July 01, 2006
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Challenges for the Indian MT Industry

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Dear Friends,

For those who couldn't attend the NASSCOM meet, here is a synopsis
of the presentation by Suresh Nair, CEO, Spheris India.

WHAT WORRIES THE MARKET

1. The primary issue is quality

* English grammar
* Use of American English
* Use of Americanisms
* Medical words

2. Next issue is security

* Adequate steps to protect patient information
* Will technology security be licensed or pirated
* Does a law to address data protection exist ?
* If it exists, is it implementable
* Does the vendor have a US office so the hospital/clinic can
recover damages in the event of a court case ?

3. Third issue is employee welfare

* If the rates are lower is it because of exploitation of labor
* Is the work environment pleasant and clean ?
* Are people taken care of ?
* Not a "NIKE" in China story

WHAT ARE THE DELIVERY ISSUES

1. Difficulty to hire new people

* Job demands high written English
* At least 9 months of training
* Very strong logical comprehension skills
* An aptitude for research
* Booming overall BPO industry needs largely the above skills but
with spoken skill included
* Length of training deters a person from joining transcription
instead of say, a call centre
* Wages in the initial part of transcription career are lower than
other BPO services, but as experience level increases, wage level
in transcription industry tends to get higher than any comparable
BPO industry

2. Declining to static rate from the customer

* As the perception for India has been created as a cheap, low
quality destination, clients still expect substantial reduction in
what they pay for the same service in the US from an Indian vendor
* Unlike software the MT industry has not quoted rates based on its
ability to deliver
* Despite a huge shortage of capacity, rates have declined in the
last 4 years by at least 10% merely because Indian Players have
flashed the 'cheap' placard
* Low rates have meant inability to train/change
infrastructure/increase entry level salaries and most important -
to grow
* Small time entrepreneur driver companies are the worst-hit since
they do not have in many instances direct access to the hospital or
clinic

3. Technology challenges, voice recognition/EMR

* VR was originally sold to hospitals and clinics by the VR
companies as a replacement for transcription but was soon found to
be ineffective, however hospitals/clinics still flirt with this
technology and therefore this represents a relevant technology
threat. In the mean time the Industry has been adapting this
technology for its own use to further productivity
* EMR is a template driven system which allows a doctor to simply
click a few buttons and make a few choices to allow his report to
be ready. Its use is limited to less complicated reports-
radiology, ER reports etc but they are expanding into other areas

To be continued...

Ciao!

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

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Focus Infomatics Ranked #1 MTSO in KLAS Medical Transcription
Outsourcing Report

Focus Infomatics Inc., a Transcription Healthcare Solutions
Company, announced today that they have been named the #1 Medical
Transcription Service Organization (MTSO) in the country by KLAS,
the Research and Consulting firm specializing in monitoring and
reporting the performance of healthcare Professional Services Firms
(PSFs).

The Medical Transcription Service study was requested by providers
to better understand the performance of services that provide
domestic and/or offshore transcriptionists, examining the issues
surrounding offshore service options and the impact of speech
recognition technology on the MTSO marketplace. KLAS conducted
nationwide surveys and interviews, speaking with 97 providers from
96 unique organizations. Based upon 17 Performance Indicators,
Focus Infomatics ranked #1 overall, leading in 10 of the 12
performance indicators and received the top score in three out of
the five Business Indicators. In addition 100 percent of
respondents stated they would buy Focus's service again and that
Focus avoids nickel-and-diming.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060629/clth506.html?.v=41

2) MedQuist Launches Next-Generation Dictation Technology Solution

"DocQment Ovation is our newest technology innovation developed in
direct response to industry feedback and providers' interest in
replacing previous- generation dictation systems," says Scott
Bennett, MedQuist senior vice president of Sales and Marketing. "An
integral component of our growing technology portfolio, Ovation
helps to provide an end-to-end solution from dictation to billing,
including front-end and back-end speech recognition."

Document Ovation was specifically engineered to be compatible with
MedQuist's previous-generation dictation stations, thus
facilitating the retention and recruitment of transcriptionists,
and making it easy for providers to upgrade with little or no
physician retraining required. Deployed at the customer's location,
Ovation provides an enterprise view that allows transcription
supervisors to easily manage users, documents and
voice files from a single dashboard instead of using multiple
systems.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-29-200\
6/0004389483&EDATE=

3) DTS set for second graduation ceremony

DTS America Inc. will hold its second graduation ceremony at its
facility on Eighth Street, honorING 52 new graduates of the
company's training program. The ceremony will honor 37 graduates
from the company's second day training course and 15 graduates of
the company's first night class. The 12-week session of daytime
classes are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., while the 24-week night classes
are from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bonnie Bakal, DTS's Vice President of Medical Transcription
Development is also assuming permanent duties as general manager of
the production center in Carlsbad.

"We're going to a 16-week program," she said. "There will be 12
weeks of book learning and a month of concentrated practice in the
work they'll eventually be doing."

DTS plans to employ at least 200 individuals within 2 ½ years, but
the number could increase."It depends on the job market," Bakal
said. "If we can continue to get the quality of people we're
getting, I don't know that we'll have a limit."

http://www.currentargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060627/NEWS01/606270301\
/1001

4) Spheris taps Whorton as senior vice president of sales

Spheris Inc., a provider of medical transcription technology and
services, announced Tuesday the promotion of J. Alan Whorton to the
position of senior vice president of sales and marketing. Whorton
replaces James B. Panoff, who left the company earlier in the month
to pursue other interests.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2006/06/26/daily13.html?from_rss=1

5) Consultation begins over axed secretary posts

A HOSPITAL trust has confirmed that 24 medical secretary posts will
go when an outsourced letter typing company is employed. The new
medical transcription service - which could see patient notes typed
up abroad - will start in autumn after one of the three companies
being trialled is chosen.

The move is expected to save the trust up to £1m a year. East and
North Herts NHS Trust has said it hopes that all the job losses
will be covered by people taking voluntary redundancy rather than
making it compulsory.

Director of human resources Danny Mortimer said: "The trust is
satisfied that a professionally managed remote transcription
service will work very effectively. "We believe that, at
significantly reduced cost to the hospital trust, this new service
will result in as good a service as is the case currently.

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/content/whtimes/news/story.aspx?brand=WHTOnline&categor\
y=News&tBrand=herts24&tCategory=newswhtnew&itemid=WEED27%20Jun%202006%2017%3A15%\
3A15%3A653
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The MTIndia Team
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