The XY Files in an MT World : Just for Fun

The Mystery Revealed

Jay Vance — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:09:00 GMT

Here are the meanings of the clue words and the answer to the mystery: Chandler from the TV show "Friends", cherries - Chandler's last name was Bing, which is also a variety of cherry. Bing is the name of a search engine. Pub Med, searching, racing Alaskan...(read more)

Hints On Solving The Mystery

Jay Vance — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:07:00 GMT

Here is the mystery once again, only this time with key "hint" words underlined. The hint may refer to either the meaning or even the sound of the word. If you think you know the answer, please feel free to post it in the comments section below. I had...(read more)

Can You Solve The Mystery?

Jay Vance — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:50:00 GMT

We MTs pride ourselves on our medical knowledge as well as in our research skills. Here's a fun little test of those skills; see if you can solve the mystery! I had a weird dream last night. In my dream, I saw that guy Chandler from the TV show "Friends"...(read more)

Riding Across America for a Worthy Cause

Jay Vance — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:35:00 GMT

For 12 years, Jeannie Benton has dreamed of cycling across the United States, not just for the personal satisfaction, but in support of a worthy cause. For the next 7 weeks, that dream will become a reality for Jeannie, as she treks from Astoria, OR,...(read more)

Lessons from an iPhone

Jay Vance — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:33:00 GMT

I admit it, I was suffering from iPhone envy. As an unabashed technophile (i.e., hard-core geek), I couldn't help but be intrigued by all the cool things the iPhone was supposedly capable of doing. When one of your colleagues says something to the effect...(read more)

A New Use for Speech Recognition

Jay Vance — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:01:00 GMT

I came across a great new product I'd like to give to every physician who mispronounces or slurs words while dictating. It's the BuzzWord Speech Recognition Wristband . This handy gadget allows you to program words into its memory and when the wearer...(read more)

Waffles, Spaghetti and the "Nothing Box"

Jay Vance — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:52:00 GMT

One of the primary premises of this blog is that men and women often view the world quite differently. Various authors have described this phenomenon in a number of different ways. According to Bill and Pam Farrel's eponymously entitled book, "Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti." Marriage expert Mark Gungor describes men's brains as being a frustratingly compartmentalized (to women) collection of boxes on a shelf, while women's brains are a dizzying (to men) mass of tangled, interconnected, highly energized wires.

According to Gungor, most of us men open only one box at a time, dealing with whatever item (singular) that box contains until we're finished dealing with it, then we close the box and replace it on the shelf, making certain, of course, that none of the boxes touch one another, since none of our boxes has anything to do with any other box. Everything is a separate issue. Our very favorite box is the "Nothing Box," which is exactly what it sounds like, and allows us to spend hours upon hours engaged in activities that require little if any actual brain activity. The Nothing Box is the reason why we men can truthfully answer the question, "What are you thinking about?" with a very simple and straightforward, "Nothing."

Most women's brains, however, according to Gungor, are a teeming bundle of sparking electrical wires that are irrevocably intertwined with one another. For most women, he says, everything is connected to everything else; there are no such things as "separate issues." Women's brains are literally going in many directions all at once, making them generally much better multitaskers, unlike men who tend to have one-track minds.

While all broad generalizations about the difference between the sexes are exactly that--broad and general--I've found there's a lot of truth to Gungor's characterizations about the different ways men and women view and interact with the world around them. I've noticed these differences even more acutely lately between my wife Carol and me in regards to an important event soon to happen in our lives.

Previously in this blog I've alluded briefly to the fact that for the past year and a half Carol and I have been raising our grandson Quenton, who just turned 2 years old this week. To say that we've become quite attached to him during this time would of course be an understatement of enormous magnitude. Now, however, the time has come for Quenton to go live with his dad, our oldest son, who has completed a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army and is now in a position to raise his son. In just a few weeks Carol and I will be leaving Missouri for New York to take Quenton to his new home.

Carol and I are dealing with the same mixed emotions involving this transition, but the WAY in which we're processing those feelings is very much a study in waffles and spaghetti, boxes and bundles of wire. For Carol, there is no escaping the conflicting emotions of relief and worry, guilt and gratitude. Whatever she's doing, those thoughts and feelings are always close at hand, and it doesn't take much to bring them rushing to the surface.

I, on the other hand, keep my emotions securely encased in the boxes I've assigned to them. When I'm working, the work box is the only box I have open. When I'm watching something on television, only the Nothing Box is down off the shelf. But from time to time, either by choice or by necessity, I do gingerly open the lid of the Quenton-is-leaving-us box and deal with the emotions it contains. I have to put strict limits on the amount of time I spend with that box, though. While I confess there are times when the ability to mentally and emotionally compartmentalize comes in handy, the down side is that as a result we men are actually less well-equipped to deal with our feelings when we finally do come face to face with them. I think women have the advantage over us in that regard.

The reality, of course, is that the world needs both waffles and spaghetti, both the resolute singlemindedness of men as well as the empathetic multitasking abilities of women. Learning to understand and appreciate the differences in the way men and women are wired is, I believe, of tremendous benefit in every arena of life.

Bon appétit!

Lessons From Thomas the Tank Engine

Jay Vance — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:26:00 GMT

For the last year and a half, my wife Carol and I have been raising our now-23-month-old grandson Quenton, for reasons I won't go into right now. Suffice it to say that you do what you have to do; I'm sure many of you can relate. In any case, these last 18 months or so have been quite an experience for us, considering that our youngest child is now 21 and our toddler-rearing days were two decades behind us. Not only that, for some reason keeping up with an active toddler seems to take a lot more energy now than it did then!

We've been very cautious about letting Quenton watch a lot of television or video to this point, but the two characters we do allow him to spend time with are Elmo Monster from Sesame Street and Thomas the Tank Engine. I know more about Elmo's World than I ever thought possible. If I've learned nothing else, I know that you should NEVER ask Mr. Noodle ANYTHING! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just ask the mother of a toddler.)

Thomas the Tank Engine, for those of you who may not know, is a little train character created by the Rev. W.V. Awdry in 1943 to amuse his son Christopher. Thomas has appeared on television in the UK in "Thomas and Friends" and in the US in "Shining Time Station." And let me say, you have been culturally deprived unless you've reveled to these catchy lyrics and bouncy melody:

They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight
Shunting trucks and hauling freight
Red and green and brown and blue
They're the really useful crew
All with different roles to play
Round Tidmouth sheds or far away,
Down the hills and round the bends
Thomas and friends

Thomas, he's the cheeky one
James is vain but lots of fun
Percy pulls the mail on time
Gordon thunders down the line
Emily really knows her stuff
Henry toots and huffs and puffs
Edward wants to help and share
Toby, well let's say, he's square

They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight...
Well, you get the picture.

There are a couple of virtues which play important roles in the stories about Thomas and his friends, namely reliability and usefulness. All the engines work very hard to be useful and reliable, and truth be told, occasionally they squabble (albeit mildly) amongst themselves about who's the MOST useful and reliable. But, as I'm sure you'll be relieved to know, by the end of each episode, everyone has learned a lesson and once again peace and harmony reign supreme on the little island of Sodor. (There were a couple of times when I was on the edge of my seat, though...)

So what important life lessons can be learned from Thomas and his friends? Well, there are lots worse things to aspire to in this world than reliability and usefulness, and learning to play well with others occasionally comes in handy as well. It's very rewarding to know that not only am I spending quality time with Quenton, I'm becoming a better person to boot!

They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight...

A Typewriter Repairman Grows in Manhattan

Jay Vance — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:43:00 GMT

I read a delightful story from BusinessWeek this morning entitled, "The Last Typewriter Repairman?" It's about Paul Schweitzer, a 69-year-old New Yorker who still offers typewriter repair services in Manhattan--and he makes house calls, no less. It occurred to me that Schweitzer's story in many respects parallels--and in some ways overlaps--the history of medical transcription, and perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from his journey.

According to the article, Schweitzer's father opened Gramercy Typewriter in Manhattan in 1932, selling and repairing typewriters. "At one time, there were millions of typewriters in the city," says Schweitzer, who began working for the family business in 1959 and took it over when his father retired in 1975. "You would go in an office and there were a hundred desks and each one had a typewriter," he says.

Over the years, Gramercy earned a reputation for quick repairs and excellent customer service. The elder Schweitzer gave out wooden rulers that bore the company's name and logo as advertising. The shop's client base spanned from the tip of Wall Street up to the top of Harlem.
The Schweitzers were quick to adapt to changes. The first big one came in 1961, when IBM introduced the Selectric typewriter. (Ring any bells with you seasoned MTs?!) The Selectric used a typeball that could be changed to display different fonts. The ball replaced the traditional pivoting type bars and the need for a moving carriage with a paper roller. Gramercy, like every other repair shop, had to learn how to fix and overhaul the new machines. Aside from new iterations of the Selectric, for the next 30 years, the typewriter business remained relatively steady.
With the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s, Gramercy's business customers began replacing their typewriters with desktop computers. By the early 1990s, the shift had made the typewriter practically obsolete. A number of competitors went out of business, and Gramercy gained business as other repairmen shuttered their shops.
While Schweitzer carried on, he noticed that most of the offices that he serviced were purchasing Hewlett-Packard laser printers along with their computers. Recognizing that those printers would break down and need repairs, Schweitzer took Hewlett-Packard-sponsored training courses to learn how to fix the machines and added that to the firm's service menu. Before long, he included fax machine repairs as well. As Schweitzer made his rounds, he informed customers that he was also available to repair these office staples. Schweitzer, who to this day has never owned a computer or used e-mail, says diversifying has allowed his company to retain a good number of its clients, with about 75% of the business now involving printer repairs.

The key elements of Schweitzer's story for me are his willingness and ability to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and to diversify in order to stay relevant. I know many MTs who are reaching a point in their careers where the hands just can't take the pounding any more, but they're not really ready (or able) to retire either. At the same time, there's no question that the medical transcription field continues to undergo rapid changes and staying current is more important than ever. The challenge that all of us in the field should be taking seriously is to constantly be on the lookout for ways for MTs to diversify when (not if) the need for diversification arises. I personally don't think MT is going to go the way of the typewriter any time soon, but nowadays complacency is a luxury none of us can afford. Keeping our options open makes good sense in these uncertain times in which we live.

How MT Is Like Raising Kids

Jay Vance — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:02:00 GMT

A little over a year ago, through a series of events I won't take the time to go into now, my wife Carol and I became the guardians of our grandson Quenton, who's 20 months old now. The past year has been quite an adventure, as you can imagine, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We both feel we're better equipped to be parents at this season of our lives after (hopefully) learning a thing or two the first time around. Also, since we're both still relatively young-46 for me and 43 for Carol-we still have (a little) energy left to help us keep up with a toddler.

It occurred to me recently that raising children and working as an MT have some commonalities (besides sometimes driving you bat-wacky, I mean). Here are three things I believe both medical transcription and parenting require to do well:

Patience. Can't put too much emphasis on this one. Both MT and toddler-rearing require massive amounts of patience-not just with the toddler or the dictator, but with yourself as well. Just as it takes time for both toddlers and doctors to learn how to speak in coherent sentences, it also takes time to learn how to be a good MT or a good parent. We all want our kids to excel, to learn quickly, to get to that next developmental milestone. But every child has his or her own timetable, and you can only do so much to hurry that process along. Likewise, as a parent or an MT, it takes time and experience to develop the skills you need to do the job well. Some days you think you're really making progress, other days you wonder what in the world ever possessed you to tackle this impossible task. But if we can patiently hang in there, little by little things start to get better. The more we learn about parenting and transcription, the more we understand we'll never achieve perfection, but we don't stop trying.
Self-Discipline. I believe this is one of the requirements of a good MT that prevents a lot of folks from excelling as transcriptionists, and the same is true of parenting. Being a good parent or a good MT means keeping your mind and emotions and tendencies under control. As parents, we don't get to do all the things we otherwise might do. Regardless of what personality type we happen to possess, raising children successfully requires that we become more well-rounded in our own approach to life so we can help our kids do the same. Sadly, this is one aspect of parenting that I fear doesn't get talked about enough. It's easy to become a parent in the biological sense, but raising children in a stable environment requires a tremendous amount of sacrifice and self-discipline. You can't be self-centered and be a good parent, in my humble opinion.

Likewise, excelling as an MT requires a high level of mental, emotional and physical discipline. Staying focused on what Dr. Mushmouth is saying is no easy task in itself, but throw in all the other distractions of modern living and the job gets even harder. Sometimes just forcing yourself to STAY IN THE CHAIR can be a monumental challenge, but that's what it takes to do this job well. This is certainly true even in an institutional setting, but self-discipline becomes even more crucial in a work-at-home environment.
Consistency. Let's face it, medical transcription basically consists of doing the same things over and over and over, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. The really good MTs know the importance of consistency and figure out ways to deal with the monotony of repetition (think text expanders.) Being a successful MT means not cutting corners, always holding yourself to a high standard, never content to let a difficult word or phrase slide by "just this once."

When you stop and think about it, parenting is much the same. Especially at the toddler stage that our grandson Quenton is in right now, helping him learn boils down to repetition, repetition, and more repetition. We say and do the same things again and again in order to help him grasp the meaning of words. But how confused would he be if when we pointed to his shoe we said "shoe" one day and "butterfly" the next? Likewise, as we endeavor to help him learn how not to be a monster child, it's critical that we remain consistent in our expectations and responses. We can't tell him "No" today and "Well, okay" tomorrow and expect him to behave as he should. Does all this repetition get exhausting and mind-numbingly monotonous? Absolutely! But whether it's parenting or medical transcription, consistency is a crucial ingredient we simply can't do without.

There are no doubt countless other similarities between parenting and MT. Please feel free to comment and share any others you can think of.

A Shout-Out for KallOut

Jay Vance — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:29:00 GMT

Today I'm temporarily departing from my usual blog format to tell you about a crazy-cool new software program I recently came across which I believe MTs are going to love. KallOut (http://www.kallout.com/) is a free application that allows you to perform context-based Internet searches from within a document without having to open a browser. The program works with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as with Adobe Acrobat/Reader 8.0 or newer, Notepad and WordPad.

To perform a search, you simply highlight a word or phrase in your document and a very small and unobtrusive blue balloon appears above the highlighted text. By hovering your mouse over the balloon, the KallOut menu displays a variety of search options, including Google Search, Yahoo Search, Live Search, Maholo, and Technorati, or you can manually add additional search sites. You can also designate one search engine as the "QuickPick" (default) search option if you generally use the same search site repeatedly.

KallOut is not limited to search sites, however. You can also use KallOut to check reference sites such as Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Google Translate, Biography.com, Encarta, IMDB, Last.fm Music, and How Stuff Works; shopping sites like Amazon.com, Shopping.com, eBay, and Craigslist; news sites such as Google News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Twitter News Alerts, ESPN, etc.; online photo and video sites including YouTube, Hulu, Flickr, Photobucket, and more; location sites such as Google Maps and Virtual Earth; and social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Again, within any of these categories you can add your own sites to KallOut.

Once you select a site with which to perform a KallOut search, a small (about 3-inch-square) window pops up over the top of the document you're working in with your search results displayed. Up to this point you haven't had to leave your document. Only when you click on the link to a search result does your browser open up in the usual fashion to display the web page you selected.

KallOut is still in beta, but so far I haven't run across any bugs. The company intends to add KallOut functionality to more applications in the near future; I've already put in a request for Thunderbird email compatibility.

If you give KallOut a test drive, please feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you think of it.