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Dec 31, 2005
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....FLAT!

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Dear Friends,

That was Obelix's impression of Switzerland, after a fruitful adventure to
get the flower Edelweiss from the Alpine ranges! :o)

In his latest book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes the
unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively
leveled the economic world, and "accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and
Bethesda next-door neighbors." Today, "individuals and small groups of every
color of the rainbow will be able to plug and play." Friedman's list of
"flatteners" includes the fall of the Berlin Wall; the rise of Netscape and
the dotcom boom that led to a trillion dollar investment in fiber optic
cable; the emergence of common software platforms and open source code
enabling global collaboration; and the rise of outsourcing, offshoring,
supply chaining and insourcing. Friedman says these flatteners converged
around the year 2000, and "created a flat world: a global, web-enabled
platform for multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work, irrespective of
time, distance, geography and increasingly, language." At the very moment
this platform emerged, three huge economies materialized -- those of India,
China and the former Soviet Union --"and three billion people who were out
of the game, walked onto the playing field." A final convergence may
determine the fate of the U.S. in this final chapter of globalization. A
"political perfect storm," as Friedman describes it -- the dotcom bust, the
attacks of 9/11, and the Enron scandal -- "distract us completely as a
country." Just when we need to face the fact of globalization and the need
to compete in a new world, "we're looking totally elsewhere."

Excerpt:

"Columbus accidentally ran into America but thought he had discovered part
of India. I actually found India and thought many of the people I met there
were Americans. Some had actually taken American names, and others were
doing great imitations of American accents at call centers and American
business techniques at software labs."

"Columbus reported to his king and queen that the world was round, and he
went down in history as the man who first made this discovery. I returned
home and shared my discovery only with my wife, and only in a whisper."

"Honey," I confided (says Friedman), "I think the world is flat."

Friedman remembers he grew up in a family where he was often admonished to
"finish your dinner because there are people in India and China who are
starving." Now he tells his kids to "finish your homework because there are
people in India and China who are starving for your job."

There is a message for those in the US about education and skill training,
but I also think there are some exciting possibilities. Rather than worry
about how jobs might go overseas, the innovators will be thinking about how
they can work collaboratively with colleagues around the world.

Ushering in the new year, I am reminded of an old African fable.
Translated, it says:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the
slowest gazelle or it will starve.
It does not matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up you had better be running."

So friends, wherever we may be located, let us remind ourselves to hit the
ground running...

Best wishes for a Very Happy, Prosperous and Successful 2006!

Cheers!

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

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

WORLDTECH wishes you a Happy New Year 2006!
-------------------------------------------------------

WORLDTECH invites applications for proofreading positions for its
KOLKATA unit. Only those with more than two years of experience and
exposure to final level proofreading need apply. Selected
candidates will undergo three months' orientation at Hyderabad.
Compensation linked to merit and performance alone. During
orientation, food and accommodation will be borne by WORLDTECH.
Apply in confidence with details.

Contact: Venkat Nimmagadda, General Manager, HR, at Worldtech MGR
Estates, Saibaba Temple Road, Punjagutta, Hyderabad 500082.
Tel # 040-2335-2700/2698 or mail your resumes to
contactus@....

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Trips to hospital are now via India

From medical transcription a few years ago, outsourced medical services are
nudging into high-value areas like telemedicine. Those with qualifications
in medicine and allied fields can pick from a wide specturm of work profiles

It Started off as a wild idea, morphed into a research project at Yale New
Haven Hospital and finally took shape as Teleradiology Solutions.The
Bangalore-based company started by Dr Arjun Kalyanpur in '02 today serves 50
hospitals in the US, providing teleradiology-based services over the
internet where images like X-rays, CT scans and MRIs are transmitted to
India, interpreted by doctors here and then sent back to US hospitals.

Boasting an accuracy rate of 99.8% - above the accepted US standard of
96-97% - Teleradiology Solutions is part of a nascent trend of high-end
medical work being outsourced to India. From medical transcription in the
1990s to high-value work like diagnostic services, telemedicine, clinical
data management and disease management now, the outsourcing of medical
services has truly entered the realm of a knowledge-intensive segment.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1318137.cms

2) Philippine Government Programs Generate 2 Million Jobs

The goal of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos administration to
generate six to 10 million jobs by 2010 is on track with two million jobs
created in the first nine months of 2005.

The Commission on Information and Communications Technology, meanwhile,
reported the creation of 41,000 jobs through ICT-related services such as
business process outsourcing, medical transcription, animation and software
development based on the submission of industry players. This is 95 per cent
of the 43,000 projected new workers needed in the ICT sector in 2005. The
total demand for ICT workers is expected to grow from 120,000 in 2004 to
about one million in 2010.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/051230/3/xej6.html

3) Top 200 Coding Hospitals Report

Coding performance results for all hospitals in the U.S. are available via a
special report contained in HSS' Hospital INSIGHTTM benchmarking tool. This
report enables facilities that didn't make the Top 200 to view the details
of their coding performance, and compare it against that of other hospitals.
For information on accessing this report, contact Kurt Price at
360.357.6901, or at kpric@....

Click here to download your FREE copy:
http://health-information.advanceweb.com/redirect.aspx?IL=621179&HT=12&HS=3&TT=0\
&TID=-1&F=0&U=www.hssweb.com%2ftop200_APROS.html

4) MTBC, Commerce Bank, and NJ Pure Announce the Success of the First Annual
Medical Malpractice Forum

For the first time in the state of New Jersey, an expert panel was assembled
to address the growing concerns of the state's physicians in regards to
medical malpractice. With more than 120 people in attendance, emotions ran
high as healthcare providers described their current crisis and frustration.
Martin C. Hyman, MD, an OB/GYN of Union County, best described the
sentiments of his colleagues in obstetrics and gynecology, "The politicians
and public don't get it. The system is crumbling. OB/GYN's simply can't
continue to practice anymore in New Jersey. The system is broken."

The unique forum was sponsored by Medical Transcription Billing, Corp., the
4% medical billing and free EMR company, in association with New Jersey
Pure, the not-for profit New Jersey medical malpractice insurer, and
Commerce Bank, the region's fastest growing financial services organization.

An OB/GYN from Bergen County described the overall malpractice issue,
"Health insurers pay us the same today as they did a decade ago, but our
medical malpractice premiums continue to increase year after year." This
paradigm is transforming the healthcare services industry in ways that are
unpleasant for physicians, and will soon be unpleasant for patients as well.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne\
wsId=20051220005895&newsLang=en

5) GTZ partners with USJ-R for ICT training program, including MT

The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) inked a memorandum of agreement (MOA)
with the University of San Jose-Recoletos College of Information, Computer
and Communication Technology (USJ-R CICCT) last Nov. 15 for the delivery of
ICT-related training program. The agreement aims to enhance the
competitiveness and productivity of IT enterprises in the province of Cebu.
This is aligned under the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for
Sustainable Employment Program (Smedsep) of GTZ.

In this partnership, USJ-R is tasked to deliver the ICT technical training
programs identified as critical ICT skills requirements of the local ICT
industry in the 2003 Cebu ICT Survey and IT Subsector Analysis: Thin
Client/Server Development Program, Open Source Development Program and
Medical Transcription Services Program.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2005/12/28/life/gtz.partners.with.usj.r.for\
.ict.training.program.html

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The MTIndia Team
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