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MT India Digest
Moderated Discussion List
"Effective MT Forum"
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Published by:
MT India www.MTIndia.org Moderated by:
Amit Chatterjee,SM
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Dec 06, 2000 Digest #055
.................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ===========NEW===================== -=Lethal Training Strategy !!=- ~Ramarao Velagapudi
"most think they are slightly lower than God himself, in rank" ~Surajit Sen
"you cannot run your production setup with required quality and
hence open a training center" ===========CONTINUING============ -= MT in India =- ~Delphine Swasbrook
"if you can hear it, you can type it." ~Kishore J. Setty
"HealthScribe system promotes picking of jobs out of
order " =========== BILLBOARD ============ -= MT for Blind =-
~A.K. Mittal ===========GEEK TIPS============== -= Job Manager=-
~George J Ollapally ===========NEW===================== From: "Ramarao Velagapudi" <
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Subject: Mr. Cherian - educating US Doctors!!! Dr. Amit & MTIDers, Cherian is speaking from an ivory tower. I have seen them at work at close range. Believe me, most think
they are slightly lower than God himself, in rank. Of course some
disagree and say they are equal to Him!:) This is better said than done. The probelm is real, but is it has to do with attitude not
dictation per se!!!! Hence belling the cat situation. Sincerely, Ram Comment?
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++++ new post - same topic ++++ From: "D. Prakash Arokiaraj" <
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Subject: Great Dictators! This is not true. Only a marginal amount of doctors dictate in a
bad way. Prakash Arokiaraj Comment?
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++++ new post - same topic ++++ From: Surajit Sen <
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Subject: Lethal Training Strategy !! Hi fellow MTIDers. I repeat Mr. V. Philip's comment (Ref. MT India Digest, 23/11/00)
"our disregard for basic values, business ethics, and everything
else that contribute to a good environment for business and
employment - all for the love of "the quick buck." "... may I say
that we are even sealing the opportunities for the aspirants who
may perform better than us, and that is true. We, these days
understand the MT business better and the ways to tackle
ambiguities, then why not to establish it in India and grow with
it!! There are quite a few organizations (in Calcutta?) and their
strategy to train people is different!! It's because you cannot run
your production setup with required quality and hence opening a
training center and somehow surviving your company and yourself and
most interestingly utilizing those bucks you received from the new
aspirants; in return you have managed to provide at best a group of
trainers with maximum 6 months of online exposure and rejected by
many companies for quality problem or a doctor/pharma graduate with
zero exposure in online. Oh! We are not talking big. Not World Class Training. It's how we
are killing all the business possibilities and making this
profession hazardous. Unlike the software market, there is no way
you can act as a Data Entry Operator; even if you are an MT (if not
QA), you are responsible to produce the required quality at that
level. So guys, do bag BIG contracts but do keep them alive
please or else we would be approaching the dead end of this
profession. Regards, Surajit Sen
Trainer&Production Head
Working for SBAtec Inc., Boston, in Dhaka. Comment?
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================CONTINUING======================= From: Delphine Swasbrook <
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Subject: Medical Transcription in India Dear Amit & MTIDers! I would like to mention some of my observations about medical
transcription in India based on my experience. I have presently 4 years of experience in this field. I started as
a transcriptionist in HealthScribe in 1997. I worked for two years
with them. I then worked as a proofreader for a year and presently
I am working as production incharge for a year. Thus, I have seen
all aspects of transcription from an employee to an employer. I
hope my observations will help dispel some of the misconceptions of
transcription and improve the quality in future. The minimum I
hope it will do is help people ask the right questions and expect
answers before they part with their hard-earned money. The most popular idea of transcription is "if you can hear it, you
can type it." Few people seem to realize that English is a complex
language. There are similar sounding words with totally different
meanings both in English and in medicine, hence the over
simplification of just hearing a word and transcribing it could
lead to disastrous results. Then there is the myth that doctors automatically make better
transcriptionists than nondoctors. Doctors have as much problems
transcribing because they, like the others, are hearing medical
terminology in an accent that is foreign to them. So it would take
a doctor as long as anyone else to recognize a medical word.
English grammar is also another aspect that is not automatically a
gift given to doctors because they are medically qualified. In general, the promoters of medical transcription know very little
about the subject and they rely on people without appropriate
credentials to point them in the right direction. Training is another field where India fails miserably. The reasons
for this are many and complex. The biggest drawback is the
shortage of trained, qualified personnel as trainers. There are
some very good transcriptionists at large in India; unfortunately,
their communication skills are somewhat lacking. So, even if a
person with sufficient experience is located, that person may fail
miserably when he tries to impart his skills to the totally
uninitiated. Almost universally all aspiring transcription
companies advertise that they have qualified doctors and English
teachers on their faculty. Very few companies seem to understand
that just medical terminology and English grammar are not
sufficient to produce the 98.5% accuracy being asked for by
clients. Secondly, insufficient thought and money is spent on proper
training. The time frame for churning out transcriptions seems to
be four months, which for a nonEnglish speaking country is woefully
inadequate. Insufficient time is given to classes, transcription,
and feedback. Then comes lack of money and experience spent on
choosing the right kind of training material. Very few promoters
of medical transcription know what sort of training material to
choose. They either select training material on the basis of cost
or availability of pirated copies. Thus, a company trying to enter
into the field is starting out with the disadvantage of inadequate
training material for their needs and inadequate trainers to train
future MTs. Selection of trainees is another aspect that has not been given
sufficient thought. Most companies conduct a "very strict"
entrance test and then select their candidates on the amount of
"fees" they are willing to pay. The company thus has MTs who are
not exactly the best to train, but with sufficiently large bank
balances, leading to inefficient MTs. Training Institutes offer "certificates" and "diplomas" in medical
transcription. Most people are not even aware that there is no
recognized certificate currently available in India that can be
produced as adequate documentation to prove that they are trained.
Then there are institutes that offer "foreign" documentation, which
is even more improbable than an Indian recognized one. There is also the "course fees." Companies offer the explanation
that "the cost of software has to be recovered!" What cost do they
incur with pirated software?? And why is it passed on to the second
and third batches of students? >From my personal experience, most US companies require a
questionnaire to be filled out listing all the details of a
company, re: their staff, training facilities, and continuing
upgradation to ensure quality. Generally, these are not questions
adequately answered or addressed by would-be transcription
companies, resulting in lack of work and all that goes along with
that senario. Very few companies even realize that these are
medico-legal documents that should stand up in a court of law if
required to. Another factor that needs to be looked at is the dream of "working
out of your home." A person would need to invest a pretty good bit
of money on the "tools of his trade." He would also need to update
his database and referencing material. He would also need to
convince the US client that he is sufficiently trained and
efficient. Downloading voice files takes a couple of hours and
reduces the TAT. This limits the amount of work a person can take
in - in some cases making it economically unviable. Sufficient
thought should be given to these aspects before an MT can set up a
workstation at home. On the positive side is: The average Indian is uniquely able to understand varied accents.
It goes with the territory and lifestyle of modern India. We also happen to have a workable time difference and a large
computer-savvy workforce. Another aspect of transcription in India that is not sufficiently
emphasized is the "confidentiality of the data transcribed." Most
of the names of the people are of no importance to us here. We
have little or no interest in their case histories and are very
unlikely to put information gained from medical records to negative
use. And lastly there is the cost factor which is what business is about
anyway. I hope that these "observations" would help people give a whole lot
more thought to the field they have chosen to enter into. Delphine. Comment?
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++++ new post - same topic ++++ From: "Kishore J.S." <
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Subject: It's too much. Now HealthScribe people can stop speaking the way they used to,
i.e., as if they define accuracy. I mean to say that the times
have changed and now there are people OTHER than HealthScribe
who are much more accurate. Moreover, the HealthScribe system promotes picking of jobs out of
order by identifying the dictator/author through the Find Job
option of the Job Manager. Kishore J. Setty Comment?
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================= BILLBOARD =================== From:
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Subject : Promoting M.T. for Blind people We are running training courses in M.T. for the Blind at
Poonamallee. This is one of the very few training programmes of
its kind in the country and is being conducted in collaboration
with M/s.Ace Infosystems, Mogappair, Chennai. We would be
interested in sharing of ideas, experiences and resources on the
subject. All those interested are invited to interact with us for
strengthening training and securing placements for our blind
students. We find this a most interesting and exciting training
and work avenue for blind people. Joining us in this challenging
and humanitarian enterprise. Thank you AK Mittal
REGIONAL DIRECTOR
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED
Under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India
Poonamallee, Chennai - 600 056.
Tel: 6272505 Fax: (044)-6274478 Comment?
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================= GEEK TIPS =================== From: George J Ollapally <
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Subject: Info Application Soft, a Bangalore based company headed by Roopa
Pandarinath, BE Comp Science, MS (CS), USA, with 4 years experience
in Honeywell ,USA, has developed a cost effective Job
Manager/Scheduler package, which she is offering to medical
transcription companies. As you may recall, I had offered the Fleetfooter footpedal to
startup companies last year, even tough this was developed for our
in-house use. Part of the reason was that I felt there were vendors
ripping off unwary entrants into this field. The same is also true
for this kind of software, where highly overpriced packages are
being peddled to unwary entrepreneurs! She has an attractive
introductory discount for the first few clients. Anyone interested can email her at
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for
more details. For the record I am not connected with Applicationsoft, and DTS is
not offering its scheduling/tracking/management software to the
public! Many thanks. George J Ollapally Comment?
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