He is saying "there is a 3-4/6 systolic ejection murmur," then he says: all roman numerals. I am sure it is arabic - what would you do in this case? Thanks.

Deb

Oops - I'm sorry, I did not really answer your question. I would ascribe to the direction set by the BOS. Hopefully your client relationship is good and you can mention this to the doc.

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: Debo ]

This is something that definitely will be noticed by the doc, and you have to decide whether it's worth being "right" (per AAMT) or not.

P.S. Softpaws, there are other documentable sources for this besides the book of style.

I do wonder what others do when told to transcribe something obviously incorrect.

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: Debo ]

Rosa Lea

quote:

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Roman numerals vs. Arabic (note caps - proper name)

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Uh, I do believe it is roman numerals and arabic numerals -- one reference is BOS....but I'll check for another in case that should be discounted.

Deb

Checking various dictionaries shows it in caps. Why the difference between BOS and other sources.

BTW, for cranial nerves the BOS does say "use arabic or roman numerals for cranial nerve designations" -- our choice.

Deb

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: Debo ]

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: Debo ]

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: softpaws ]

quote:

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Deb, we here at AAMT aren't in the business of making arbitrary decisions when it comes to style. Any recommendations we make are based on researching reputable sources. In the case of cardiac murmurs, I refer you to p. 349 of the American Medical Association Manual of Style, which states that "murmurs are written in arabic numerals." This manual also lowercases roman and arabic when referring to numerals.

The Gregg Reference Manual, in sections 468 and 469 (p. 120) uses lowercase for arabic and roman, as does the Chicago Manual of Style in its index and in the body of the book.

Styles do change. Consider the American Diabetes Association, which for most of its life used roman numerals for diabetes classification. Several years ago they changed to arabic numerals.

Anyway, there is no way we would just throw something into the Book of Style without having a good basis for our choice. Physicians don't always agree with our choices; many prefer to do it "the way we have always done it." If they insist, doing it their way may be necessary. Lots of
MTs say that something is "the way we have always done it," but times do change, as do styles. We hope that medical transcriptionists will thoughtfully consider the style suggestions in the BOS and know that we did our homework before we suggested changes that would bring our profession the most up-to-date conclusions.

We appreciate the excellent material found on MTDesk and the efforts the MTDesk staff makes to support the medical transcription profession. It is to MTDesk that I always send individuals who are interested in or new to the profession, for I know that the discussion forums there will always be well moderated and supportive and that they are more likely to find useful information there than on almost any other MT forum with which I am familiar.

Thanks very much for giving us the opportunity to respond to your questions.

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I thank Diane and the AAMT for their time today and the monumentous effort put forth in producing the BOS. I personally am grateful for the principles and structure they provide; if we were without it, it would just be the Wild, Wild West out there.

Thanks again all for provoking my thoughts today.

Deb

[ 02-05-2003: Message edited by: Debo ]

Thanks for all of that information you received from AAMT, but now the question is diabetes mellitus is now typed with arabic and not roman? The BOS that I purchased two years ago states "type I, type II diabetes. According to their message to you, they state arabic??? I have only been doing transcription for two years, and I must say, it does get confusing at times when it comes to style! I have gone from typing it in arabic, then changed to roman, and now back to arabic??? Hopefully, one of these days I will get this right - LOL!!! Thanks Debo for all the time you have spent on this issue.

quote:

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The Expert Committee adopted the use of arabic numerals for diabetes types in order to improve communication, stating that it is too easy to confuse the roman numeral II for the arabic number 11.

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This information on the classification of diabetes is taken from the Report of the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, first published in 1997 and further modified since then (available throught the American Diabetes Association) according to the BOS, second edition, p. 129.

Deb