Transcription Musings - 6 - "Nesting"
TRANSCRIPTION MUSINGS #6 "Nesting" 11/25/02 I hope you are beginning to realize benefit, both financially and with saved keystrokes, from increased use of your Instant Text glossary. Building productivity is an ongoing process and, as I've said before, an investment with long-term benefits. Even though I've been transcribing for several years, I rarely sit down at the keyboard that I don't add at least one new entry to my glossary. I'll be transcribing along, and the light bulb will come on suddenly that I've typed that same phrase numerous times without benefit of a macro. Instant Text is such a valuable tool in this process and makes building productivity so much easier. Let's begin by bringing our focus back into perspective on where we've been in this process of increasing productivity. We have covered adding word expansions to our glossary, then the discussion turned to phrases. I remind you that phrase expansion is how an MT realizes "macro magic"--an exponential increase in productivity. As promised in the last column, I want to discuss a concept called "nesting". Nesting is simply building on an already established macro. I became familiar with this term as a PRD+ user; nesting was a component of the PRD program and allowed users to build upon already included short forms. For example, let's work with the macro "ssob" for "shortness of breath". If an MT takes notice of every time he/she transcribes shortness of breath, it soon becomes apparent there are other words that commonly occur either before or after "shortness of breath". One might observe the frequency with which shortness of breath is introduced by "increasing", or followed by the phrase "with exertion". After observing which words or phrases precede or follow shortness of breath, add these additional words to an already familiar macro. The addition of one keystroke (i) to ssob adds an expansion of increasing shortness of breath, and the addition of two keystrokes (we) to the end of ssob adds the possibility of "shortness of breath with exertion". Further possibilities for shortness of breath include: progressive shortness of breath (pssob)
It is not necessary to remember all the possible endings for "ssob"; rather, a quick glance at the advisory reveals all endings for "ssob". Other significant examples that come to mind from my glossary are: range of motion (rom)
chest pain (cp)
abdominal pain (abdp)
seizure (sz)
The nesting technique can be used over and over in a variety of situations. Utilizing this technique will resulting in a rapidly expanding macro file with multiplied macros. Other glossary entries for which I have utilized this concept include: disease (dis),ligament (lig), blood pressure (bp), bowel or bladder (bob), sign (sgn), fracture (fx), laceration (lac), ultrasound (uls), and syndrome (syn). Utilizing nesting to its maximum benefit requires listening and paying attention to what is being said. As you're transcribing today, pay attention to how many different ways already established phrases (or words) could be expanded. Remember: think longer and longer phrases. In a future column, I will wrap up this discussion of productivity with a hodgepodge of possibilities for increasing productivity to include punctuation, formatting, headings, physician names, address, left/right designations, and entire reports. Stay tuned! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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