Moving with the times

From a non-descript village in the coastal area of the State a group of youths who passed Intermediate prepare reports for doctors across the world. Sitting in the calm environs of the village they are revolutionising the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry where the big guns are talking about starting operations in tier-I and tier-II cities to cut costs.

The rural BPO set up by an enterprising entrepreneur Ramakrishna Tummala in Kavur village of Guntur district with a workforce of just 30 people – all drawn from the village -- has not only slashed the costs by nearly 60 per cent but has also fulfilled his ambition of serving his birthplace.

Read the article in The Hindu here.

The Future of Medical Transcription - An Open Forum

IAMR, the industry body for medical transcription companies, organized a seminar on the Future of Medical Transcription at PGRRCDE Auditorium, Osmania University on Monday, October 6, 2008. The seminar was aimed at providing an open forum to MT professionals to discuss issues of common concern to the industry.

More than 190 MT professionals from seven of the leading companies attended the seminar. The keynote presentation from Raghu Vasu, CEO of Transdyne threw light on recent trends in the healthcare and healthcare documentation industry, emerging technologies, best practices, and highlighted the challenges facing both the business and the professionals and outlined appropriate responses. This was followed by an open forum where a panel of CEOs consisting of Mrs. Vijay Kumar of Vision 2K, Pydah Venkateswar Rao of Vasavi Prosoft, Raghu Vasu of Transdyne and Ramakrishna Tummala of Worldtech answered questions from the participants on a wide range of topics, such as the fluctuating dollar rate, new technologies, how to assess an employer, lack of awareness among the common people regarding MT as a serious career choice, etc.

At a time when downsizing and pink slips are the order of the day, the MT industry is seeing a resurgence with the consolidation and convergence of tried and tested business models resulting in growing business volumes and demand. This increased demand often also results in unwise responses at all levels. With this seminar, CEOs of the leading companies came forward to share their knowledge, expertise and perspectives in an open forum with MT professionals to dispel myths and create a positive understanding.

In view of the tremendous response to this seminar, it was suggested that IAMR could take this seminar to member companies so that all associates can benefit from it.

The morning session was followed by an afternoon of fun and games, conducted by Rajesh of Accentia and Harika of Vasavi Prosoft. The winners of the contests are listed below.


Bindi contest: Sravanti (Accentia)
Kiss the miss: Santosh Kumar (Accentia)
Clips contest: Janardan (Vasavi)
Balloon war: Sultana (Transdyne)
Balloon blowing: Balwant (Accentia) for quality
Ravi (Worldtech) and Safiya (Trandyne) for productivity
Singing: Manjula (Transdyne), Rebecca (Transdyne), Pooja (Worldtech), Yuvraj (Worldtech)

IAMR was formed by all the leading companies in July 2002 under the stewardship of Worldtech, Transdyne, Elico, Vasavi Prosoft, VasantScribe (now Accentia Tech), and CKAR, and nearly 20 other charter members, with the following objectives.

1. Representational. Help member companies take up policy and infrastructure related issues with government agencies and decision making bodies in one voice.
2. Networking. Create opportunities for networking within the industry through events and conferences
3. Educational. Make comprehensive industry-specific information available to members.
4. Promotional. Promote India as preferred MT and Healthcare services destination. Create awareness in media (local and international) regarding MT as a viable career pursuit and India as an attractive offshore MT destination.

IAMR has represented the industry at forums addressing labor laws, infrastructure requirements, provision for better bandwidth and power availability and tariffs, and education.

IAMR meets regularly to share best practices, industry trends, vendor information, etc. It also organizes conferences on subjects of relevance to the industry, both at the managerial and employee level. Some of the events organized by IAMR include seminars on Yoga at the Workplace, Change Management, Strategies for fluctuating forex, Career Destination with AAMT Director, Peter Preziosi, etc.

IAMR has worked through agencies like the Board of Intermediate Education, the AP State Council for Higher Education, Doctus, Osmania University and Nizams College to design and execute MT training modules at the junior college and degree college levels.

More details regarding IAMR can be found at their website iamr.org.in.

Rural BPO initiative in Andhra Pradesh

With over 500 on-site employees, Worldtech is a success story. Doctus, a company offering a wide range of services such as training, financial services, data entry, claims adjustments and processing. With more than 150 people on its staff at the Hyderabad center, and now with the Kavur operation with a targeted 200 workers within the next one year, Doctus and Worldtech are contributing to reverse the trend of people migrating to the cities, thereby reviving the cultural and economic life-force of the villages.

Read the Full Story Here.

Most common first and last names

Here is an (two text files below) excellent names database that I found on MTIndia (Amit's pioneering community forum) a long time back. It lists names, with incidence, and with gender. A must have for any MT.


firstnames.txt

lastnames.txt

Intermediate Student Interns with Worldtech

Worldtech, as part of its ongoing commitment to further the cause of medical transcription training through government institutions, recently concluded a two month internship program for students of the medical transcription program run by the Intermediate Board of Education at St. Josephs Junior College, Cudappah, and Husaini Alam Girls College at Hyderabad. A total of 19 students were given the chance work as interns in a real production unit, an opportunity that no other training program can offer. At the end of the internship, certificates were awarded, and arrangements were made for the successful interns to be given finishing school exposure through a leading training company, so that they could be made ready for placement at various companies.

Word Autocorrect Exporter and Backup

Here is an utility that I used years ago to backup and transport my MSWord autocorrect entries. It was a pleasure to find it still in circulation, and with a new version too, and to know that it still works with current versions of Word. I am sure transcriptionists out there who are not aware of this will find it a handy tool.

See here for the developer site and download link.

Careers in Medical Transcription

The boom in the Medical Transcription industry has resulted in higher demand for trained MTs. DOCTUS has trained more than 300 MTs in 2007 and projects 600 graduates in 2008. With a fresh batch starting on the first of every month, one has to wait no longer to get started in the program.

Click here for more details.

Acing the Interview

Here is a slideshow on mastering the interview written with the Medical Transcription industry in mind. Enjoy.

Worldtech: Where Quality Transcription Lives

Worldtech offers its customers transcription services of the highest quality. The quality process that has evolved over the 10 years of its operations is stringent and demanding. All transcripts go through multiple levels of audit until it is approved for lesser levels of audit. A random sampling is done of all the work during and after the production cycle. This serves both as quality control as well as training and feedback.

Every transcript is graded by the quality control team, following a grading policy created by the quality control team which is based on the guidelines of AAMT (now AHDI). The accuracy of each transcript can be monitored as it goes through the levels of quality audit.

"Our greatest challenge in the initial years was quality of transcription," observes Laxmi Gupta, VP, Quality Control, "and it was only by diligent implementation of our quality control process, which has gone on to become a model for other companies in the offshore transcription business, that we have established a reputation of excellence among our customers."

Siasat Daily Seminar on Medical Transcription

The leading Urdu newspaper of Hyderabad conducted a career awareness program on Medical Transcription. Leading industry figures, trainers, and medical transcriptionists addressed the large gathering to offer an overview of Medical Transcription as a career destination.

more here

The Art of Wellness