Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and transcribing the dictation made by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, regarding patient status, treatment procedures, prognoses, diagnoses etc. The Medical Transcriptionist may also edit the text that is produced by voice recognition software, and requires extensive knowledge of medical pharmacological and anatomical terms.

Today the medical transcriptionist usually just edits the output of the software which can range from a few corrections to major changes, because voice recognition software still has not been perfected. The purpose of medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist remains the same as it was in earlier times, to keep a record of a patient's medical status and treatment.

Medical Transcriptionists can acquire work from medical transcription firms who receive dictations made by doctors and turn these orders over to medical transcriptionists to be transcribed. Medical Transcription has matured and now requires specific education and knowledge regarding medical language, Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, physical anatomy, physiology, disease processes, medical science and procedures, medical instruments, pharmacology, laboratory instruments, laboratory test results, medical reference material techniques and many, many more.