Why pay out for a course when you can teach yourself? Yes it helps if you have a medical background - especially if you've worked in a GP surgery and have an all-round grasp of medical terminology - but I have done medical transcription without any prior knowledge of medical terminology. If you already have transcription skills or audio typing skills, it?s well worth having a go at medical transcription.
Firstly, not all medical transcription requires this. Some of it is more general and whilst there may be some medical terminology used, if the speaker is clear it is easy to look up the terminology. If you are not sure you can always ask your customer to clarify.
A good way of entering this market though is to pick a specialist field - most medical professionals work within specific specialities or fields - and familiarise yourself with the lingo. Do some practice with medical files in that particular field. You will find lots of samples on the internet if you look hard enough.
As a first stop, try Spoken Words, where you can download medical report and disucssions in audio format to practice transcribing, and work with a medical terminology dictionary. You will be surprised how quickly you become familiar with most of the terms used within that medical field.
As someone who has run my own transcription company for quite a few years, I'm a firm believer that where there is a will, there is a way. Although most of my work is general transcription - and fascinating work it is, too - nevertheless I have done both medical and also legal work, including both recording and transcribing medical meetings and court hearings. In the case of medical work, simply be honest with your potential customer and ask them what level or amount of medical terminology is used before you take on the work.
I have a regular customer who is a researcher in the field of Physiotherapy and I've become very familiar with the terminology used in that particular field.
What I would say is, don't take this kind of work if the medical professional whose work you are transcribing is a poor speaker! It's not something you would want to take risks with getting wrong.
But don't let people scare you either. It's not rocket science.
Best of luck :)