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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 36
SEPTEMBER 24, 1971
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Medical Transcription: WorW Opens
For Blind Workers
Medical terminology is a language in itself. It takes
physicians years to learn and master it, while the majority of
people go through life never really understanding its
complexities and meanings.
It is a rare find then when you come upon a secretary who
not only knows how to spell medical terms, but who also
understands most of them. It is an even rarer find when you
realize she has never seen in print the words she knows and
writes so well.
Mrs. Marie Boring, a medical transcriptionist for the chief
resident in medicine, is reputed to be a "whiz at medical
terminology." She credits a large part of her skill to the Duke
program that trained her.
Entitled "Vocation Rehabilitation Medical Transcription
Program," the course trains blind persons to be medical
typists. Begun in 1961, it was the idea of Charles Frenzel, then
superintendent of the Hospital, and Earl Jennings of the North
Carolina State Commission for the Blind.
"When I first started the course," said Mrs. Boring, "I
thought I was in the wrong place. All the words were Greek
and Latin."
But with the help of Webster's and her teacher spelling
from Dorland's Medical Dictionary, the words became less
strange to Mrs. Boring and she decided to stay with the
program. Dorland's, put into a braille speller in 1970, sits on
the desk in her office today, along with a card file she made
when she started the program. On the file, in braille, are the
names of difficult medical terms and drugs which she has come
across through the years.
She is looking forward to acquiring a copy of the
Physician's Desk Reference, a comprehensive listing of drugs
physicians use, which has just been published in braille.
According to Mrs. Margaret Long, supervisor of the
program since it began, with these reference books, blind
people are as equipped as any sighted person tp be medical
transcriptionists. "In fact, they often do better than the
sighted," she said.
Mrs. Boring is a graduate of Morehead School in Raleigh,
where most of the students in the program come from. She
also attended Guilford College in Greensboro, but quit her
senior year to get married.
When she came to Duke for the program some years later, it
was only the second time she had ever worked in public. "It
was quite an experience," she said, "and 1 am grateful for the
opportunity."
Although the program is set up for a year, with four
persons training at a time, the students can leave sooner or
later at Mrs. Long's discretion. Mrs. Boring trained for six
months when her supervisor felt she was ready to be on her
own.
(continued on page two)
k
A WOMAN'S BEST F/?/E/VD-Mrs. Boring gives an
affectionate pat to her beautiful German shepherd, who sits
quiejy by her side in her office on the second floor of the
Hospital. Mrs. Boring got the seeing eye dog, named Tamba,
before she started the Duke training program and found that
he learned the complicated clinic routes quicker than she did.
(photo by Lewis Parrish)