Inadequate information about something often makes people biased opinions about it. The critics of the medical transcription profession, for example, treat it as an easy-money-from-home job and rule out any prospects in future. This makes the medical transcription-aspirant worried. Let’s look at what his/her apprehensions are.

• Anybody’s game: Critics think that anyone can become a medical transcriptionist. While it is true that one does not need a formal qualification or an experience to join the profession, not everyone can become a medical transcriptionist. The profession requires a certain aptitude that only a few posses. A person without the right aptitude cannot handle the profession.
• No future opportunities: Critics will tell you that there aren’t enough medical transcription opportunities. If the report of the US Department of Labor is anything to go by, the rate of growth of medical transcription opportunities is more than the average growth rate of all other occupations. The demand for medical transcription will remain as long as the world needs medical records. And the increasing and aging population has shown us that the demand is on the rise.
• Glorified typing job: Many think that the medical transcriptionist’s job can be done by a secretary or a typist. An individual undergoes rigorous training and extensive practice in order to join the profession. No typist or secretary can provide the in-depth medical knowledge and analytical reasoning that a transcriptionist brings to work.
• Technology is here: The speech-recognition software has been perceived as a threat to the medical transcriptionist’s job. The truth is that the software has failed to establish itself as a worthy substitute for the medical transcriptionist. Doctors are required to spend a lot of time with the software, training and using it. The results delivered by the software are far from being accurate. A transcriptionist is needed to bring sense to the information transcribed by the software. Thus, instead of being a threat, the software has come to become the transcriptionist’s friend.

My advice to aspirants: understand the pros and cons of the profession, talk to a few medical transcriptionists, gauze your own potential, and then decide if you and the profession suit each other.