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Jul 30, 2005

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The future of MT

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Dear Friends,

Here are is a reprint from an article I wrote over 5 years back.
The more things change...

Firstly there are two fallacies existing amongst the MT community
(in which I'll include businessmen):

The first, is more relevant to India. Every investor I have met,
sooner or later comes down to the 'fact' that MT is a low end IT
job. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I do concede that MT
in India is an IT enabled service i.e. it would not have been
possible without the net. That is where the resemblance ends. Good
and secure connectivity is a must and technology can be harnessed
to improve productivity, but the core skills are centered around
mastering the language of medicine ( which might be, and
frequently is literally, Greek or Latin to the uninitiated) and
appreciating the physician's requirements. It is a knowledge based
profession, and the knowledge has nothing to do with IT. Period.

Secondly I do not see any vision amongst those who spread the hype
about MT being an Industry per se, especially so in the developed
world. With accuracy, accountability, efficiency, reliability, and
usability being the key issues, the future lies with MT being
seamlessly integrated into Health Information Management Systems.
In simpler words we are moving to formatted electronic medical
records, speech recognition as a valuable tool, and transcribing
in realtime on the service providers server. That's the ASP
concept, which one and all visionaries are racing towards.

That leads to the core issue: what is the MT's future? This I talk
about globally, and not restricted by geography. Firstly, as I
visualize it, the MT's job profile will be drastically changed in
the next ten years, so much so that they might be known by some
other name by 2010. Yesterday's typist is called a data entry
operator today!

But closer to the ground I do not a visualize a society ten years
from now where anybody will be ready to accept dictations which
are mumbled,munched, slurped, flushed..... etc down the ear, be it
in India or the US. Physicians as a class are the major hindrance
to the growth of Medical Informatics, and resist any sort of
change requiring reorientation; yet society is the strongest
driving factor and will have the last word.

To sum it up:

1) The MT will stay.

2) The job will be done differently, possibly by a different name.

If you ask me to be more specific - I cannot. I might be a self
proclaimed visionary, however I am neither an astrologer nor a
soothsayer.

So the message is: Do your work well, and
have a great weekend!!!

Ciao!

Maj (Dr) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

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****************

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You will be required to relocate to Indore and work on a full time
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The candidate should have the burning desire to excel in our
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URGENTLY REQUIRED: MTs/Proofers/Editors
++++++++++++++++++++
CRYSTAL PARENTERALS LTD. is an Indian arm of Global Information
Systems, LLC, an Indiana, USA based Healthcare BPO organisation
that provides Medical Transcription, Billing, Coding, Insurance
Claims Processing services to various types of clients.

We have some immediate openings available at our Ahmedabad, Gujarat
unit:
Medical Transcriptionists (MT): Should have experience of about one
year with productivity of 500 lpd and >90% accuracy.
Proofers (PR) and Editors (ED): Should have experience of about 2
years with productivity of 1500 lpd and >99% accuracy.

Candidates must be experienced in transcribing most of the work
types and multispecialty dictations. Generally day shift work, but
some candidates may be required to work in night shift.

Only candidates interested to work in Company may immediately send
in their resume with current and expected CTC quoting appropriate
job code in the subject line.

Crystal Parenterals Ltd.
B-61, Pariseema Building
C.G.Road
Ahmedabad
+91-79-55313977
jobs@...

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Philips SpeechMagicT wins "Most Innovative Speech Recognition
Solution" Award

Royal Philips Electronics announced that it has won the
industry-leading "Most innovative speech recognition solution"
award from Speech Technology Magazine. Philips received the award
jointly with Dolbey and Borgess Medical Center for increasing
medical transcription productivity by more than 30% at the medical
center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This resulted in cost savings of $
212,000 for outsourced medical transcription within the first year
of operation.

At Borgess, SpeechMagic is integrated into the Fusion Text® medical
reporting application, and is currently used by 129 physicians in a
back-end recognition process. The increased output of the
transcription team has cut report turnaround-time from between
24-96 hours to 4-72 hours, which ensures that no treatment is
interrupted due to missing medical data.

"Borgess Medical Center, Dolbey and Philips have shown that the
time is right for industrial-grade speech recognition in the
medical area. They achieved clear economical benefits as well as
improvements in patient care. Their commitment to use speech
recognition technology for the benefit of both, patients and
physicians has convinced us that they deserve this award," says
John Kelly, Editor-in-chief, Speech Technology Magazine.

Bjoern Aune, Sales Director North America at Philips Speech
Recognition Systems comments: "This award is yet another proof that
solutions which are powered by SpeechMagic lead to clearly
measurable results. Borgess Medical Center joins a Spanish and a UK
hospital group, which have recently been awarded for their
improvements in efficiency and patient care, strengthening
SpeechMagic's leading position in the medical speech recognition
market."

http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=88196&src=0

2) Growing Concern - AAMT's Financial position

The Association has incurred decreases in its members' equity
during 2004 and 2003, totaling approximately $334,000 and its
working capital has decreased approximately $400,000 during the
same period. These conditions indicate uncertainty regarding the
Association's ability to continue as a going concern.

http://www.aamt.org/scriptcontent/Downloads/Audit2004.pdf

3) Doc is Asia's first blind transcriptionist?

Blind due to a gunshot wound in the head, Michael Borgonia, a
former government physician from Balamban Cebu, is the first
totally blind medical transcriptionist not only in the Philippines
but in Asia. He was hired by Total Transcription Solutions Inc.
(TTSI) last June.

Borgonia, 37, qualified for the home medical transcriptionist
requirement of TTSI after almost a year of training with Project
ATTRAC (Adaptive Technology Training Resource and Access Center).
This is a program of the Adaptive Technology For Rehabilitation,
Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired, a
non-government organization that gives computer training to blind
and visually impaired persons.

Project ATTRAC is implemented in partnership with Overbrook/Nippon
Network on Educational Technology (ON-NET), Christian Blind Mission
(CBM) and STI Foundation on Leadership and Information Technology
Education (STI-FLITE).

TTSI provides off-shore medical transcription services to
hospitals, clinics, group and individual practices. Myla Rose
Mundo-Reyes, TTSI managing director admits that initially, they
were apprehensive in dealing with visually impaired persons. "But
when we saw the screen reader software, and we noted that the only
impairment was the eyesight, it gave us a sense of hope," Reyes
said.

The training is tedious," Carol Catacutan, ATRIEV'S totally blind
training director, explained.

Also crucial in the training is the interface of the screen reader
program with that of the software used by the transcription
company. A screen reader program allows a blind person to
manipulate the computer through a vocal response.

http://www.mb.com.ph/HLTH2005080140759.html

4) Spend it!

Dr Amrit Shah is a homeopathic physician and Editor at Focus
Infosys, a medical transcription company in Bangalore. His wife
Vandana is an administrative associate at i-flex Solutions. Their
combined income is about Rs 6 lakh per annum. They have a monthly
budget, which is "around Rs 20,000, plus or minus Rs 2,000. We try
to stick to our budget as far as possible," says Shah. But that
doesn't stop them from spending more. "That's why the planned
cushion of Rs 2,000."

The Shahs spend mostly on clothes, accessories and, occasionally,
on electronic gadgets. Amrit says they've spent about Rs
6,000-7,000 on clothes in the last few months. "However, we prefer
the ones that come at a good bargain over expensive designer
clothes. We are major discount-sale freaks."

Amrit, an impulsive shopper, says his wife "knows the fine balance
between spending and splurging, and makes sure she has saved for a
rainy day. Even if she buys something she has been craving for a
long time, she is always in two minds if she did the right thing or
not." They always have a friendly fight over what has been bought
and how to put it to good use. "For example, I wanted to buy a
laptop, and Vandana insisted that since I use the desktop
sparingly, a laptop would be another wasteful addition," says
Amrit. Vandana's impulses are limited to trinkets and cosmetics,
while Amrit's include a home-theatre system, iPod and laptop among
other things.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/canvas/2005/07/30/stories/2005073000120200.h\
tm

5) OmniMD releases new version of EMR

OmniMD, a developer of HIPAA compliant EMR solutions has launched
its new release, Version 6.0, with wealth of new features, modules
and services making it one of the most comprehensive integrated EMR
solutions in the marketplace.

"Our primary focus in the new release has been to eliminate
bottlenecks in the clinical workflow and information management."
said Divan Da've, CEO of OmniMD.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=28242
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All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2005
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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