MT India Newsletter Archives and Subscription @:
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19 Apr 2003

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The state of offshore transcription!

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Dear Friends,

We are continuing Raj Krishnan's article, on the state of offshore
transcription. Raj is co-owner of Netrascribe, a Medical
Transcription company based in Chennai and manages the US
operations. Excerpts:

· The role of the middleman

If there is any major threat that continues to undermine the
viability of offshore transcription, it is the presence of
non-value added middlemen. The rise and fall of many offshore
companies in India are directly attributable to the foul play by
the middleman. Due to the distance and cost of maintaining an
office in the US, many offshore companies operate in a vacuum
relying on those who claim to have the market cornered in the US.
Most of the middlemen in this business rarely have any of their
investment at stake and jeopardize the viability of the offshore
transcription companies by minimizing and often denying their fair
share of the profit. Inconsistent quality and untimely delivery are
often the results when multiple layers prevent direct interaction
between the end user and the service provider.

Every industry in the world is moving towards an efficient supply
chain and distribution system that puts the customer directly in
the hands of the producer or with the value added integrators. The
Internet is touted as the force that will eliminate those unwanted
middlemen and streamline the value chain. Medical transcription is
no exception. In order for this industry to survive and flourish,
it cannot tolerate those who stand between the supplier and the
buyer. The current transcription industry is a needed cushion
between the offshore producers and the end users (hospitals,
clinics and physicians) and there is no room or need for any more
intermediaries. Associations like MTIA and publications like
MTIndia.org can facilitate this direct interaction between those
whose presence is essential to complete the execution and delivery
of services.

· The issues

Quality continues to be a major issue that needs to be addressed.
Even after several layers of quality control at the offshore
facility, the work needs to be further edited at the US facility.
Repeat mistakes, an ineffective feedback system and the lack of
progress in quality continue to frustrate the US customers. If this
continues at all times, the economic viability of the operation is
questionable both in terms of quality and turn around time. A clear
transition path that reduces and ultimately eliminates the need for
intervention of second level quality by the US MTs is crucial for
the success of the offshore transcription business model.

Like any other, the MT industry requires substantial investment for
infrastructure, training, resource development, compensation,
technology and, marketing. Because of the immaturity of the
industry, the risk is even higher and the investment realization
period is longer. The obvious labor cost advantage is often
misleading and the offshore companies must have a realistic
expectation of the profitability both in magnitude and the
realization period.

The offshore companies that have managed to survive must focus on
ways to repair the tarnished image created by the others who no
longer exist to defend or correct it. This can be a time consuming
and expensive process.

To read the complete article, please go to:
http://www.mtindia.org/article/default.cfm

Enjoy!

Maj (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 :
------------------------

1) The World's Best Speech Recognition for Healthcare Professionals
Made Better?

ScanSoft, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Dragon
NaturallySpeaking(R) 7 Medical, a new release of the world's
best-selling speech recognition solution designed specifically for
healthcare organizations. Already in use at thousands of healthcare
facilities worldwide, Dragon NaturallySpeaking converts speech into
text at up to 160 words per minute, automating the input of patient
information and saving thousands of dollars per doctor, per year,
when compared to manual processes.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Medical delivers accuracy levels as high
as 99 percent, a 15 percent improvement over the previous release.
It also includes new functionality important to healthcare
organizations of all sizes, including eliminating the dependency on
headset microphones through support for array microphones and
Microsoft Pocket PC devices; the ability to speech enable
electronic medical records (EMR) and healthcare information systems
(HIS); and enabling enterprise-wide deployments by supporting
network based administration of voice profiles, custom vocabularies
and software installation.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Medical has built-in understanding for
more than 250,000 words, and includes additional vocabularies
covering terms found in general medicine, pathology, radiology,
cardiology and surgery disciplines. Healthcare organizations can
also easily add their own words to the solution to create fully
customized vocabularies either on individual workstations or
throughout a network. Care providers can take advantage of
voice-activated shortcuts, allowing a single word or phrase to
automatically populate fields in an EMR, or to simply generate full
paragraphs of standardized text. For example, a voice-shortcut of
"insert standard flu symptoms" could be used to populate an EMR
system or Microsoft Word template with complete paragraphs of data.

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.
041503/231055155&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_fi
le=

2) GE India not to undertake 3rd-party work

GE India's president and CEO Scott Bayman on Friday put to rest all
speculation about the future plans of GE's BPO operations in
India - which also happens to be by far India's largest IT-enabled
services operation. "GE's Indian BPO/call-centre operations are not
going to undertake any third-party work and will continue to
service only GE's needs," Mr Bayman emphatically said.

"Our BPO operations will be hiring around 100 to 200 people per
month," said Mr Bayman. He, however, made his view against the
recent spate of bills against outsourcing in the US clear. He said,
"We have seen in a number of other sectors, like auto, that such
reactions do happen. But businesses will move to where they are
most effective." He added that the move against outsourcing by some
states was not optimal use of taxpayers' money.

Mr Bayman added that the Indian operation was currently handling
around 70% of GE's total accounting needs in the US, UK and
Australia. He also added that a lot of insurance-claims filing and
processing work was being done out of India and 100 Indian medical
doctors had also been involved with GE in these operations.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?
msid=43793985

3) AmCham urges US gov't to tap RP firms via Internet

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) has
recommended that the US government make use of Philippine firms and
personnel to carry out non-core government services via data
transfer over the Internet.

"The (Bush) administration has announced a policy of increased
outsourcing of non-core government services. Some of these could be
performed in the Philippines, as a back-office for the federal
government, with rapid data transfer over the Internet," Henefeld
said in his letter.

Henefeld said sending some of this work to the US Asian ally could
achieve savings for the American taxpayers while creating jobs in
the Philippines which may otherwise move to other less strategic
low-cost offshore locations.

Henefeld also noted that accounting, customer service, document
digitization and search, engineering design, HR services, medical
transcription and telemarketing are some of the services now being
performed in the Philippines for corporate America.

http://www.mb.com.ph/news.php?art=31369&sect=2&fname=BS03041831369f
.txt

4) Ireland-Based Transcription Firm Opens U.S. Office

Celtic Transcripts, Ltd., headquartered in Gweedore, County
Donegal, Ireland, opened its first branch office in Tullahoma.
Owned by Tina and Donal Doherty of Ireland, the medical
transcription company provides internet-based transcription
services. Doherty and her husband, Donal, a native of Ireland,
founded the company in Ireland in 2001. The corporate facility has
50 employees.

Most of the company's transcription work is done at its parent
facility in Ireland. Transcription specialists in Ireland are able
to deliver completed transcription work almost immediately to U.S.
clients, because Ireland is six hours ahead of Tullahoma's time
zone. "Doctors really like that," Doherty said. Another advantage
of operating from Ireland is the lower pay scale for higher
educated employees, Mrs. Doherty said. All Celtic Transcripts
employees participate in a six-month training program instructed by
a licensed registered nurse.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1615&dept_id=387669&newsid=7
746155&PAG=461&rfi=9

5) 'India will emerge as key economic player' IANS

The U.S., considered the engine of global economic
growth, is set to face competition in the years ahead
from other emerging economies such as India, according
to a senior official of Morgan Stanley.

"Three major points need to be recognised at this juncture," says
Vikram Pandit, co-president and COO of Morgan Stanley, while making
a presentation on India's position in the global economy and
capital markets organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce
at the Indian consulate in New York.

"The first is during the last decade, between
1994-2002, the U.S. accounted for about 60 percent of
the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," said
Pandit.

"The second is this is going to change. And the third
is the emergence of China in the manufacturing sector
and that of India in the services sector."

According to Pandit, there will be global rebalancing
and a realignment of the world economic growth in the
years ahead.

http://www.siliconindia.com/tech/tech_pgtwo.asp?newsno=19160&newsca
t=Business

6) Physicians Cut Loose

Your family doc bustles into the examination room and without
saying a word, pulls out a Palm Pilot, taps the screen and pauses
to read something on it. The last time you were at this clinic, the
guy was carrying around dog-eared manila folders on a clipboard.

He looks up. "So," he says, "you've had a sore throat for a few
days?" Yes you have, but it was only a few minutes ago that you
apprised the nurse receptionist of this fact. How the devil does he
know it already?

Dr. Hightech goes on to ask you more questions and appears to be
making notes on the PDA screen. After the popsicle stick on the
tongue, the aaaahhhing and the rest of it, you go back out to the
nurse receptionist and she smiles and hands you a prescription, nea
tly printed. She also hands you an itemized bill -- a very
complete, detailed bill.

What's up, doc? Welcome to the medical clinic of the -- well, of
the present. The medical profession, which has long been on the
high-tech leading edge when it came to diagnostics and surgery, is
finally beginning to automate day-to-day patient care in clinics.

http://www.80211-planet.com/columns/article.php/2190271

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All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
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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