Written by: John

Neil already broke the news a few weeks ago that the MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) changed its name to the CDIA (Clinical Documentation Industry Association). I was able to attend the press event that they held to officially announce the change.

I’m sure that many might not think this is such a big deal. Ok, the name change isn’t that big of a deal. However, I’d say that this part of the movement that I’ve been talking about for quite a while. Basically the survival of transcription for the forseeable future.

I don’t think I talked to any transcription companies at the event that weren’t working on some sort of EMR tied to transcription strategy. In many cases they’re doing their very own EMR offering.

I do think that the small transcription provider is likely in trouble. However, I won’t be surprised if Medical transcription companies become successful EMR companies.

There’s still quite a few question marks with this strategy. For example, how well can a transcription company that’s use to working with people transition to making software?

The good thing is that these transcription companies already have relationships with a lot of doctors who want an EMR that somehow still uses transcription. I talked with one transcription company that offers an EMR and they had an interesting way of using transcription and voice recognition to transition them to EMR while helping them to learn to get use to doing the voice recognition. Very interesting approach.

Maybe transcription isn’t the long term solution. However, I wouldn’t count out the transcription companies just yet.

This article was originally posted at http://www.emrandhipaa.com/emr-and-hipaa/2011/02/21/medical-transcription-becomes-clinical-documentation/