, Deepgram speech-to-text API, and DeepScribe are some of the popular software used in healthcare allowing hospitals to redirect their funding from administration to digitalisation.
Transkriptor in Medical Practices
Transkriptor , a state-of-the-art transcription software, is a favorite among healthcare professionals looking for an efficient documentation solution because of its robust features and intuitive design. Transkriptor stands out from other transcription tools because of the number of boxes that it ticks for healthcare professionals in the market for medical transcription software.
When it comes to medical transcription, Transkriptor is equipped with an advanced speech recognition engine that guarantees near-perfect accuracy - even when the voice recording features medical jargon and pharmaceutical language with ease.
Accuracy is critical in medical transcription, for both patient care and legal compliance, so Transkriptor serves as an ally in preventing errors in medical records. Transkriptor also allows users to edit the text once the transcript is complete, double-check that the information that it contains is 100% accurate, and rectify any inconsistencies with the audio.
It allows multiple users to edit transcripts simultaneously, ensuring all team members work with the latest version. Transkriptor completes transcripts quickly, in less than half the original file length, matching the fast-paced demands of healthcare.
Why Should Doctors Transcribe Patient Records and Clinical Notes?
Patient records are not only used for patient care, they are also used for medical research and legal compliance, so they must be accurate. Automatic transcription software not only allows doctors to carry out timely documentation, which is crucial in the fast-paced world of medicine, but it also guarantees that every aspect of care that the patient receives is accurately reflected on their record so the medical team can make informed decisions about their care.
Transcription software allows doctors to compile accurate medical records that they can trust, without having to wait for a medical transcriptionist to convert the content of the recording into written text. Note that transcription software allows users to pause and rewind the recording, so they can check if anything is missing, as well as add to the finished transcript.
Improving Diagnostic Accuracy
Each patient has a health record, largely digital but sometimes paper-based, which includes information from a range of sources to give their doctor a comprehensive view of their health. There is no room for error in medical records because correct diagnosis and treatment for the patient rely on their accuracy.
Transcribing clinical notes ensures that all patient interactions are accurately recorded, which reduces the chance of misdiagnosis, ensures the whole medical team is on the same page, and enhances the overall quality of care.
What Are the Benefits of Healthcare Speech Recognition for Doctors?
In layman’s terms, speech recognition technology breaks a recording down into individual sounds and analyzes each one to ultimately assign a word to each sound. The technical term for the unit of sound that speech recognition technology breaks recordings down into are ‘phonemes’, which are the building blocks that come together to make words.
Medical terminology, from anatomical structures to surgical procedures, differs from ‘plain language’ because it includes words that aren't known to the average person. Medical transcription software differs from standard transcription tools because it is preprogrammed with medical language which allows it to recognize the words that doctors use to produce an accurate transcript and minimize the amount of time they have to spend editing the text.
Automatic transcription software, which uses speech recognition and natural language processing to convert speech-to-text in real time, saves doctors time because they can take notes and fill in forms using their voice (instead of a pen or keyboard). It is more efficient for doctors to use transcription software than it is for them to transcribe clinical notes by hand or type into the patient’s electronic health record (EHR) because they can enter the data as fast as they can speak it!
Ultimately, it is faster for doctors to dictate information using automatic transcription software because it converts their speech to text in real time and automatically populates the correct document with the information.
Reducing Physician Workload
Healthcare speech recognition tools convert speech to text in real time, meaning doctors can document patient interactions and fill in forms without typing. Automatic transcription software instantly transcribes the words that the doctor says during appointments, as well as automatically entering them into the patient’s electronic health record, so physicians don’t have to set aside extra time to manually type up notes after visits.
Ambient clinical documentation, a recent innovation, is a type of technology that extracts information from free-flowing conversations between doctors and their patients to summarize the interaction in seconds, according to the research paper on Gale Academic Onefile ‘Ambient clinical documentation shows promise for physicians: Technology may save health care professionals' time and help reduce burnout’ published in 2023. Using transcription software allows doctors to focus on clinical tasks (which require their technical skills) as it handles the majority of the administrative work, such as updating medical charts and writing sick notes.
Physician burnout - resulting from long hours, staff shortages, poor work-life balance, the demanding nature of the job, and the emotional toll - is equal parts common and deadly (for the doctor and their patients). Doctors experiencing burnout are vulnerable to a host of mental health issues, ranging from exhaustion to depersonalization, which affects their ability to pay attention and remember information.
Burnt-out doctors aren’t able to deliver the caliber of care that they want to, and in some cases, they (unwittingly) pose a threat to the safety of their patients. Beyond protecting doctors from burnout, transcription is a tool for accessibility. Using transcription software serves as an alternative to typing for healthcare professionals who are unable to operate a keyboard as a result of a mobility impairment (whether that is a range of motion dexterity or another concern).
How Can Transcription Services Improve Medical Meetings?
A medical meeting, or a medical congress meeting, is a type of conference where scientists, researchers, and healthcare professionals gather to update each other on their work. The purpose of medical meetings is to bring experts together from all over the world to share the breakthroughs in their fields, through presentations of research, panel discussions, and one-on-one interviews.
Medical meetings are big events, thousands of people attend and hundreds of topics are covered, which last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. As a result, medical meetings cover an amount of informational ground which is too hard to keep track of without records of the sessions and transcripts of the content. In addition to the personal notes that attendees take at the sessions, it's important to transcribe medical meetings so that all participants have a consistent resource to refer to which keeps them on the same page regarding certain topics, developments, and research.
Transcribing medical meetings enhances communication because the healthcare professionals can share the resources among themselves, but it also enhances collaboration because attendees who didn’t make it to all of the sessions that they wanted to can get themselves up to speed using the transcript.
Ensuring Consistency in Meeting Records
Using transcription software to transcribe meetings helps doctors maintain consistent records by eliminating the cognitive biases and human errors that affect manual note-taking, whether they are writing the information down themselves or a medical scribe is doing the task on their behalf.
Consistent records, created using transcription, ensure that all team members have access to the same information and the same version of the documents. Medical teams must be on the same page regarding the patient to make informed decisions, collaborate effectively, and deliver the highest quality of care (to yield the best outcomes).
Transcription is used to record a variety of interactions, some of which happen between doctors and patients, and some of which happen between doctors and their colleagues. Transcribing patient interactions creates an archive of the important decisions that the medical team makes, from diagnosis to interventions, that they can refer back to for both patient care and legal compliance.
Choosing the Right Transcription Service: What Should Doctors Consider?
Time is of the essence for doctors, so the main factor they need to consider when selecting transcription software is speed. Automatic transcription tools are faster than a medical transcriptionist, completing the task in seconds instead of several hours, but not all software is created equal.
Doctors need a transcription service with a short turnaround time to keep up with the fast pace in hospitals, clinics, and research facilities, as well as a speech recognition system that can deliver accurate transcripts of recordings that contain medical terminology (including abbreviations) with ease. Moreover, doctors need transcription software that is easy to use because they don’t have spare time to spend learning the tool.
When it comes to international healthcare collaborations, wherein doctors from different countries come together to tackle complex cases, the transcription tool that the physician uses must have extensive language coverage to accommodate the whole team. It is important for transcription tools to offer one-click sharing and simultaneous editing so that every member of the medical team can access the same version of the text and update it when necessary.
Doctors must make sure that they select a tool that costs less than the annual salary of a medical transcriptionist (approximately USD 20.000), is easy to use, and integrates with the electronic health record (EHR) that they use.
Balancing Cost with Features
One of the main benefits of medical transcription software is that it’s less expensive than the salary of a medical transcriptionist, so doctors can save time, money, and energy by switching from manual transcription to automatic transcription.
That said, doctors need to evaluate the price, capabilities, and integration options of a transcription tool before buying it. The ideal medical transcription tool is within the doctor’s budget, guarantees accuracy, delivers the completed transcript in minutes, and integrates with their existing electronic health record (system) to ensure the maximum value for the hospital or clinic.
Security is one feature of a transcription tool that matters more to doctors than other users because healthcare professionals must be able to guarantee the security, privacy, and confidentiality of their patient’s information. Security protocols and data privacy measures are built into medical transcription software to guarantee that the tool complies with HIPAA, which is the law that mandates the medical information of patients is confidential.
The Future of Transcription in Healthcare: What to Expect?
Innovation is the engine of progress, whether that is about transforming industries, saving lives, or addressing global challenges. Artificial intelligence is one such innovation that is transforming transcription in healthcare. Automatic transcription software uses computer science techniques - namely healthcare speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning - to convert spoken words into written text in real-time.
Doctors use transcription software to take notes on patient interactions, and fill in forms because the tool automatically populates the patient’s electronic health record (EHR) with the information that the doctor says aloud.
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the medical field because it reduces the workload for doctors, which is crucial to minimize physician burnout, as well as making the workflow of hospitals, clinics, and research facilities more efficient.
Intelligent speech technology (IST) is gaining momentum in the medical field: it analyzes the way that the patient speaks, not just what they say. Intelligent speech technology (IST) analyzes the emotional state of patients so doctors to adjust their approach accordingly, as well as being able to identify the early symptoms of disease that show up in the patient’s voice, according to the research paper in ScienceDirect, ‘Intelligent speech technologies for transcription, disease diagnosis, and medical equipment interactive control in smart hospitals: A review’ published in 2023.
The Rise of AI-Powered Transcription
The quality of transcription improves as the quality of the artificial intelligence improves - each new transcription tool offers better accuracy, speed, and ease of use than its predecessor. AI-powered transcription tools are unique because they ‘learn’ from user feedback on the transcripts they generate, continuously improving accuracy.
Medical transcription software saves doctors’ time by automating the processes of note-taking, filling in forms, and creating electronic health records, but it also reduces costs.
The one-time cost to buy an automatic transcription software is significantly cheaper than the salary of a medical transcriber, so doctors can save themselves time, money, and energy (safe in the knowledge that the transcripts are accurate). Expect AI-powered transcription tools to become integral to healthcare documentation shortly because they guarantee comprehensive electronic health records, continuity of care, and patient safety.
Transcription is the future of healthcare because it allows doctors to focus on their clinical responsibilities by taking administrative tasks off their plate, guarantees that patients’ medical records include every aspect of care that they receive, and keeps medical teams on the same page so they can make the best decisions for the people in their care.
Incorporating transcription software like Transkriptor into their workflow, in place of hiring a medical transcriptionist or writing their notes, allows doctors to focus on patient care without worrying about the timeliness or accuracy of their documentation.
