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Sep 10, 2005

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No job for doctors? Take an MT dose

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Dear Friends,

Here are some excerpts, from an article in the Economic Times by
Laxmi Devi:

It seems that doctors are having a tough time in Bangalore. There
has been a growing number of doctors who are jobless. And their
only respite are the medical transcription (MT) companies that have
sprouted across Bangalore. And these doctors are working for a
pittance - sometimes as low as Rs 5,000 a month.

Vinay P Bhat, a 25-year-old dentist started his private practice in
Bangalore soon after completing his graduation. But his clinic
didn't do well and he had to look for a job to sustain. "Now, I
take medicine classes in Lake Systems, an MT company and
simultaneously run my private clinic," says Bhat who works in
shifts for three to four hours a day and earns Rs 10,000 a month.

At least Bhat is quite content with his teaching in the MT company.
But Debiprasad, a middle-class MBBS doctor, who works as a medical
transcriptionist, feels, "This job doesn't need doctors. A graduate
in any discipline can make it. To be a transcriptionist, an
aspirant does not require a medical degree; the primary skills
required are good listening and language aptitude and knowledge of
medical terminology ." Debiprasad earns Rs 8,000 a month.

Nevertheless, today MT companies seem to be the only hope for
jobless doctors in Karnataka. The irony is rather than serving
India's large population; they are transcribing and assisting US
doctors! Many senior doctors opine that such plight is due to
over-crowding in medical and dental fields in the state. Those with
a post-graduation degree still have a future and can survive the
competitive market. But plain medical graduates have little chance
of getting a decent job. Manikantan completed his BDS last year and
is now working for just Rs 5,000 a month. Says he, "After stepping
into the field, I realized what pittance doctors are paid compared
to IT professionals." And Sridevi who had dreams to be a dentist is
now transcribing a US doctor's reports in one of leading MT
companies in Bangalore.

Suresh Nair, CEO and managing director of Health Scribe and
president of Indian Medical Transcription Industry Association
(IMTIA) says, "Most of the MT companies do hire doctors at small
percentage. Like in Health Scribe the first MT company to start in
India has 80 doctors out of 18,000 employees. Most doctors take up
MT job because of the money."

With the number of doctors and dentists burgeoning every year and
job avenues shrinking, these professionals are looking towards the
MT companies as saviors. Things are not easy though. "The 'doctor'
tag will not help you while applying for MT job. It doesn't make
any difference if you are a doctor or not. Of course a doctor is
familiar with medical terminology, otherwise it purely depends on
his/her writing and hearing skills," says Vedashyam, a medical
graduate, who is undergoing MT training.

According to estimates, India has 300 MT companies and out which
30-40 are in Bangalore and the major players include Health Scribe,
Heartland and Focus among others. The industry experts say that
Karnataka has the largest number of MT companies in India next only
to Andhra Pradesh. With the expected growth in the US medical
transcription industry to touch $77 bn by 2008, the Indian market
is slated to see a surge in the transcription-based companies. And
the way things are going the new set-ups may be manned by medical
practitioners.

To read the entire article, go to:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1222753.cms

Ciao!

Maj (Dr) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
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Delhi based company with 100+ employees looking for complete
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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) MT conference opens

The world's largest association of people who do medical
transcriptions is meeting this week in Waikiki. The American
Association for Medical Transcription opened its 27th annual
convention and expo Tuesday at Hilton Hawaiian Village. It's a
three-day event.

AAMT called this years' convention, "Ride the Wave to Success."

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/09/05/daily18.html?from_rss=1

2) Dictaphone Expands ichart Speech-Certified Transcription Network

At the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) Annual
Convention and Expo, Dictaphone announced the creation of the
healthcare industry's first Speech-Certified Transcription Network
in response to the substantial growing demand for its ichart®
Managed Services solutions. ichart Managed Services combines
Dictaphone's industry-leading speech recognition technology with
transcription services performed by Dictaphone's Speech-Certified
Transcription Network, which has been trained to edit on the
company's speech recognition platform. This combination of labor
and technology delivers lower-cost, high-quality medical
transcription with rapid turnaround. All Dictaphone transcription
service partners are required to pass its rigorous certification
program to ensure even higher levels of service excellence and
proficiency in speech recognition editing.

"ichart Managed Services is quickly proving what we suspected when
we introduced the product less then one year ago: that using speech
recognition to drive down the enormous costs and improve the
quality of transcription is the future of medical documentation
outsourcing," said Don Fallati, senior vice president of marketing
for Dictaphone. "The overwhelming response we've had from the
market is driving us to create the first Speech-Certified
Transcription Network, offering our clients the most talented and
best-equipped group of 'speech recognition-enabled' transcription
service providers."

Speech-Certified Transcription Providers are thoroughly trained,
evaluated and benchmarked against specific industry-standard
quality, speed and customer service metrics. Those that meet the
strict criteria will receive certification and will be reevaluated
quarterly to ensure continued adherence.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050906/65760.html?.v=1

3) The Evolution of a New Term

Roughly 2 years ago an author reciting laboratory values gave me
"bee-en-pee (?) two hundred seven." I did the auditory equivalent
of a double take. We all know the acronym "BMP" for "basic
metabolic panel" or "basic metabolic profile." But clearly no one
would be giving a single value of 207 for a whole group of various
laboratory results. My abbreviations references were not helpful,
so I turned to the Internet. A Google search on "BNP" yielded
"B-type natriuretic peptide" and "brain natriuretic peptide." After
considering the whole content of the dictation, I concluded that
"BNP" was what the dictator was saying. Because this client had
requested that all abbreviations be expanded throughout, I had to
make a choice. The two terms appeared to be synonyms, and because
googling produced more hits for "brain natriuretic peptide," I went
with that.

In subsequent weeks, "BNP" surfaced all over my workplace,
generating confusion and exchanges of e-mail. Predictably
(unfortunately) some MTs heard "BMP" and, in spite of the
illogicality of the single value, transcribed such things as "BMP
207." Also, another expansion of the acronym appeared in the
feedback and e-mails: "beta natriuretic peptide."

Which expansion should we use? A vote on Google shows that "beta
natriuretic peptide" yields a paltry 310 hits, "B-type" 33,900, and
"brain" a whopping 54,000. However, in the clinical dictation that
I've heard in the past 2 years, the vast majority of authors say
"beta natriuretic" when they expand the term themselves. So these
days I go with "beta," despite the Google results.

Sometimes an author will say "BNP" or "BMP" (we can't tell which)
"is normal." That leaves the MT with a dilemma, because the word
"normal" might logically be applied to either. When I encounter
this, I examine the whole report carefully, looking for any
suggestion that CHF is suspected. If I find nothing, I go with
"BMP."

And I wait eagerly for the next new term, bringing its adventures,
to appear over my horizon!

http://health-information.advanceweb.com/common/Editorial/Editorial.aspx?CC=5849\
1

4) Philippines gives tax incentives given to SME MT ventures

Small entrepreneurs are starting to venture into information
technology projects to get a share of growing business process
outsourcing market, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila said
as he announced that the Board of Investments had approved tax
incentives to three companies -- Seven Seven Global Services,
Diamedix Technologies Inc., and Critical Software Systems
Consultancy -- for projects totaling of P21.5 million in
investments.

Filipino-owned Diamedix plans to engage in medical transcription
outsourcing service and is investing about P1 million for the
initial phase of the project. It will provide medical transcription
service to United States-based clients including hospitals,
clinics, individual doctors and medical specialists.

http://money.inq7.net/breakingnews/view_breakingnews.php?yyyy=2005&mon=09&dd=10&\
file=5

5) Wizzard closes on deal for Wyoming firm

Wizzard Software Corp., a developer of speech recognition
technology, said Friday it closed on a deal to acquire Interim
Health Care of Casper, Wyo., a home health care franchise agency.
Wizzard's best-known product is the "talking pill bottle," which
allows pharmacists to record directions for taking medications onto
the pill bottles.

When the deal was first announced in March, CEO Chris Spencer said
the companies' link was clear. "We believe there are major
opportunities in adding speech recognition to forms for the
visiting nurses; providing patients with our talking pill bottle
and telephone medication reminder services, using WizzScribe for
fast and accurate medical transcription, and offering many of our
customers 'talking products' such as blood pressure monitors,
medication alerts and other talking medical devices," he said at
the time.

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/09/05/daily30.html?jst\
=b_ln_hl
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P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
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All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2005
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
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as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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