Make Your Job Easier

First of all, please know that the industry has a great network of MT's across the US and also internationally who are more than willing to assist you through forum sharing and online discussion groups. As a whole, your fellow MT's are a helpfpul group and generous with their knowledge and advice.

There have been times when I have been "stumped" in a transcription with a medical word or phrase and have posted a "sounds like" version of it on the discussion or word boards available and within a couple of hours received excellent suggestions and was able to complete the document with the correct terminology. It will be of great benefit to you to become a member of the MTDAILY web site for the excellent resources and forums.

Aside from the basic equipment requirements of a computer, transcriber, headphones and possibly a digital transfer machine, there are several software programs designed to very effectively increase the production of an MT. (By the way, many students have found great buys on good, used transcribers and textbooks on eBay.)

I could not live without my word-expander program (an exaggeration, of course). This allows me to type in certain abbreviated codes that are automatically replaced with instant text in my word processing document. There will be certain medical phrases that you will hear very frequently. For example, many times I hear the phrase, "The patient presented with..." I simply type the letters "tppw" and the full text appears in my document. I have personally used a program called PRD for many years, but there are also many other good programs on the market, such as SwiftText, etc.. A good speed-typing software program is really essential to your maximum efficiency as an MT.

In addition, a medical spell-checker program is essential to accurate work, and you will be given good recommendations in your training.