Medical Language Specialist
Posted By: MLS on 2005-08-22
In Reply to: "Oh, I could do that..." sm - arrrghh!!
That is our title, Medical Language Specialist, which really throws people. When asked to define what that is, tell them you translate medical dictation to document form, be it hard copy document or electronic docment, to provide pertinent medical information for patients, physicians and hospital staff. See their reaction. 
Of course when they say "all you do is type," ask them to spell esophagogastroduodenoscopy as an example of the terminology you use. That usually shuts them up. (Smile)
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Just stating, "I'm a medical language specialist" usually stumps them (nm)
x
Isn't that the truth? We are medical language specialists and should be
dd
YOU may be a typist for a doctor but I'm a MEDICAL LANGUAGE EXPERT!
English may not be the official language on the federal level, but it is the NATIONAL language. sm
From Wikipedia:
Although the United States has no official language at the federal level, English is the national language.
In 2003, about 215 million, or 82 percent of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by over 10 percent of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught foreign language.[139][140] Immigrants seeking naturalization must know English. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.[141] Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[142] Several insular territories also grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico. While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[143]
P.S. Miami may be one of the largest cities, but it is still just one city located in one small state. There are 49 other states. Miami is just a small speck when you compare it to the rest of the United States.
OP Specialist
I have a friend that feels the same way. She loves them. She copies most of the notes, attaches the surgeon's name to it and a brief description and saves them. She says they dictate the same (practically) and she reuses a good portion of the note. Does this make sense.
Kathy
The last specialist I saw regarding my TMJ, sm
suggested that if I didn't proceed with the recommended surgery and braces, to simply hook my thumbs under my mandible and pull my jaw forward and hold it there for a few seconds. I found this helps more than anything else I've tried, and it's cheap, too.
As for neck and back, my physical therapist suggested raising and lowering the typing chair several times a day to prevent a "freezing posture" which is what causes our pain. He also suggested getting up and moving around every hour.
During my break, I find it very therapeutic to go outside and pull weeds. This dissolves any aggressions I had with difficult, clueless dictators, uses different muscles, and makes my yard look better.
My eye doc suggested to frequently gaze at a distant object during the course of the day to prevent eyestrain.
Another great exercise for the shoulders is to clasp your hands behind your back and just rest there a few seconds. Repeat each time you feel strain coming. This helps a lot, too!
Go to tools, language, set language--nm
//
I 100% agree with the ES Specialist...
If the pretyped text document one receives on the computer is full of mistakes, it is diffult and takes a lot of time to correct it. Confusing, I would say.
If it does not contain errors, it's a breeze!
But usually it has a lot of errors, whole sentences that do not belong there and are not included in the voice file.
I worked for an infectious disease specialist sm
who was asked his opinion on someone suing a company because he caught pneumonia from being cold, then hot. This specialist said you cannot catch cold or any other illness from temperature, just from a bug. A person could get hypothermic and then get ill, but it would have to be in extreme cases. Here, it was 20 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday 81, and today 62. I'm staying away from people who are coughing and sneezing. Temperature changes have nothing to do with illness.
Taiwanese ophthalmologist/retinal specialist
he was horrible. i scrubbed for him too, and when he dictated, he tried to do good but in surgery, he was horrible!
have always considered myself transcriptionist 'ist' is a specialist. nm
mm
I would say a GI is the correct specialist and keep switching until you find one who helps you. So
//
I would buy new a Dorland's Medical Dictionary, Stedmans Medical and Surgical Equipment...SM
and Tessier's The Surgical Word Book, 3rd edition. Books you could buy used I would say would be Stedman's Pathology and Lab Medicine and Cardiology/Pulmonary word book. These are all the books I use the most during my day. You could buy other speciality word books as you need them and could probably go used with those.
I wouldn't bother with buying a drug book, new editions come out every year and I just stick to the FDA website and RXList as my drug references.
Also FYI, not a book, but I use my Stedman's Electronic Medical Dictationary a lot. It's easier to open the program than it is to pick up a huge 30-pound dictionary.
Medical Transcription In The Era Of Electronic Medical Records
EMR has revolutionized the healthcare industry in recent times. Many experts felt that EMR & Voice Recognition would totally replace Medical Transcription - however; the industry soon realized that transcription has certain advantages over point & click charting and many physicians preferred to dictate notes rather than document the data at the point of care themselves.
Nothing to do with your first language, of course. nm
s
language
Language skills are definitely at the top - I agree. So many outsiders think all we do is type and memorize a few terms. Makes me crazy sometimes to think we are being looked down upon for, quote - just typing, how hard can that be?
P.S. I hate it that we cannot put quotations in our posts!!
OP does not say who had the language
barrier, the doctor or the patient. Just because she is a white American female does not mean she speaks English.
These ESL's speak more than their own language, sm
many are fluent in several languages. They also pay income taxes at the same rate as USA-born doctors. Until you can speak their language as well as they can speak ours, have some compassion for their efforts, and be glad that you have a job. There are ESLs wherever you go. Better get used to it. Or better yet, why don't you travel to a country where you don't speak the language. It might humble you a bit when you see how difficult it is.
English Language
Amen to that!!!
I live in South Florida and you may as well call it a foreign country. I asked a clerk at local Walmart for Phiso-dem...she had me write it on her notepad she carries around, because she doesn't speak English!!!!
English as a Second Language
nm
foul language
I meant to reply to Tomahawk's post. If you scroll down a few to MQ, you will see what I a referring to.
Should have said English as a FIRST language. LOL
x
So, English is a second language..LOL!
How can someone get a job doing this kind of work without knowing English? Just amazes me! 
AT&T language line
Hospitals can set up an account with the AT&T language line. You call the number, give your account code and tell them what language you need. They have tons to choose from and they are available in real time. You have to use a speaker phone so the patient, translator and care provider can all hear each other. Some 911 dispatch centers use it too.
Sometimes the default language gets (sm)
changed on a document when I am typing and I have to go back in and reset it to English. I notice this when my autocorrect entries do not work and I know that I have them in the file. It only happens every once in a while and I have to "select all" and then change the language back to English. Hope this helps in the future.
LOL We have no'national' language!
and if you don't believe me, visit Miami sometime, one of the largest cities in the U.S.
National Language
"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt
learning another language
It isn't that I wouldn't like to learn another language if I had the time. I would. It would be neat to be able to speak another language, but I don't. And it makes me fustrated when immigrants come here and expect me to know their language when they are the ones who came here. They should know proper English. Or just decent English. If I moved to South America I would not expect them to understand me. I would take it upon myself that if I wanted to communicate I need to learn good Spanish. And if I had a job where I did something such as dictating, I would make sure I knew decent English and tried to make myself understandable. Some ESLs act like they don't care if you can understand them or not. There ARE some who try though.
Wow...so know we have to learn your language as well.
-
If you think that's 'foul' language, you don't
Get over it.
I think learning the language
and losing the accent are not quite the same thing... many of the ESL doctors speak English quite well, and may have been studying English for years in school. After a certain age, the accent is very difficult to lose. Some people have more of a talent for this than others. I know, makes it hard for the MTs.. but part of the job. Not saying they shouldn't try to improve... I study another language, but I am always going to have an American accent.
I think learning the language
and losing the accent are not quite the same thing... many of the ESL doctors speak English quite well, and may have been studying English for years in school. After a certain age, the accent is very difficult to lose. Some people have more of a talent for this than others. I know, makes it hard for the MTs.. but part of the job. Not saying they shouldn't try to improve... I study another language, but I am always going to have an American accent.
English is not the national language sm
America is a melting pot and English is not and should not be the national language. I'm Native American and while I'm not happy about the influx of immigrants - which I'm sure your ancestors were - America is a melting pot and at one time English was the 'second language' around here and others had to adapt.
Deal with it. America is a safe haven and refuge for other countries. Why was it okay for your ancestors to come here but it's not okay for others to come here?
"The Language of Medicine" sm
is a very good book and very thorough. I would recommend it highly.
ESLs are about 60-70% of the dictators, we as language
With this particular doc did you just guess, or did you leave blanks? How many times did you listen? Did you ask for help? They all basically have the same or similar awful accents, so in the beginning you need to take the time to really listen and get to know the accent, that way in the future you can zip through them. What did you do to make them fire you, what was the mistake exactly?
At least most of them speak English as a first language, eh.
Except the Francophones/Quebecois. Plus, they're not undercutting us on wages.
Pas DE probleme!
Are there many American MTs whose first language isn't English? nm
nm
Here is an example of the communication/language barrier
My ex-husband had the flu, high fever and it was not getting better. He was quite ill. He went to his physician, a foreign physician with heavy accent. My ex tried to explain how sick he was. The doctor rx'ed antibiotic and sent him home. That night, my ex had a high fever and went into a seizure. Paramedics were called. He was still seizuring by the time they reached his home. He came into the hospital with bilateral acute renal failure due to the infection and high temp.
When I spoke to him, he said it was clear the physician did not appreciate how ill he was and the language barrier was limiting their ability to talk to one another. My ex was so ill, he didn't feel like being assertive. He should have been hospitalized. But, that is too late now. His kidneys never regained function and now he sits with millions of others waiting for a donor at UCLA.
Heartbreaking, isn't it?
language was being discussed - not just plead
French 1st Language dictators
My take is that you are both correct and mistaken. People with French as their mother tongue can be both challenging and reliable to transcribe in English. The challenging part is the omission of certain sounds that are normal to the English-attuned ear. The reliable part is that the differences one hears are usually SO predictable. I belive that with more info I can help you even with your specific problem.
Assault on the English Language
I transcribe for a doctor who I think may be Russian, but anyway, he has lived in this country (USA) for many years and has not taken the time to learn to speak succinctly. As a matter of fact, he seems to be dyslexic on top of the heavy accent and often phrases words backwards, does not know how to speak concisely, and I am thinking whoever has the misfortune of reading his HNP's is going to think he is a real Dip (even after editing). Even our editors have a real challenge getting through his work. I wish I could shake the snot out of him and require that every ESL physician practicing in America be required to speak the English language fluently.
ESL just means English as second language.
x
Doesnt matter how many language I know.
x
Doubt I know our language"perfectly" but you
x
It is you, because you used that same language on your original post...
and who says "loser" anymore besides my young son???
Had an Iranian who didn't know the language sm
so he would just say, "whatever's that word I want - if you don't know it, look it up in the dictionary." That was between all his ummm, ummm, ahhh, It doesn't matter what country he was from, it is just to get the point across that he had a very heavy accent to boot and he never bothered to try to improve one bit in 12 years. His version of amaurosis fugax was "amagosis fewjacks." Grrrr.
Old lady: What language is: 'Bizoar?' Go to bed!...nm
nm
True but if they dictated in mother language, might not be AS bad. nm
:?
When you have an EFL doctor and they mumble, speaking the language does not help
Only possibly having a knowledge of what they usually say, or what should go there. a mumble is a mumble is a mumble.
I know what you mean - I cannot believe AAMT can change the English language-
but they dooooooo!!! It's so frustrating. I absolutely refuse to type one space after a period or question mark. I was taught two spaces from TYPING CLASS and that is the way it will be.
Personally, I think it is so the MTSOs that pay for lines and spaces will not have to pay for extra spaces. But that's just my opinion.
The topic is fine; be careful of language, that's all. (NM)
Goldbird
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