I have some feedback on your AHDI Focuses on the Next Generation story.

This article is very vague. It talks about the NexGen campaign, without ever explaining in much detail who this "technology driven documentation," "different type of knowledge worker" really is or exactly how they will perform medical transcription of the future. The only "alternate means of documentation delivery" I could imagine this story is referring to is speech recognition technology (SRT). But as an MT/ME/QA who is actively working with this type of documentation, it has a long way to go before it could safely be depended upon as the sole means of producing a quality patient record.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. I don't think the current experienced and valuable MT work force, or the "aging retiring baby boomers" as they are referred to in this article, should be put out to pasture just yet. How can you discount their years of experience and knowledge? Isn't patient record documentation all about accuracy, always keeping patient safety in mind? Or are we sacrificing quality for quantity now?

It takes a keen, experienced, knowledgeable MT to edit the SRT reports correctly and safely, and there is no substitution for experience in this field. "Younger" is in no way equal to experienced. Catching a medication error or a med dosing error is something that cannot be taught in an 18-month training course and can only be learned with time and experience. Why AHDI and the powers that be in the medical field would want to ignore that fact and put patient safety at risk is beyond my apprehension.

It is a shame how AHDI seems no longer interested in the American MTs that it says it supports. Discounting the still very viable and not-dead-yet experienced MTs for a younger, faster, "technology driven" work force to "proofread" reports done by offshore workers is a dangerous proposal and a slap in the face for every American MT who worked hard perfecting her skills and who helped to make some of the larger medical transcription outsourcing companies what they are today.

It just underscores the plight of all American jobs, the state of affairs of the American medical transcription industry and reveals the frightening fact that we have distanced ourselves from "quality" for the sake of "quantity." What a dangerous prospect. These aren't socks we are making; they are legal documents of a patient's sensitive medical records.

Shame on this entire industry, AHDI included, for cheapening our jobs and what they represent and turning their backs on the "aging boomer work force" who are hardly non-viable and not quite out to pasture yet.