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Boston Career Explorer

Healthcare Support

Medical Transcriptionists

Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate abbreviations into fully understandable form. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form for review and signature, or correction.

Also called: Clinical Medical Transcriptionist, Documentation Specialist, Medical Language Specialist, Medical Scribe, Medical Transcriber, Medical Transcriptionist

Median pay in Greater Boston
$39,010
$18.76/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
170
Massachusetts 2024–2034
−6.7%
90 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
Postsecondary nondegree award

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$36,910$37,200$39,010$44,390$49,120

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Return dictated reports in printed or electronic form for physician's review, signature, and corrections and for inclusion in patients' medical records.
  • Produce medical reports, correspondence, records, patient-care information, statistics, medical research, and administrative material.
  • Identify mistakes in reports and check with doctors to obtain the correct information.
  • Review and edit transcribed reports or dictated material for spelling, grammar, clarity, consistency, and proper medical terminology.
  • Transcribe dictation for a variety of medical reports, such as patient histories, physical examinations, emergency room visits, operations, chart reviews, consultation, or discharge summaries.
  • Distinguish between homonyms and recognize inconsistencies and mistakes in medical terms, referring to dictionaries, drug references, and other sources on anatomy, physiology, and medicine.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Moderate exposure65 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 75
  • Language-model AIOE 81
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 40

Observed AI use today: Substantial (Anthropic Economic Index)

Medical transcription has moderate AI exposure, and AI tools are already used a good deal in this work. Tools can turn dictation into text and catch spelling and grammar errors. Massachusetts is projected to lose about 6.7% of these jobs from 2024 to 2034, and federal notes point to AI transcription tools as a reason. Checking unclear details with doctors and making sure reports are right still takes a person.

Likely to change

  • Typing up dictated reports
  • Spelling and grammar checks on drafts

Still relies on people

  • Checking mistakes with doctors
  • Judging medical terms and report clarity

What federal projections say

“Capital/labor substitution - share decreases as automation of the medical transcription process by artificial intelligence (AI) tools reduces the need for medical transcriptionists.”
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, factors affecting this job (U.S.)

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

Next steps from here

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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

No college programs near Boston map to this job. Many people enter through on-the-job training or apprenticeship.

Talk to a career coach at the Office of Workforce Development about apprenticeships and City partner programs.

Related occupations

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