Medical coding, also known as medical classification, involves using descriptions of medical diagnoses and procedures into numbers or medical codes. This then means referring back to a number of different sources from the health care records such as physician’s notes, laboratory results, results from CT scans and X-rays etc.

 The purpose of these diagnosis codes is to help the tracking of diseases and other conditions and to get a bigger picture of the health of the general population and particular areas. For instance then medical codes might be able to shed light on a potential epidemic of a certain kind of disease, or of a serious problem. For instance this might be used in order to inform government programs and decisions. If medical coding was to reveal a high number of individuals with diabetes for instance then, the government might opt as a result to increase awareness of the condition and to funnel money into anti-obesity campaigns.

This information can also be sued privately, for instance to help inform insurance companies, work compensation programmes etc. Finally the information can be used internally to provide a picture of health in the institution, so as to know what deliveries are needed, and how much space is in certain wards etc. This might then be used for hospital management decisions – moving patients into other wards for instance or making bulk orders of particular supplies.

 In short with a medical coding degree you will be responsible for taking the unorganized and often cluttered notes and converting them into universally recognized codes that are instantly informative and which can be used for statistical analysis and modelling to provide a quick picture of the health in a certain group.

Benefits

 With a medical coding degree you will of course be working in the medical industry, and this means you will be unlikely to ever be short of work. Any trained medical staff is highly sought after and there are multiple institutions where you will be able to find work. At the same time this is a perfect job if you want to go abroad, as medical jobs are always forthcoming for immigrants.

 This is also a job where you can get a great sense of satisfaction – by doing a medical coding degree you will be working in a job that will help people and that will help to improve the general well-fair of the population – though without your having to work with ill patients or in the usual environment.

 It’s possible to do online medical coding degrees meaning that this is a job anyone can learn. At the same time, many of the skills and knowledge you will get from an online medical coding degree will be transferable and will help you to find other jobs as well.

A job as a medical encoder is best suited to someone conscientious with an interest in helping people, but also someone who has a scientific and analytical mind. You will learn a huge amount about biology and medicine and you will get an interesting insight into how medical institutions operate.