As some of you may know, per the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), the Department of Labor has suggested that our job title be changed from medical transcriptionist to some other moniker. I have heard some odd titles being bandied about such as "health care document analyst" or "medical document analyst," which some feel better reflect what we do. I feel that either of the above only muddies the water and does not speak to our job title with clarity.

Let's keep it simple. Let's keep it real. Let's not lose the basic job title in search of something more far reaching or "glamorous."

I am a medical transcriptionist/editor. Plain and simple, straightforward and easy to understand.

Where I am employed, we utilize a computer-assisted medical transcription (CAMT) platform, also known as speech recognition. The software does not recognize speech, however; it recognizes patterns and a dictator's habits, but does not recognize speech per se, which is why we MTs edit the drafts. Who better to do that? The platform on which I work generates about 85 percent draft documents with the remaining 15 percent being audio without text. Currently, there is no CAMT software able to generate 100 percent draft documents; new dictators to the system do not have a "historical documentation trail" and one can only be compiled through the efforts of a medical transcriptionist creating text from voice. Some dictators will never be drafted 100 percent (background noise, phone line static and other external factors affect the software's ability to create a draft document).

For the draft documents that are generated, our role is to proof listen, proof read and reconcile voice to text. That sounds like a job for a medical transcriptionist/editor, doesn't it?

Voice YOUR opinion NOW about our title change. Rather than to allow our job title to evolve into something nebulous and head scratching, embrace our past with our future and call yourself a medical transcriptionist/editor.

Pati AR Howard, CMT, AHDI-F

Via e-mail