How it works:

“3-2-1” Medical Transcription Short Cuts/Phrase Expanders achieve frequently-used phrases with little or no effort.  It is as simple as counting backwards.  Use the first THREE letters of the first word (or all the letters for words less than three), TWO letters of the second word, and ONE letter of each subsequent word.  This program may use from two words up to five to seven words (in very rare phrases), but never more unless you choose to add them.  Most of the phrases are two, three, and four words.  When coding these phrases, I tried to think like a transcriptionist and several phrases may appear in several different codes, allowing the user to get the phrase on the first try.  Therefore, try to be specific.  If dictated “return to my office” in a week or “as soon as necessary,” simply type rettomo and get return to my office (only 7 keys produce credit for 16 keystrokes without spaces and 19 keystrokes with spaces counted) or orassan would produce or as soon as necessary (only 7 keystrokes produce credit for 19 keystrokes without spaces and 23 keystrokes with spaces counted).  When using commonly accepted abbreviations, the addition of the last typed character will expand the abbreviation to its definition, as well as using the “3-2-1” formula.  When NOTHING comes up in an expansion, for example, aboo for ABO,  you have multiple options (abortion, absent bed occupancy, American Board of Otolaryngology, antibodies, blood group), and thus NOTHING is in this program in an effort to prevent your inadvertent errors.

Thefollowing TWO subjects discussed WILL NOT work with Word for Windows (and willleave a dash or slash at end of expanded phrase). However, the dash/slash WILL WORK with some word processors such as Word.

Short-cut terms that spell a common word should have a slash at the END to invoke the 3-2-1 expanded terms, e.g. valve/ is valvular vegetation,  but it is also valvej for valve vegetation so that you don’t have to slow down to think.  In cases of abbreviations such as add/ for ADD, simply add the additional slash (the last character typed) for expansion, e.g. add// will give you attention deficit disorder. This rule of adding a slash, of course, applies to commonly used words for medical transcription.

Prefixes: Words beginning with prefixes, but a single word, e.g., hyper or hypo will use the first four letters to differentiate hypo from hyper, AND prefixes such as non (nonproductive or noninsulin) will be coded as a separate word, e.g. noninr for noninsulin requiring versus noninr- for noninsulin-requiring or nonpr for nonproductive.  Other prefixes such as sub will be coded as a separate phrase in order to avoid conflicts, i.e., subdus is subdural space and subars is subarachnoid space OR mid as in midcll is midclavicular line or midlii is midline incision. In most cases, this rule would not apply to words beginning with inter and intra; however , words beginning with inter or intra, that could be confused or misconstrued, have entries in both rules as above.  Prefixes of meta for metacarpal or metatarsal were even more of a challenge than the hypo or hyper words.  So, you will always be safe using the “3-2-1” formula instead of adding on the last character of the abbreviation.  However, some of these metacarpal and metatarsal words have been included using meta as a separate word, e.g. mettapj will expand to metatarsophalangeal joint, etc.

Suffixes/Endings: You must use the suffixes of able, ible, ance, ence, ed, ly, ing, ion, al, el, ment, ness, s, es, ies, and ive which are ones familiar in most shorthand, speedwriting or other word-expander programs.  Examples:  For endings of

            able or ible are b,

            ance or ence are c,

            ed or ied are d,

            ly is e,