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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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Nov 22, 2001 Digest #072
.................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... =======MODERATOR COMMENT====== -=Time to act!=- ==============NEW================ -=MT in India=- ~Rukmani Raghavan
"to survive and thrive in the MT industry we have to first
pull up our socks" ===========CONTINUING============ -=Frauds in MT=- ~Delphine Swasbrook
"was issued a cheque for my salary for that
month which bounced three times" ~DPDas
"paid requisite fees but there is no information or
correspondence?" =========MODERATOR COMMENT===== Dear fellow MTIDer.... A happy Thanksgiving to all! We all have a lot to thank for, and nothing should be taken for
granted. Hurray for the fun, but is the pudding done?? There is a time for contemplation and there is a time for action -
let us not get so bogged down by the former that we forget that the
journey to the goal starts with karma! I have put forward a simple action plan, and I am counting on
support from this community: 1) MT India becomes a members' only organization with Corporate and
Individual Membership. 2) Revenues from membership to be used to fund a non-profit
organization. 3) MT India Corporate Members be asked to volunteer the use of
their premises for a representation of this organization in all
metros. 4) Senior MT managers, QAs and MTs to lobby within their own
organizations to bring about effective participation. 5) Hold a conference by January 2002, to spell out the goals,
charter, powers, rules, responsibilities and management of such an
organization. 6) Take it from there...:) I would appreciate your views - in support or otherwise. I make an
appeal to Industry leaders to shed the "we are better than thou"
attitude and try to consolidate the Industry. Everyone cannot be
Microsoft or Infosys, but the path from knowledge to wisdom needs
networking on a transparent platform. Let others see what we can do. I would appreciate volunteers, both
Corporate and Individuals. "A small body of determined spirits, fired by an unquenchable faith
in their mission can alter the course of history." Your Striving Moderator,
Amit C.
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Comment?
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===================NEW=================== From: "Rukmani Raghavan" <
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Subject: Improving the Indian Image in the MT Industry Hi Amit and All, I was wondering at the long gap between the last issue and this
one. Please accept my thanks Amit, for being our 'striving
moderator'! It certainly is heartening to note that there is
someone out there who has worked hard to create this platform
which has proved more than useful to all of us in the MT
line - whether we are ventilating our grievances, seeking
information from others or rendering advice to someone. I think
it has created a somewhat close knit MT community (despite the
frauds!). To take off from all that was mentioned in the last issue - "Ignorance" may be "bliss" under certain circumstances but it is
also true that "forewarned is forearmed"! While so many posts are flying across this forum about frauds from
every part of the country with matching info about their names
and addresses there doesn't seem to be a concerted move to once
and for all eradicate, what in my opinion, has been the single
most inhibiting factor in the healthy growth of the MT industry
in India. It doesn't need a rocket scientist to tell us that India
's image in the MT line has suffered a grievous fall just because
we have had such operators who have used MT to their advantage and
have left the sincere amongst us to fight the battle of restoring
India's image in the eyes of the MT professionals in the US. For those of you who have not seen this piece, I am reproducing
excerpts from an article "Circle The Wagons" by Mr. George
Heymont. The writer, like many others in the US, has been
expressing his concerns on 2 main issues 1) The quality of MT work emanating from India. 2) The fact that confidential patient information is going out of
their country to an alien land where it could be used by
unscrupulous elements for their own nefarious purposes. This worry
is compounded by the fact that offshore companies do not come
under the ambit of US laws enacted for the purpose of protecting
privacy of health records. I believe the first fear can be readily addressed and remedied,
given the will and accompanied by good quality training and all
that goes with it. The second however has to be tackled with tact. This is where we
will agree that the shady operators here in our country have only
fuelled their fears further. In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy it
has been further magnified. Now it should be clear to us why if
we have to survive and thrive in the MT industry we have to first
"pull up our socks". It's a pity that those of us who are doing
good work have to not just continue doing the good work but
ensure that the bad eggs are blacklisted and removed, thereby
restoring the faith of the American MT professionals in us. Therefore, I believe that whatever sophisticated software we may
possess and whatever state-of-the-art equipment we may use, we
cannot gain their confidence unless we can prove that we can not
only perform well but can be trusted with precious patient
information. For starters, why don't we : 1) Expedite the formation of an AAMT like body which will act as
a regulatory institution for the entire MT business in India. We
have to be our own "watch dogs" and see that the bad elements in
the industry are properly dealt with. This doesn't necessarily
imply 'policing'. It means that everyone works within a framework
of rules and regulations and stringent action is taken against
rogue institutes/companies. 2) Commence listing of all genuine companies on this board. Every
company with its name, address, Tel No. with the kind of training
programs and jobs offered by them etc. If we have to be true professionals we have to first learn to be
more transparent in our dealings. After all, no genuine
organization needs to withhold any kind of info that could be
useful to others in our country and also help in bolstering the
faith of the clients and their country. The real success of a
business, among other things, is in information sharing. This is
something we need to stress on. This paranoia of working in utter
secrecy is something we should abandon. Let us learn to think as
a nation and not only as individual businessess 3) Put up names and addresses of fraudulent companies provided by
people who have first hand info about them. I would be happy to do this service, with those who would wish to
assist me. The quality of work will speak for itself. I truly believe that if
we are able to satisfy clients on every aspect of the work, there
should be no reason for them not to engage our trust in sending
us more work. In the final anaysis of international relations, economics and
trade are the real deciding factors. As we see today, business
and trade have made countries set aside their differences and
work together(of course without endangering their own national
interests) Please read below the excerpt : "Alas, terrorist events are no longer limited to hijackings, bombs,
and mass murder. They can just as easily involve the unauthorized
use of a patient's medical record. A recent HIPAA advisory tells
the tragic story of an Illinois woman whose photo and medical
records were posted to the Internet by anti-abortion activists
after she underwent an abortion. According to the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, anti-abortion activist Daniel Michael testified
that he and his wife, Angela, had received the medical records in
the mail from 'an unknown source.' They then sent the records and
photo, previously taken by Daniel Michael, to a Mr. Wetzel in
Nebraska. Daniel Michael said that the couple forwarded the
materials because they were "frustrated that local news outlets
had declined to write about the woman's abortion complications."
He further noted that they had intended for the material to be
used for informational purposes, instead of being posted to an
Internet website. In reviewing some of the columns I have written for this magazine
that warn about the inherent risks of outsourcing medical
transcription to entrepreneurs in Third World nations, I was
saddened to encounter many of the same issues which are now
making headlines. In articles entitled Of Cows and
Confidentiality, Fools Rush In, Thanks. But No Thanks and How Much
Are Your Secrets Worth? (all of which can be accessed at
http://www.wwma.com/kamt/ka00005.html ) I had tried to make people
understand that technology cannot always transcend a clash of
cultures. And that people in other lands -- even though they may
use the same types of computers and word processing programs that
Americans have access to -- do not always share our loyalties. Such cultural differences cannot and should not be ignored for,
despite the very best of intentions, they have already led to
negative outcomes. It is ironic that, in his September 9th
newsletter, Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM (the strategist and
founder of www.mtindia.org ) was forced to explain why his
website could no longer be free to everyone. "There is a latest
group we have identified -- and this group really uses our
services!!" he wrote. "Using our free service they blatantly and
openly sell pirated software, photocopies of books and course
materials, confidential patient dictation and carry out all sorts
of fraudulent activity that you can *NOT* imagine!! I do regret
that most of our time and energy and much bandwidth is being
wasted in catering to and trying to police their nefarious
activities." In that same newsletter, Chatterjee reported another form of
cyber crime involving medical transcription: "According to
reports, IGSP Technology Centre India Pvt Limited, a sister
concern of IGSP Incorporation, 3550 Lexington Avenue, North Suite
100, Shoreview, Minnesota, 55126 USA, signed an agreement for MT
work on sub-contract with TNIL, a local MT company, on July 4,
2000. The agreement bears the sign of Anupama Nangia, director
TNIL and OP Bharadwaj, MD, IGSP India Pvt Ltd. The complainant
alleged that their Principals in USA stopped work at about 6.30
p.m. on August 21, 2001 by cancelling the access password given
to TNIL. But TNIL made repeated attempts to log into the FTP
Server in USA. After making several hundred such attempts they
managed to log on and downloaded confidential information from
their FTP site, the complainant alleged. We have registered a case
and confiscated two servers, two monitors, five hubs, one router,
one VPM device, an ASM rod and nine connecting cables from the
premises of TNIL." Make no mistake about the issue at hand. What this scenario tells
us is that if an American firm reneges on a subcontracting
agreement, it may be vulnerable to computer sabotage from
disgruntled subcontractors -- or being held hostage as a result
of the theft of confidential medical information. If this kind of
computer theft occurs in the United States, there are laws which
hold the criminals responsible for their acts. If arrests are made,
the perpetrators of such acts pass through a system of law
enforcement designed to hold them accountable for their crimes.
Unfortunately, the laws of Congress do not apply and are
unenforceable in Third World nations. The same goes for our
neighbors, Canada and Mexico. In the three years that American hospitals and MTSOs have been
deluged with solicitations from medical transcription firms in
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other nations, a dedicated group
of American MTs has tried to educate the medical establishment
about the risk they keep taking with regard to patient
confidentiality. In many cases, our warnings fell on deaf ears (the same way the
findings of the commission on terrorism headed by Gary Hart and
Warren Rudman was ignored by politicians in the Bush
administration). But we are now at a turning point in America's
history. As we adjust to an environment in which America's law
enforcement officials must carefully revisit such issues as
security, intelligence, and terrorist acts, the time has come for
risk managers, hospital administrators, and everyone else
involved in the health information management industry to wake up
and smell the coffee. As children we learned how all the king's horses and all the king's
men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. As adults, we
recently learned that all of our intelligence forces and all of
our airport security checks couldn't prevent the tragic events
which took place on September 11, 2001. As health information
management professionals, we need to understand that all of our
encryption programs and all of our HIPAA regulations aren't worth
the code or legalese they're written in if an angry person in
another country decides to "think outside the box." What does this mean? - If its blind dependence on technology didn't allow the most
powerful nation in the world to prevent four simultaneous
hijackings, how can we be so sure that speech recognition
software can meet the challenges raised by physicians with
compromised language skills? - If all the pipe dreams we've been sold about cheap overseas labor
cutting transcription costs in half have failed to come true (even
Medquist's leadership admits that offshore transcription has not
yet proven to be cost effective or of sufficiently high
quality), then maybe it's time to cut our losses and cancel the
experiment. - With political tensions heating up globally (and passions against
the United States running especially high in Third World
countries), tighter security means making sure that steps are
taken to minimize the vulnerability of American patients to any
unnecessary threat. - If the American economy is truly headed into a recession, then as
part of our effort to rebuild we should be giving serious thought
to training more Americans as medical transcriptionists. Without
meaning to sound overly jingoistic, by keeping American MTs
employed we can help our nation by directing their earnings back
into America's economy instead of sending that money overseas. Nearly every security expert has pointed to the issue of airport
security guards (who receive minimum training and are often paid
a minimum wage) as being one of the weak points that allowed
terrorists to wreak such havoc on our nation. If the medical
records community can salvage one valuable lesson from this
horrific chapter in history, it is that you get what you pay for.
And that the lowest price per line does not necessarily give the
best value or strongest assurance of patient confidentiality ". Rukmani Raghavan Comment?
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================CONTINUING======================= From: Delphine Swasbrook <
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Subject: Bad MT Company Dear Amit, I would be grateful if you could give this little note as much
coverage as possible. It is about a company called CALLTEL INDIA PRIVATE LTD.
#21 Calltel House
Opp. AECS layout
Kundanahalli Main Road
Bangalore Phone Nos: 8524522/8524525 I was employed with them in August 2001. I have a legitimate
appointment letter and was issued a cheque for my salary for that
month which bounced three times, and an apology letter from the
M.D. Mr. ANIL KUMAR SINGH, confirming that I would be receiving my
payment on the 8th of November. That date has come and gone without
any payment. I have kept the documentation in case any one should want to check
my statements. Please ask both individuals and companies dealing with them to be
very very careful with regards to payments, which is basically what
dealing with them would be all about! Thank you Delphine Swasbrook Comment?
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++++ new post - same topic ++++ From: debi prasad das <
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To: <
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Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 7:12 PM
Subject: SOHONETINDIA.COM Hi MTIDers, The above mentioned company had advertised for outsourcing MT work
and I had filled up their form and paid requisite fees since July
01 but till now there is no information or correspondence. Kindly
inform if the company is a fraud. If so kindly put up on your
notice board to help new MT companies from being suckered. DPDas Comment?
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