How will speech recognition technology affect the future of medical transcription?
The amount of healthcare provider dictation continues to increase. However, the availability of qualified MTs is not growing at the same rate. Speech recognition technology is sometimes used to compensate for the shortage of MTs, but it is impossible for this technology, with all of its limitations, to completely eliminate the need for medical transcriptionists. Even at its best, machine-generated text contains errors that need to be corrected by professionals with language skills and an understanding of the health record. MTs continue to be the best qualified to discern the nuances of human speech.
In spite of the advances in this technology, it has been difficult for the software to grasp and analyze the human voice and the English language with all its diversity. There will continue to be a need for skilled medical language specialists who expand their education and have the knowledge to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and who have enough understanding of the health record to create a final document. Medical transcriptionists continue to be the best qualified to discern the nuances of human speechindeed, the ultimate speech processors.
In spite of advances in this technology, it has been difficult for the software to grasp and analyze the human voice and English language with all its diversity. There will continue to be need for skilled medical language specialists who expand their education and have the knowledge to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and who have enough understanding of the health record to create a final document.
