Laterality, numbers and negatives

A misspelt word looks wrong, so it gets caught. A wrong side, a wrong number or a missing “not” looks perfectly normal. The sentence is grammatical and the report reads smoothly, but the meaning has moved. This applies whoever produced the first draft: a typist, a speech recognition tool or a tired author dictating at the end of a clinic.

Laterality: left and right

A report often mentions the side of the body many times: in the history, the examination, the diagnosis and the opinion. One slip in the middle leaves a report that disagrees with itself.

• Check every “left” and “right” against the others in the same report.
• Check side-specific terms too, such as medial, lateral, proximal and distal.
• Where the audio says one side and the history says another, do not pick one. Flag it and let the author decide.

Numbers that sound alike

Some numbers are almost identical when spoken: 15 and 50, 13 and 30, 16 and 60. A fast speaker, background noise or an accent makes it worse.

• Check doses, measurements, durations, scores and dates.
• Check the unit as well as the figure. Millimetres and centimetres, or milligrams and micrograms, are very different.
• Read ranges and decimals slowly. “Two to three weeks” and “twenty-three weeks” sound close together.

Negatives

“No evidence of” and “evidence of” differ by two short words. Short words are easy to lose when someone speaks quickly, and easy to read past when a sentence looks right.

• Check every no, not, none, without, denies and never.
• Watch for contractions such as “can’t” against “can”.
• Read qualifiers carefully. “No significant injury” and “significant injury” are opposites.

Habits that catch all three

• Read for meaning, not just spelling. A proofread that only looks for typos will miss all three.
• Return to the audio at these points. The recording settles the question in seconds.
• Flag, do not guess. If the words are unclear, a highlighted query is safer than a confident wrong answer.
• Dictate with care. Saying “left” and “right” clearly and giving numbers digit by digit helps whoever types and whoever checks.

Our 10-point checklist builds these checks into a routine you can use before signing. Our article on medical terms that are easy to get wrong covers the sound-alike words.

When our transcribers hear something unclear they highlight it for the author. The author, or the expert who signs the report, remains responsible for its content and for the final check.

Related services

• Medico-legal transcription: your dictation typed by UK-based transcribers
• AI report review: read, formatted and proofread
• AI report validation: your report checked against the original audio