Medical transcription has taken a big leap in modern era. However, the gross errors, many times, could prove deadly.
There are certain errors in medical translations that can be fatal enough to jeopardise lives of the patients many a times. No matter whether you are depending on some software to transcribe medical reports and prescriptions or getting it done by a professional translator, you need to keep an eye out for some common errors that keep occurring. Your priority should be to avoid such mistakes.
Here are a few common errors in transcription which should be avoided:
Most prescription drugs have scheduled dosage meant for different patients. The amount of medication which might be right for you could be an overdose for another person. There are different dialects and speech speeds which can create errors and these can prove fatal at any given time. Hence if you are using computer software to transcribe medical reports and prescriptions then you should be extra careful.
You also need to be extra careful while using such softwares as there are terms in medical realm
which sound similar in sound and pronunciation and they can cause disastrous consequences if misunderstood. For example, words such as hypotension and hypertension; colostrum and claustrum sound similar but they are totally unrelated to one another.
Further, there is a medical glossary flooded with one of the largest collections of homophones. These are words which have same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. A little error in transcription of these words can lead to incorrect diagnosis along with inappropriate medication.
There are many processes such as document translation, multilingual copy writing, desktop publishing, subtitling, voice over, interpreting, multilingual SEO and PPC and transcription services, but there needs to be an extra alacrity to manage these processes.
Kunutu – Medical Manuscript Writing 