Challenges to the Work
Medical Transcriptionists must type exactly what they heard, even if they feel its wrong. They have the right to flag sections of the information they feel sound questionable. Some doctors double check the work for accuracy, while others will attach an electonic signature stating, "dictated but not read". A mistake in transcriptions might give a patient the wrong medicine, wrong dosage, or something else that could prove detremental to the patient's health as well as the repuation of the doctor. Many doctors are in a hurry and speak too quickly, mumble, or have difficult to understand accents which cause a significant challenge for the transcriptioninst. The MT must be able to recognize obvious errors in dosage or in dictations as a matter of common sense. Additionally, an MT must be familiar with all of the new medical machines and medications, so that they can do a completely reliable job in all cases.

Outsourcing Medical Transcriptions
It is much less expensive to outsource MT work overseas. The Philippines does the majority of the work, while India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Canada do a lot of outsourced MT work as well. People in foreign countries may or may not have the same quality of training as their American counterparts. Another issue is that those in foreign countries will have trouble understanding American slang and mumbling. A native speaker of American Englsh will have an easy time undestanding even the most unclear pronunciation while someone in Sri Lanka who is not extremely experienced, might have considerable trouble. Filipinos often speak English as their primary language and are familiar with colloquialisms, idioms, slang, and other linguistic nuances that might be used.

The Future of Medical Transcription
With technology changing so quickly, ten years from now, we will be living in a different reality all together. The proportion of work outsourced could be exponentially higher than what it is now. There might be faster flights and an international migrant workforce of people who go from country to country to perform various work related tasks. For all we know, 30% of the outsourced transcription work could be done or managed by Americans who temporarily live overseas. With machinery changing so fast, perhaps much of the work could be done by computers. Voice recognition is in a primitive evolutionary stage now, but in ten years, this sophisticated science will become very refined. One thought that comes to mind is the possibility of simultaneous transcriptions where a dictation is transcribed by a computer and double checked by a human 5000 miles away, and a formal record is created the very same minute. Anything is possible.