MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION AS A CAREER - IN INDIA

You wanna work from the comfort of your home with no overbearing bosses to report to, not have to deal with office politics, bitching, taking the trouble to catch that bus, standing in the Q, have to eat outside spending from your pocket. Wouldn't it be good if you didn't have to do all of that. Just sit at home and earn money working out of your PC. Sounds too good to be true?Well, some of you might know that there are lots of folks out there making tonnes of money just doing that, sitting at home and working from home. While some of them are into data-entry jobs, which is a not a career by any means, there are better career options out there like Medical Transcription for instance.Medical Transcription is a career, unlike data-entry type jobs, which is just that (a job) - NOT helpful in the long term.INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION: Some of you might wanna know what Medical Transcription is? Well, it is basically listening to a doctor's audio dictation and transcribing (typing) it out in MS Word. The doctors are usually US-based and you get paid on, usually, a line-basis (i.e. for each line you type - you get paid at a particular rate). The rates are anywhere from 80 paise per line to 1.75 Rs per line if you are able to send work directly to the client. Most medical transcriptionists easily average around 500 lines per day. If you get paid at 1 Re per line. For 26 working days, at 500 lines per day, that works out to 13,000 rupees. Remember - this is just an average. I know of medical transcriptionists who do 900 lines per day (of course they are experienced and well versed in medical language).So, as you can see, the opportunities are endless for a medical transcriptionist. How much he/she earns, depends entirely on his/her capability.REQUIREMENTS/ELIGIBILITY: This is the really cool part about Medical Transcription - anyone can be a medical transcriptionist. You just have to have an aptitude for good written English skills and a flair for picking up foreign accents. If you are an English movie buff and can understand all of the dialogues - you have an headstart in this profession. Eligibility is nothing specific. You can be a 12th standard drop-out, too (although some training institutes have graduation/diploma as the basic qualification) and make it big in this profession if you have the knack for it. You can be 18 years old or you can be 60 years. You can be a student or you can be a housewife. If you have time and are willing to undergo a 4- to 5-month training program, you can make it in this profession. As far as fees for training goes, some companies give you free training but require that you work for them for a couple of years to recover the training costs. So, there'd be a contract of some sort involved. Other companies may charge a flat fee at the beginning of the training program - may range from around 15,000 to 30,000. But, you can look at this as an initial investment to building a career.TRAINING DETAILS/WHAT IT INVOLVES: The training, as mentioned above, is usually of 4 to 5 months' duration. This is a must if you want to have a good career in medical transcription. During this time, you would be trained in medical language (familiarity with medical terms). They would get you familiar with all the body systems and words encountered in them. They would make you familiar with drugs/medicine names and laboratory terms. Also, grammar and punctuation skills. There'd also be a typing program (for those who do not know typing) to increase your typing speed. Remember, in this profession - productivity is measured in terms of your speed in typing (also very importantly accuracy of what you type). If you already know typing - you would have an advantage over others.WHERE TRAINING IN MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION IS OFFERED:In all major cities, you'd find medical transcription companies or training centers. Usually, most companies have a training program running. So, just seek them out and apply for a training program. You could Google and find some of them, listed on the net, in your city too.STARTING SALARY FOR NEW MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONISTS: You can expect to earn anywhere between 7000 to 9000 rupees per month as a medical transcriptionist, just entering production from a training program. This is of course in an office setup. You can switch to working from home later, after you've obtained the requisite experience. As you gain more experience and your productivity increases, you can expect salary hikes. You can earn around 10,000 p.m. within a year if you are good at your job.GROWTH PROSPECTS: You can grow from a medical transcriptionist who types the doctor's dictation to a QA/Proof Reader/Editor who goes through lines typed by a medical transcriptionist. The QA is the one who checks for quality. Of course, you have to be good at it, only then you get selected to do it. But, the salary is very attractive for those who can make it to the QA level. Ranges anywhere from 15,000 p.m. to any amount (depending on the person's capability) - usually an average of around 25,000 p.m. You can grow further in an office setup to the position of a Team Leader - salaries would be higher of course. If you are working at home, then obviously you are the boss. Growth prospects would not be measured by any designation but in how much lines you can do in a day and therefore how much you can earn.HARDWARE REQUIRED TO WORK FROM HOME: You'd basically just need a good PC, specifications will be given by the company you work for, but a normal PC would do in most cases. You'd need a decent broadband connection for downloads/uploads. You'd need a foot pedal to control the audio dictation. Also, a headset to hear the dictation. The softwares for work are usually provided by the company your work for (they may charge a small amount for this). So, thats all you require basically to earn from the freedom of your home.FUTURE OF MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION IN INDIA: Medical Transcription is well established in India, and apart from the United States, India is the next major country that provides medical transcription services. There is a vast medical transcription community in India comprising of both home-based and office-based individuals. The future of medical transcription looks quite good. Increasingly, US-based companies are looking to cut costs and so more work is bound to come to India in the future. Companies are hiring people, training people, so obviously they need more people to work for them coz more work is coming to them.So, folks if you are looking to work from home eventually - then medical transcription is a very good option for you. You certainly can't work from home working for a call center - can you? Certainly not! Medical Transcription is the thing for you if you are looking for a good career option and eventual freedom to work from home.