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Many people studying to become medical transcriptionists often ask this question: “What is certified medical transcription?” An experienced MT knows what they are asking, but it’s not being asked quite correctly! Let me explain.

CMT stands for Certified Medical Transcriptionist. It is a voluntary certification offered by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).

AHDI’s purpose for trying to encourage all medical transcriptionists to be credentialed is to encourage high professional and ethical standards in the medical transcription industry. They decided that if there were certification it would be a sign both to the public and to doctors that the transcriptionists who got it had worked and studied hard, knew what they were doing, and had several years of experience to prove it!

If you choose to become a Certified Medical Transcriptionist you will have to take a test given by AHDI. Anyone is allowed to take the CMT certification exam, but they strongly recommend that you wait to take the exam until you have a minimum of two years of transcribing dictation from a medical facility. Those two years should include multiple dictators who speak English as a second language, many different report types including surgery, and some specialty clinic work as well. If you have met all these requirements you have a much better chance of passing the test the first time.

You should know that it is not necessary to be certified into order to be a medical transcriptionist. Some MTs think it is beneficial to become a CMT. Some employers will grant pay raises to those MTs who have the CMT designation while others will not. I’d recommend that you read through the material on AHDI’s web site thoroughly and then visit a few MT discussion boards to decide if this is right for you to pursue in the future when you have the recommended experience. They suggest two years of acute care (or equivalent) experience before they let you take the CMT test, so you don’t need to worry about this too much right now if you are just starting out in this career. You just need to know it’s there and it’s something to think about in the future if it interests you.

Currently only a very small percentage of MTs are Certified Medical Transcriptionists (with estimates ranging from 1% to 3% of all MTs), but that may change in the future as technological advances cause more MTs to transition to being MT editors, with an increased skill level needed to edit advanced healthcare documentation.

AHDI also has a level 1 testing for MTs to allow you to become a Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT). AHDI says that they developed this examination to assure people that successful candidates who have the RMT are qualified to be doing medical transcription. I am not aware of any organization that grants increased pay for an MT who has the RMT credential, though that may change in the future.

So now you know the question is not, “What is certified medical transcription?” Instead, your question should be: “What does it mean to be a certified medical transcriptionist?” Happy transcribing!

Susan B. Eliot is an excellent resource in this field and is an expert when it comes to medical transcriptionist work. She owns and operates her own transcription business and knows first hand all the details about medical transcription training.