Among Medical Transcription, there exists what could be referred to as two classes: typists who specialize in medical reports, and true professional medical transcriptionists.

Medical typists do not utilize professional tools and have no understanding of the business side of medical transcription. Many possess an excellent medical vocabulary, but terminology is only one of the tools professional MT's need.

Typists plug along, producing about 150 lines (and earning about $12) per hour, not because they are incapable of doing better, but because they are not aware of the professional tools and technology. Most people calling themselves medical transcriptionists are really medical typists.

For the most part, this is due to a failure during their training. Either the training vendor was ignorant of professional tools themselves, or they arrogantly discouraged the use of such equipment as expanders and medical spellers, insisting that students must first learn the old-fashioned way.

There is an extensive "old-girl's network" in medical transcription. They cling to and foster the kind of nonsense notions that seem to frequently occur in professions dominated by women - notions such as medical transcription is a labor of love, MT's must pay their dues before expecting to earn high income (which usually equates to about 5 years or so of experience), and technological changes that occurred after the IBM Selectric typewriter are bad, scary, and too complicated to learn. (This is not an exaggeration; many training vendors actually tell prospective students that they can train using a typewriter or word processor!)

They are dooming their protégés to a lifetime of low productivity and earnings, as ought to be obvious with a little common-sense. Anyone trying to work in a profession without using current tools is at a severe disadvantage. Imagine being told that there is some innate value to first learning nursing the old-fashioned way before learning modern tools and techniques. Worse yet, imagine being expected to do your job without ever having been trained in current technology!

Most medical typists know nothing about the tools that we offer and provide training for in our course such as: digital transcription, have never heard of expander software, and don't even own an electronic medical speller. When they aren't sure of a spelling, they actually stop transcribing and look up the term in a medical dictionary, completely oblivious to the fact that this practice costs them over half-a-dollar per term, even at their depressed wages!

The smaller class of practitioners - estimated at about 10% - are true professional medical transcriptionists, with a clear understanding of both the practice and the business of medical transcription. They are proficient in the use of professional tools and they are in an entirely different class when it comes to earnings: from $40 to $80 per hour.

You may hear people - training vendors and medical transcriptionists alike - indignantly insist that this is hype. No doubt they are sincere in their ignorance, but they are most definitely mistaken.

Pull out your calculator and see for yourself.

Independent Contractors earn from 6 to 20 cents per line. Only the least business-savvy MT's earn the lower end of the scale.

Experienced MT's who utilize professional equipment and software are capable of producing 400 lines per hour, six hours per day. At 10 cents per line - the lowest any MT with this level of professionalism and productivity would earn - the pay is $40 per hour. At 18 cents per line, it is $72 per hour. At 20 cents per line, it is $80 per hour.

While these numbers no doubt sound incredible to the medical typist producing 150 lines an hour and earning $12, it is simply an example of the difference in knowledge, tools, and mastery of the profession. It's not unlike the difference between a Registered Nurse and a Nurse's Aide. Please do not take what we are saying and think you will start out making $40 dollars an hour average.

The average professional MT makes between $17 - $23 dollars and hour. Remember that we said that only about 10% of the MTs reach the $40 - 80 an hour range. It is only after years of exerience and with the proper tools that you will see such high dollar income such as the $40 dollars and hour or more. We do not in any way want you to misunderstand what we are teling you, we just want you to realize what the difference can be between working with out the proper tools and with the proper tools such as the expander and medical speller when it comes to your hourly income average in your medical transcription job.

Many training course companies do an excellent job of teaching terminology and preparing students for medical typing jobs. They place a great deal of emphasis on how "fascinating" medicine is, but ignore the business side of medical transcription and the tools that will help you become a sucessful Medical Transcriptionist. While medicine is fascinating, professional medical transcriptionists need to learn more than terminology.

They need to know how to manage their time and effort; how to optimize earnings; how to transcribe quickly, smoothly, and accurately; which productivity tools are the best and how to use them. After all, the point isn't to enjoy learning about a fascinating subject. The point is to earn good money, working at home, as a medical transcriptionist while enjoying your new career.

At least, that's the point for some people. Others are offended by this upfront kind of talk and if you are then you must understand that we are very honest and upront about Medical Transcription. There are enough fly by night scams all over the Internet and Course companies that only care about making a profit that we feel it is important to let you know both the pros and cons of this profession. It would be unfair to only tell you the "bright" side of things and to not let you know how things really are when it comes to training to become a Medical Transcriptionist.

You deserve to know all you can about the profession that you are wanting to train in and what it takes to be successful in Medical Transcription as a Career from your home. We won't apologize for giving you the information and the tools that will help you to make an informed decision regarding your future career. It is not right nor is it fair to mis-lead anyone or to promise them that they can make money by not putting forth any effort. This would be wrong and is exactly what the scam companies are doing when they mis-lead you and keep important information from you!

We are not saying that becoming an MT is hard; what we are saying is that you need the proper tools and course material to succeed in the Medical Transcription Career.