Transcriptionists File Class Action Suit

On May 11, 2012, the Law Offices of Kevin J. Dolley, LLC and the Riggan Law Firm, wage and hour law firms, filed an individual and collective class action lawsuit for unpaid wages and overtime pay against Transcend Services, Inc., a corporation which provides medical transcription services to hospitals and medical providers throughout the United States. The nationwide collective action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Read more about the lawsuit against Transcend.

The fact that this lawsuit comes on the heels of Nuance acquiring Transcend is perhaps only coincidental.

This really raises the entire question of whether Medical Transcriptionists are recognized and paid fairly for the knowledge work that they do. It is likely that some of those reading this post might not be entirely familiar what with is expected of a transcriptionist. You may want to take a look at one of my older posts on this topic, The Common Well. The old definition of the MT being an overpaid typist and an underpaid physician comes to mind when going through the current debate. Julie Weight, one of the earliest proponents for fair practices in the Medical Transcription industry, writes forcefully about the background and the relevance of this new development.

Terming the silence of knowledge workers in the transcription industry a variant of the Stockholm Syndrome, she says in her blog post.

I had abusive clients over the years. I put up with their abuse for a number of reasons, but the primary reason was I was making good money and I used that to justify tolerating the abusive behaviors. One day, I decided I’d had enough. I terminated a long-time client who represented a substantial amount of my income. I liken it to having a splinter you’re afraid to remove – it doesn’t seem that bad, it’s not festering too much and it’s not frankly infected so out of fear (or whatever reason), you just leave it alone. When you finally pull the splinter out, you realize how painful and annoying it’s been and wonder why you tolerated the pain for so long just because you were afraid to pull it out. That’s how I felt when I finally removed that splinter. For me, the stress relief far outweighed the loss of income. It takes a lot of courage to stand up, but at some point you have to ask yourself what do I really have to lose? Many of the MTs involved in this lawsuit are struggling to make a living – not just a decent living, but a minimum wage living. For a job that requires as much knowledge and intelligence as medical transcription, that’s just not right. And I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will say (or think) well why not just get another job? First of all – why should they have to? THEY haven’t don’t anything wrong. Second, I suspect Transcend isn’t the only company that employs these tactics or has these problems, and many MTs have gone from company to company, trying to find a fit, only to experience similar treatment.

Medical transcriptionists need to stop being afraid of what will happen to them if they speak up, and start thinking about what is happening to them because they aren’t speaking up.

It will be interesting to see how many MTs join this class action and how many additional actions are filed against other transcription service companies that employ the same abusive tactics. If you think you belong to the class action against Transcend, there’s a link to instructions in the Dolley law office blog. I encourage transcriptionists to stand up for themselves; in the end, it will benefit not only individual MTs, but the industry as a whole.

At a time when knowledge workers in the Medical Transcription industry are coping with the greatest paradigm shift ever, recognizing the value of their true contribution is essential. I strongly urge all readers of this blog to take a look at what Julie has to say about this.

Is the Sun Setting on Medical Transcription?

Medical transcription in India started with a flourish more than a decade ago, but is now showing more and more signs of ending with a whimper.  Technology has caught up and the profile of the industry has changed radically; that it will no longer be an employee intensive industry is a fact all transcriptionists will have to recognize and live with. Companies in India for their own survival are opting for Voice Recognition systems and downsizing their workforce almost with a vengeance. The question is, will these companies themselves survive for more than 2-3 years?

At the beginning of the decade, things were looking great. There was always the risk of voice recognition coming into its own, but the quality of the transcript spewed out by voice recognition programs was beyond pathetic and transcriptionists heaved a sigh of relief, but voice rec bided its time and, well, the Empire Struck Back. Quality of transcripts improved dramatically, well not as great as company bigwigs claim them to be but they are definitely workable. I have some experience with Dragon and MModal, and some of my friends have worked on eScription used by Nuance. The general belief is eScription does a great job delivering consistently high accuracy outputs of above 90%. The other two are decent but there is still some way to go for them. One reason might be Nuance informs the clinics and hospitals it serves that they use a voice recognition platform and they actually take the trouble to spend time with the physician to familiarize them with the system and how best to dictate into it. With the dictator himself knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the system, obviously the output is that much better.

Worldtech Kolkata's Fifth Anniversary

The Kolkata Unit of Worldtech recently celebrated its fifth anniversary on June 25, 2011.

A small program was organized by the team to observe the occasion.  It was held at Gold Banquets on Russell Street.

Mementos were given to Associates who completed 5 years with the Unit to appreciate their sincerity and contribution.

The party started with a speech by the unit head, after which mementos were distributed.  

A cake was cut in honor of the birthday person, Worldtech Kolkata.

A DJ night was organized, with vibrant and rocking music and it was good to see the entire team joining the dance floor.  Children and spouses also joined the fun and had a great time.  It was like one big family was partying that night.  

One of the unit leaders observed, "Looking back at how and where we started it was satisfying to see how we have grown but there is room for lot of improvement and growth still and with hard work and sincerity we hope we can keep raising our bar."

A sumptuous dinner brought the evening festivities to a close.  

Michael Finke Receives 2011 Carnegie Science Award | EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT News

The Carnegie Science Awards, assigned by the Carnegie Science Center and sponsored by Eaton Corporation, promote outstanding science and technology achievements in western Pennsylvania and help fund Science Center exhibits and educational programs across the state.

Celebrating its15th year, the Carnegie Science Awards have honored the accomplishments of more than 275 individuals and organizations that have improved lives through their commitment and contributions in science and technology.

Read more over at EMR and HIPAA News

M*Modal CEO Receives 2011 Carnegie Science Award | EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT News

How do babies learn to speak and write?

This is from the wikipedia.

Information theory was a very trendy scientific approach in the mid 50s.[12] However, pioneer Claude Shannon mused in 1956 that this trendiness was dangerous: "Our fellow scientists in many different fields, attracted by the fanfare and by the new avenues opened to scientific analysis, are using these ideas in their own problems. [...] It will be all too easy for our somewhat artificial prosperity to collapse overnight when it is realized that the use of a few exciting words like information, entropy, redundancy, do not solve all our problems."[17] Indeed over the next decade, a combination of factors would shut down application of information theory to natural language processing (NLP) problems, in particular machine translation. These were the publication of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures in 1957, in which he stated that only logical rule-based approaches to language analysis were ultimately useful. This accorded well with Artificial Intelligence research of the time, which promoted rule-based approaches. These factors were based on scientific trends. The third factor was to to be the 1966 ALPAC report, which recommended that the government stop funding research in machine translation. ALPAC chairman John Pierce later characterised that field as filled with "mad inventors or untrustworthy engineers". He argued that the underlying linguistic problems had to be solved first before attempts at NLP could be reasonably made. Combined, these three elements essentially halted research in the field.[5][18]

As I begin my 10 calendar days in full screen netbook mode on chrome only with a full working week included in it, the first thought that crosses my mind is not, fortunately, a review of my 2010 and my determinations going forward, which all your comments and emails have led me to give some thought to too, but a tip of the hat to the way technology has changed our lives.  Jelinek died on September 14, 2010, and now with latitude and voice apps, our web presence has taken on a meaning that no one would have ascribed to the phrase web presence 10 years, or even 5 years back.  GOOG-411 was phased out and Google Voice and the enterprise ranges of Microsoft and Dragon are promising to be desktop permanents on the thin clients of today.  2010 was a turbulently good year in some ways for some people.

A pioneer in speech recognition and linguistic engineering, Jelinek was one of the first to dream of practical ways to make human expression machine comprehensible.  Today voice apps and speech to other interactive formats are commonplace.  Think of the AI built into IVR for example, something we use all the time today.  Doctors use VR to generate transcripts of patient records, drivers talk to speech-recognition systems in cars that reply with driving directions; and customer questions to call centers are increasingly being answered by automated speech systems.

How does the magic of speech to other formats work?  To figure that out, it is necessary to reflect on a far more complex process - that of human language and expression, and how the human brain processes it.  To give you an idea of the complexity, consider for a moment an infant being exposed to spoken language for the first time in its existence.  How does it unravel the sounds to discern starts and ends, subjects and verbs, and how does it create its database of word-phrase clusters that the Wernicke and Broca later integrate into predictive listening and comprehending.

The NYT obituary for Jelinek says, “In early speech research, there were two camps. One was the linguists. They argued that humans were best at recognizing speech and that therefore computer models should be based mainly on human language concepts — rules about syntax, grammar and meaning.

Mr. Jelinek, an electrical engineer, took a different tack, advocating the use of statistical tools. In this approach, spoken words are converted to digital form, and the computer is then trained to recognize words and appropriate word order in sentences, based on repeated patterns and statistical probability.”

Jelinek broke free from the traditional approach of trying to reproduce language intelligence the way the neurons of our brain do it, and developed a statistical and probability model that (much later) integrated with the more orthodox grammatical and syntactical endeavours.

When I began dabbling with transcription of medical reports back in 1994-95, speech recognition was a distant dream, but then the work had already begun on the early engines that were working only out of inputs available to it.  All of us were quick to dismiss it as 10 years out in the future.  We renewed our dismissal every five years.

What has happened in the last 20 years on a completely different front and one in which open internet interfaces and services have played a key role is the generation of an entire social environment on the web, replete with every imagineable form of speech processing taking place real time.  Think Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, discussion boards, chat rooms, and the ability to anonymously and securely use this minefield of language process data to refine the cluster models that are at the core of most contemporary algorithms in this field.

Someone asked me once why I spend so much time on a blog with a grand total of six and a half subscribers, two of them family.  My answer at that point in time was that I was endeavouring to record my speech system in order to improve artificial speech intelligence.  I will not forget the look on her face.  The fact that I was obviously living at thrice the speed of light didnt help matters much.

Today you have millions and millions of people putting out millions and millions of little bits and big bits of expression out in living digital language that can be mined, interpreted, and responded to in a similar fashion, in any format!!  And as each day passes, each moment, each keystroke as I write for you and you alone, this database of how we think and how we express what we think and tell each other what we want to hear from each other is growing more and more valuable and larger.

Search engines and language interpretation modules have a database that is growing in this inconceivable leaps-and-bounds fashion with the millions of you and me blogging, writing and reading and writing about what we are reading, emailing, tweeting, updating status on SNS’s.

I will not waste your time.  Keep winning.  Have a very happy new year.

If you like music, you will want to read.
The Operative Note
If you like food, you will want to read
The unedited mutton dalcha recipe
If you love movies, you will want to read

The New Abhishek movie with a complicated name

If you like pictures, you can see

The Worldtech Thanksgiving Cricket Outing

How to search medical terms or words

From Venu's Askribe email newsletter.

How to search medical terms or words ?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
Almost all persons who are  transcribing medical voice files into text, search for medical words or medical terms. Many people use dictionaries related to medical field. There are so many types of dictionaries. I think there are some 10 to 15 dictionaries for searching medical terms and words, but I am not sure.
Is there an alternative to search medical words or terms without first looking into the dictionaries? Now read the below examples.
Example No. 1
I was hearing the voice file and I typed "Altram". After that I searched for the word "Altram" in the medical dictionaries to find if there is any such word. However I could not find the word. After 2 days I found that the correct word was "Ultram". Now if you carefully observe the two words "Altram" and "Ultram", there is only a difference of first letter of the word. The rest of the letters in the word is same. In most cases you can only search for the correct word if you know the correct initial letters of the word. Otherwise it would be difficult to find the words.
Example No.2
After hearing some voice file I typed "Pulse ______97%___ __". At first I could hear only "97%" and after a repeat hearing of the voice file I could hear the word "Pulse". However I knew I was missing more than one word. Now the question is how to find more than one word or pattern of words. Can we search the dictionaries ?
Example No.3
I could only type "Flex_____sig" after hearing a voice file. However at first I typed "Flexsig" and then I typed "Flex Sig". I knew there was something wrong. The question is how will you find the two words correctly? Can you search the dictionaries ? If yes, then which dictionary you will use to search for the correct words ?
Can you answer the above questions? Can you search for the pattern of medical words or terms in dictionaries? Is there an alternative to search medical words or terms without first looking into the dictionaries?
You can search text pattern or words or phrase using tools like grep,awk,sed, etc., . These tools are found in almost all Linux operating systems.
Below are some examples to search medical words and terms.
grep -i  '^[ua]ltram'  mtwords.txt
grep -i  '[ua].*ram'  mtwords.txt
grep -i  '[ua].*am'  mtwords.txt
grep -i  'tram'  mtwords.txt
grep -i  'pulse.*97.* '  mtwords.txt
grep -i  'pulse.*9[012345678 9].*'  mtwords.txt
grep -i  'flex.*sig'  mtwords.txt
grep is a tool which prints lines matching a pattern. And mtwords.txt is a text file which contains all the medical terms or words sequentially. You can create your own mtwords.txt file. Open a text editor and write some medical terms,words or phrase. Below is an example.
------------ Sample of mtwords.txt file-------- ------
Ultram
Pulse oximetry 97% on room air
Flexible sigmoidoscopy
moderate amount of cerumen
mild cerumen
itchy ears
GEORGE
pharyngitis – viral
Advil
841 Burke Avenue, Bronx
Nyquil
New York 10467
------------ End of mtwords.txt file ------------ -----
After creating the above mtwords.txt file you can use grep to search words,terms, phrase etc.,. Remember the tool grep is a command line tool.
In the above file (mtwords.txt) you can write any medical term or word or names of medicines, medical phrase, names of persons or doctors, names of places etc., You can also update this file easily because it is only a text file. New medical terms or phrase can be added easily to this file.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Almost all Linux operating systems have tools like grep, awk, sed, etc.,These tools are command line tools. There are also different versions of these tools and all these versions have some difference. And again there is also some difference between the format of text file in Linux and Windows operating system. You should have some working knowledge of the operating systems like Linux. You should have some knowledge about regular expressions. And finally you should have some knowledge about the tools like grep, awk, sed etc.,
I will explain with one example on using grep.
grep -i   '^[ua]ltram'   mtwords.txt
In the above example  grep is the command and -i is an option to the grep command and '^[ua]ltram' is a regular expression (also called search pattern) and mtwords.txt is the text file which contains all the medical words, terms or phrase. Here we are searching the mtwords.txt file to find if there is any word which begins with ultram or Ultram or altram or Altram. Since there is no word such as altram, only ultram or Ultram will be displayed on the screen. See the above examples on grep. You can search for the word Ultram in any manner. If you can guess some letters or characters in a word or phrase or medical term correctly, then you can search for the correct word.


This article is written by V.Venkateswara Rao e-mail and yahoo chat ID is venkatesh3004 @ yahoo.com

Hello,
I had placed a query along similar lines, on the net(askribe) several days back. Well, I found the above article(s)  enlightening.
I would like to  modify my query(of last) somewhat, in that, firstly, I am working on a Windows Platform(XP), not Linux.  Secondly, when it comes to the technical part(Line editor) and so on, I am a novice. Though, I do have some general idea on the topic.
Since there are a lot of  E-packages( Medical Dictionaries on Tehnical phrases, medicine, etc.,) on the net, and that too freely downloadable, I would be grateful if you could suggest any proven package that would suffice my requirements.
Thanking You,
Gopal
My address: gopalanitanair@yahoo.com

CBAY Systems file for $115 million US IPO

Medical transcription services company CBaySystems Holdings Ltd. on Monday filed for an initial public offering worth as much as $115 million.  The Franklin, Tenn., company handles medical transcription, billing, and coding services for about 2,400 hospitals, clinics, and practices in the U.S. CBaySystems did not say how many shares it plans to sell or when it plans to complete its IPO. It also did not disclose a proposed ticker symbol for its shares.

Read the Businessweek story here.

The New Twitter

From the existential Buddhist blog

Anatta, or “not-self”, is a frequently misunderstood Buddhist concept. Let’s clear up three common misconceptions about it right off the bat.  Buddhism doesn’t deny you exist, deny you have a personality, or imply you shouldn’t have an “ego.” What Buddhism does deny is a false conception of the self:  a self that is separate-unto-itself and unchanging.

In its narrowest sense, anatta is a denial of the Vedic conception of atman, an unchanging soul which transmigrates and which, according to the ancient Vedic formula, shares an identity with Brahman, or the godhead.  More broadly, anatta is descriptive of all conditioned phenomena, not just the self, and corresponds to the Mahayana idea of śunyata or emptiness: nothing possesses an unchanging self-nature.

The self can be compared to a whirlpool in the ocean.  A whirlpool is a distinctive feature of the ocean: it’s visible, tangible, and measurable.  It’s real.  It exists.  On the other hand, at any given moment the water that makes up the whirlpool is different from the water that comprised it a moment before, and from the water that will comprise it a moment later.  The whirlpool is a pattern that retains a discernible identity while it continues to exist.  At any given time, there is no separation between the whirlpool and the ocean.  It makes no sense to say that the whirlpool is “here” and the ocean is “there.”  Whirlpooling is a feature of the ocean.
It’s the same with the self.  The self exists as a pattern: a pattern of behavioral response. But that pattern is always in some degree of flux.  While I am always, in some sense, the same person, I am different now than I was at age three, and different from the way I will be at age eighty.  My intellectual capacity and memory will decline as I age.  My tastes and opinions may change as well.  While we are a relatively enduring pattern, we are also constantly changing: learning, developing, maturing, declining.  We also change depending on the situation we find ourselves in.  We behave differently at work, at home, in the bar, and in the zendo.
We are also inseparable from the world around us.  Our skin connects us to the world, rather than separating us from it.


Ok.  I use firefox and have a twitter addon.

http://goo.gl/XlrQ

This post is only about trying to understand a track back.  When you quote from another blog, you track back to that blog.  Like this superbly written piece at mashable.  The links came when I copied and pasted.

Twitter () has announced that it’s rolling out a new version of its web interface. Some users will start seeing the new look as soon as tonight, though the company says on its blog that it “will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks.”
News () of the company’s plan to integrate multimedia into the stream leaked out earlier this afternoon, but we’ve now learned that the redesign goes much further than that. The new interface resembles that of a far more sophisticated web app (as well as Twitter’s recently released iPad app).
The multimedia partnerships we hinted at earlier today extend to 16 different companies: DailyBooth, DeviantART (), Etsy, Flickr (), Justin.TV (), Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo (), TwitPic (), TwitVid (), Ustream (), Vimeo (), yfrog, and YouTube ().
Much has been made in recent months of Twitter’s move into areas previously owned by third-party applications. Today’s announcement will no doubt renew such discussion, with many of the best features of Twitter clients like Tweetie (), Seesmic () Desktop, and TweetDeck () now becoming a part of the default Twitter interface. As we also pointed out earlier this afternoon, it also makes Twitter feel a bit more like Facebook.

The next link is generated by Amazon.  Subho

Twitter CEO Evan Williams prefaced his announcement by mentioning that Twitter.com is already far and away the most popular way for accessing the microblogging service, commanding 78% of unique users (which the company defines as “Of all the people who logged into their Twitter account during the month, what percentage did so via each service.”). Combined with Twitter’s growing need to serve up impressions to advertisers, it’s certainly no surprise that the company is now looking to keep people more engaged on its website.

Leverage your web presence with Tech O2

One of the two professional areas of my life that I feel most enthusiastic about is the social network and its strength. The other is Social reengineering with a rural focus.  Almost every business is on at least one of the social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Unfortunately, it just stops there. What exactly are you doing on Facebook for your business? Social media provides a way for “engaging your customers and prospects.” Just being on Facebook doesn’t mean much; you might have a fan page, but it will be one of the nearly 500 million fan pages. Presence doesn’t count for participation and engaging in social media.


The issue is not entirely ignorance, but a lack of tools and economic campaign models for small businesses to actively participate in social media. Analysts predict that social media will become (has already become in some views) the “new Internet.” Platforms like Facebook have orchestrated plans and methods to capture audiences, and conduct all business interactions within their ecosystem. Large corporations have created a new role in their employee roster called “Social Media Managers,” whose job is to engage their customers and prospects using an array of social media platforms. Social media managers have several tools such as Social Flow, Tweet Deck, CoTweet, etc. to participate in multiple social networks and interact with their clients. They also have the time and energy to carry on different social media campaigns from marketing to promotional activities.  Read More about how to leverage your social network to increase your business.


My personal social network began when I was a kid, and just like the internet, it was made up of people who were not not all there, but neither were they just not here. Books, music, movies, politics.  Read my blog.

Imedx-Worldtech and PRN Medical Management

Imedx-Worldtech acquires PRN Medical Transcription.

SHELTON, Conn., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- iMedX Inc., a leading healthcare software and services company, announced today that it has acquired the assets of PRN Medical Management, LLC (PRN), a medical transcription company serving medical clinics for over 18 years, primarily in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia.  With the acquisition of PRN, iMedX expands its base in the Washington DC metro area and beyond. PRN's employees in India will be absorbed by iMedX's subsidiary Worldtech. Using iMedX's revolutionary TurboScribe® platform for medical transcription, customers will enjoy the benefit of an efficient transcription workflow and ease of management. With TurboScribe's integration with leading Electronic Medical Record (EMR) products, customers will progress towards a paperless environment, a higher quality of care, and pave the way for adherence to the Obama administration's 'meaningful use' guidelines.  Additionally, PRN's customers can take advantage of iMedX's other Internet-based products such as its TurboRecord® - iMedX's low-cost, subscription-based EMR, and their ePrescribing product TurboRx® for error-free prescribing through pharmacies across the country.

Venkat Sharma, iMedX's president and CEO, along with the current iMedX management team, will continue to lead the combined companies. PRN's founder and CEO, Gabriela ("Gaby") Perazzo will work with iMedX through the transition even as she develops her passion in online newsletters and seminars.

Kavur, Andhra Pradesh

Rightfulness in the face of indifference and arrogance

We live in times where the words "environment" and "meltdown" have taken on a frightening synonymy. We, as a planet, clamor for the two degrees of our rightful coolness in the face of indifference and arrogance at the highest levels and of the highest order. We owe it to all the lives and efforts that have gone into creating this present, to our selves, and to our future to take steps to green minds, to green lives, to create leaders for tomorrow who will not blindly follow the destructive legacies that litter our history books, and to let our children know what a sparrow really looks like.

Full story here

Compensation Survey 2009-2010

IAMR constituents have shared basic data and operate on the principles of fairness, efficiency, value for all, and equitable and sensible sharing of yields at bandwidths fair to all stakeholders, at all levels.

Most of the Readers of MTAnywhere, or Transdyne or Worldtech internal message-boards, or the forums of mtindia, mtdaily, mtweek and the rest will be familiar with our 2005 survey.

Well. It is time now so that we have 2010 numbers that we can try and get close to and freeze for a period of all-round benefit.

Write in to subhorup+data@gmail.com with "iamr survey 2010" in the subject line to express your inclination to participate. This is open to all units of all sizes, homebased LAN collectives, from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We do know that we will be hearing from Orissa and West Bengal too. We do not get to hear a lot from the rest though we know that they do network up in the north.

And in the same vein for those whose readers suck this up as soon as we hit publish, do keep yourself free on the evening of Monday, June 15, 2009. We know most of you who will have this by then will be there. But do spread the word if you can. OUT-OF-HYDERABAD FRIENDS, PLEASE EMAIL CONTACT DETAILS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO STAY ON TOP OF SUCH THINGS. It promises to be a stimulating evening. Details, and the invite for those of you who are not on the IAMR member list, after the jump, the invitation too, from Venkateshwar Rao and Raghu and Ramakrishna and the rest of us too. Hooraah! But First, the routemap.



Hello friends,

While thanking IAMR management for giving Vasavi an opportunity to host its forthcoming meeting I, on my behalf and on behalf of our company, cordially invite you and/or your top management members to make it convenient and participate in the following program:

Date and Time: Monday, the 15th June, 2009 @ 6.30 p.m.

Venue: Our Office, Badeti’s Mansion, 6-3-712/153, Panjagutta Colony, Hyd-500082 (location map attached).

Chief Guest: Prof. (Dr.) B.Ramesh Babu, decades long expert on US Politics & Cultural Studies (Public Affairs) – brief CV attached -, has consented to share his thoughts on "INDIA US RELATIONS SINCE OBAMA: POLITICS & ECONOMICS".

Though Prof. Ramesh Babu is spending active retired life in Hyderabad, he continues to keep himself abreast of his nearly half a century knowledge of the subject. I feel that interaction with him as to past & present US politics & culture (also called public affairs) is likely to make IAMR members appreciate the ongoing US economic/business environment better.

We all have been endeavoring to study, analyse and assess as to future prospects for business from USA. Perhaps, knowing more about the ongoing US culture in the backdrop of its politics places us in the right perspective to move forward. Let us aim at having a participative, lively and useful interactive session with Dr. Ramesh Babu.

Dinner follows the meeting.

Looking forward to receiving you,

P. Venkateswara Rao,
Mg. Dir.,
Vasavi Prosoft Transcription Ltd.
Tel:23404102 & 23406099
RSVP: Naresh - Extn. 30 or Kalpavalli - Extn. 20 or 21

The Tale of the Rubber Checks

(From an article in Advance, link below)

Joan Edwards (not her real name), like Trudy Schaefer Looney, got into transcription on a whim 14 years ago. "It was sort of by fluke," she said. "I basically trained myself. I started out with a doctor and his wife. It was a brand new practice, and we sort of trained each other."

Edwards worked there for 4 years until the clinic closed due to lack of business. She moved on from there, getting her own accounts and working directly for clinics. Everything in her MT world was fine until she started working for a medical transcription service organization (MTSO) 2 years ago. The warning signs were there. The company said it would get direct deposit for its 120 MTs nationwide. It didn't. The promised health care coverage never showed up. A notice was sent out by the company saying that 10 oncology MTs quit, all in the same day. And MTs were forbidden by the company from contacting each other, even if they worked on the same accounts. Also, a lot of times Edwards and other MTs saw discrepancies in the line counts. They thought they typed more lines than they were paid for, but the only way to prove it would be to purchase the company's own line counting software, which would cost a hefty $300.

Despite the early warning signs that the company might not have been the best, Edwards was always paid on time--at least up until 3 months ago. She walked into the company's bank with a check, and the teller didn't even look at the amount. "She looked at the company name and she just shook her head. I said, 'Why are you shaking your head?' She answered, 'There's insufficient funds,'" Edwards recalled.

Edwards called the owner, who said the money would be in the bank the following morning. He promised the check wouldn't bounce. Edwards ended up $700 overdrawn on her account, and it took 5 days to finally get the money she was owed along with the bank fees for cashing a rubber check.

A couple weeks later, Edwards experienced the same thing. The check would bounce, so she couldn't put it in her account. She called the fraudulent check division in her county, but they provided little help, as she would have to put the check into the account, let it bounce and then prove the owner didn't make things right. "We don't have the option to wait that long, especially single mothers or widows like me," Edwards said. "That's how we feed our children."

Finally, after 3 months of dealing with bad checks, Edwards left the company. She now visits chat sites to let other MTs who ask about the company know that it's bad news. Edwards recently landed a job with another transcription company, but she's wary of the profession now. "I really don't want to get back into the medical transcription profession because of [this company]," she said. "You just don't know what's going to happen."

Edwards admitted she put up with the bounced checks and other problems for too long. She liked the clinic she transcribed for, and was familiar with the doctors. She felt resistant to change, until it became unbearable to stick with the company. The lesson here: don't wait around. If you're experiencing a similar situation, it's not likely that things are going to improve. There are good MT companies out there. Find one and don't be afraid to make the change.

Another lesson out of Edwards' issues is to thoroughly research before starting a job with a company. She checked on chat sites in the MT world before starting work for the company, but didn't find much information. Now Edwards and others who worked for the company peruse message boards to try to help other MTs steer clear. If a transcription company has a bad reputation, chances are that reputation will get out on the Internet, and MTs looking for jobs can use that resource. Another tip is to speak with MTs already working for the company you're thinking of working for. If a company isn't comfortable letting you speak to its MTs, that might be a red flag.

(To read the rest of the Advance story about how MT companies in US are turning out to be questionable employers, click here)

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.