According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an experimental drug takes 10 to 15 years to progress from initial research to commercial availability. That may seem like an eternity; however, biotech is one of the industries where you simply cannot cut corners. Accuracy and quality are upheld in every test and at every trial junction. Reliable research transcription companies benefit biotech trials, offering faster data analysis while maintaining precision.
So, let’s talk about exactly how transcription can benefit biotech research.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- Biotech research transcription is crucial for researchers struggling to document experimental data.
- Multi-omics approaches and cross-disciplinary collaboration create documentation challenges.
- AI solutions can be entrusted with biotech research recordings, as they can only achieve an average accuracy of 61.92%.
What Is Biotech Research Transcription?
Biotech research transcription is a specialized transcription process primarily focused on biotech-related recordings, line interviews with subject matter experts, clinical trial observations, research presentations, and technical brainstorming sessions.
Transcription tasks for biotech research should ONLY be handled by specialized transcribers – those familiar with the frequency of scientific words, genomics, proteomics, drug development lingo, how molecules work together or how proteins fold twice, and so on, since these transcripts/documents can significantly impact the trajectory of the research.
Biotech-related transcriptions are also highly confidential. The organizations working behind biotech research could create a medicine or gene therapy worth BILLIONS. So naturally, security protocols surrounding it are more stringent.
Use Cases of Biotech Transcription
Biotech research transcription can be used in almost any relevant video or audio recording, like:
| Application | Why |
| Laboratory Research Documentation | To maintain records of the experimental procedures from lab sessions. |
| Clinical Trial Data Collection | Creates structured documentation of patient interviews, physician observations, trial proceedings, and so on. |
| Research Collaboration | To help teams share information between research groups that work in different locations. |
| Academic Conferences | For a searchable resource from presentations, Q&A sessions, and other academic-related recordings. |
| Patent Documentation | For detailed documentation of technical specifications for intellectual property filings. |
| Regulatory Compliance | To create accurate records of procedures. Mainly to comply with FDA, EMA, and other regulations. |
| Training Materials | Helps create educational content from expert lectures and demonstrations. |
| Genomic Analysis Notes | Helps create reference documents about sequencing data, genetic markers, analysis approaches, etc. |
How Transcription Can Benefit Biotech Research
Biotech research transcription covers everything from troubleshooting issues to environmental conditions that can affect your results.
Also, when team members move on to other positions, their research findings and knowledge often leave with them. Armed with the transcripts, you’ve got all the receipts. It may have been difficult a few decades ago, but fortunately, transcription services with biotech expertise are now more accessible.
Simply put, if a California research team transcribes its new cell culture protocol about media formula adjustments, their colleagues in Singapore can accurately replicate it without spending months figuring it out themselves.
Accelerated Machine Learning Applications
Biotech transcripts of lab meetings or any research-related discussions can also be used for machine learning. You see, biotech research facilities are now adapting NLP algorithms, and these machines can analyze thousands of transcripts and spot connections between experiments that even the most eagle-eyed scientists could miss.
Moreover, research institutions can build biotech AI tools specialized for their research with the help of biotech research transcripts. Machine learning models can learn from language patterns in your research discussions – especially the successful ones – and suggest methods you’d never think of.
Transcribing biotech research-related recordings also lets you create structured datasets that link what you thought WOULD happen with what ACTUALLY happened (hypothesis and experimental outcomes). That would help your prediction models determine if a new approach might work.
Improved Regulatory Submission Success Rates
When the FDA or other regulatory bodies are knocking at your door, those transcripts can prove you’re not hiding anything and know what you’re doing throughout the process. The regulators care less about your final numbers – they want proof you weren’t cutting corners the entire time.
For example, your biotech company works on gene therapy, and your lab mice start having weird immune reactions. If you’ve got recordings and transcripts showing how your team noted it and fixed the protocols, regulator bodies will see you’re not just winging it when you ask for human trials.
Those transcripts can also be used to create searchable records through keywords. So, when regulators demand to show them how you handled X situation at 4:30pm on a Friday, you won’t be scrambling for email chains or audio and video recordings. Simply show them time-stamped transcripts, and you’re good.
Strategic Intellectual Property Protection
Biotech research transcription records all the technical insights, making them readily available to the scientific community for peer review.
It might not sound like a benefit, but it helps smaller labs, especially in developing nations, since they can access explanations of methodologies for which they’d otherwise need expensive training. Of course, it’s a different story for some confidential biotech research.
Moreover, research transcription helps bridge disciplinary boundaries by making jargon more understandable (through context). I also noticed that those exploring interdisciplinary questions can more easily understand concepts from unfamiliar studies when transcribed.
Streamlined Multiomics Integration
Biotech research generates tons of data from genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and other fields – each with its own technical approaches. Biotech research transcription can be handy in connecting all those datasets typically isolated in their platforms.
When researchers discuss their findings and these conversations get transcribed, you’d get cross-discipline insights that structured data alone can’t present.
For instance, proteomics data may show increased enzyme activity, but metabolomics results may show reduced pathway outputs or something complicated. Indeed, the transcripts of the discussions about potential causes are critical for these discrepancies.
Also, transcribing expert discussions documents subtle biological relationships that are not found in published literature. It helps speed up hypothesis generation by connecting observations from different experimental systems.
How To Get Biotech Research Transcription?
Now we understand how transcription can benefit biotech research. The question is, how do we get it? There are two ways to get a transcript: research assistants or commercial transcription companies. Let’s first look at the pros and cons of each.
Having Your Assistants Do It
On the face of it, having your research assistants transcribe biotech data may seem easy and cost-efficient. However, before going down that route, it’s essential to consider that transcription is time-consuming. Generally, it takes a professional transcriptionist three to four hours to transcribe one hour of audio.
Note the use of the word professional here. That means that particular transcriptionist comes with years of skills and experience in transcribing audio. They’ve had time to develop a standard transcription template and workflow to do things faster.
Your assistants, skilled as they might be in your field, are likely not at the professional transcriptionist level. Instead of saving time, you’ll most likely lose more time, which doesn’t help biotech researchers. Besides, wouldn’t you rather have them work on something more important?
Outsource Transcription To The Pros
Biotech research can take massive amounts of time and effort. However, the role of transcription in research methods is an overall positive addition. So should you add hours upon hours of transcription projects to your workload just to reap the benefits?
Of course not. You can hire a professional transcription service to get all the advantages. A+ if you can get an accurate, professional, yet affordable provider, like Ditto Transcripts.
Why Not Get AI To Do The Transcription?
Without a doubt, artificial intelligence is an excellent blessing to researchers the world over. With it, pattern recognition, predictive analysis, experimental procedure automation, research data optimization, and enhanced simulation are undoubtedly faster.
Perceptive readers might notice that transcription is ostensibly absent on this list. Why is that?
That’s because current research puts the accuracy rate of speech recognition and AI transcription at 61.92%. That level of accuracy may be fine for taking notes or setting up reminders – anything that doesn’t require professional or procedural use.
However, 61.92% accuracy is simply unacceptable for research projects. Don’t believe it?
Many universities have already banned the use of transcription companies that use AI.
If you don’t agree, ask yourself this: Would you trust biotech research data if there is a nearly 40% chance that it is completely and utterly wrong? UMass certainly doesn’t – and neither does this CNET reporter.
Here’s a shortlist of the consequences of inaccurate qualitative research transcripts.
- Misinterpretation of Data
- Loss of Credibility
- Ethical Implications
- Flawed Analysis and Results
- Resource Wastage
- Publication and Dissemination Issues
- Legal Consequences
- Impact on Future Research
- Damage to Participant Relationships
- Compromised Decision Making
AI transcription work is at the mercy of background noise, overlapping speakers, different accents and dialects, and poor audio file quality. It cannot identify nuance and utilize context to create a more accurate verbatim transcription – things that come naturally to experienced human transcription services.
That’s why I always say humans are better at understanding humans. Ditto Transcripts offers 100% human-powered, U.S.-based transcription for any research, academic, or interview transcription requirements, and we guarantee 99% accuracy every time.
Let Ditto Handle Your Biotech Research Transcription
We fully understand how transcription can benefit biotech research, and it cannot be understated. However, this all depends on choosing the right transcription service.
So, here are the top considerations when looking through the types of data transcription service providers out there—and how Ditto meets and exceeds all requirements.
| Consideration | How Ditto Measures Up Against The Competition |
| Accuracy | Ditto offers 99.9% accuracy for qualitative data transcription services. |
| Confidentiality | Our security measures are CJIS, FINRA, and HIPAA compliant, ensuring complete safety and confidentiality. |
| Experience | Ditto has provided qualitative transcription in varying fields since 2010. |
| Turnaround Time | In a hurry? Get your transcripts in 24 hours or less for rush projects. |
| Transcriptionists | We only work with the best human US-based transcriptionists in the market. We don’t allow AI (or any other omniscient beings, for that matter) in our process. |
| Cost | Enjoy our competitive pricing without compromising on quality. We also offer more economical options if you’re on a tight budget. |
| Customer Support | Contact us for anything you need, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. |
With Ditto, you’re getting your money’s worth. Check out our website’s many examples of satisfied customers, and get the best human-powered transcription services today.
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based transcription services company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcripts for individuals and companies of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.