Medical transcription is the process of converting a health care provider’s (physician, surgeon, etc) dictated (or less frequently, handwritten) notes into accurate, readable records. The most prevalent method in vogue today is to convert the doctor’s dictation from voice to text and thus construct a patient medical record, all in digitized format, and thereafter return the same to the originator within a specified turn around time (TAT).
 
The material transcribed includes, amongst others, patient history and physical reports, clinic notes, office notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, letters, psychiatric reviews, laboratory reports, x-ray reports and pathology reports and other similar kinds of medical records.

Medical transcription may be carried out for medical professionals operating out of small clinics to large hospitals. These transcribed records are used for purposes of patient records, making insurance claims (coding & billing), clinical decision systems and medical research, and serve as a medicolegal reference of patient care.

Medical transcription is a job requiring intellectual skills, research and analytical skills and strong domain knowledge of the Medical and American (English) language.  It is not a data entry or a simple data conversion job. It requires structured formal training, and thereafter continuous learning on the job.