Clinical outsourcing Aussies join the India bandwagon the next big boom

It is clinical outsourcing that is taking off as I write. Big money and cost savings are achieved through clinical outsourcing. And this time the boom comes from deep South East of the world - yes Australia!

According to media reports, now it's Australian doctors outsourcing medical transcription services to India. From his room in the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Dr Phillip Cremer, specialist neurologist and neuro-otologist, sends his digital voice recordings of patient notes to India, where they are transcribed and returned within 48 hours as Microsoft Word files under his letterhead.

Once patient reports have been recorded, the recorder is put in the cradle, digital files are then uploaded to the website over a secure encrypted link. Within 24 to 48 hours, the specialist or doctor receives an email alerting him that the letter is ready for review. Once the letters have been checked for accuracy, they are printed and dispatched to the General Pracbreastioners (GPs). It is good for the specialist and at the same time makes good patient care as the letter with the specialist's or hospital doctor's diagnosis, treatment, instructions on need for further tests, medication and follow-up requirement is with the GP before the patient comes to them. Quick & efficient

About 50 doctors across Australia are availing this quick and efficient service provided by Professional Transcription Solutions (PTS) to make sure their reports reach the General Pracbreastioners in reasonable time. Dr Cremer, who has availed many Australian-based transcription services during his 20-year career claims, "None were of this high quality and efficiency. In the past, I have used a whole range of medical secretaries and the system was insufficient. Sometimes there was a backlog of up to six to eight weeks for letters to be sent to GPs, which in medical practice is unacceptable. I have to write 120 letters a week and the new patient letters take a long time."

How PTS conceived this idea "I perceived a real need to improve patient care by facilitating timely correspondence between the medical professionals. I knew that availability of highly send and educated workforce in India was something that Australian firms cannot afford to ignore and my initiative has paid off. We process 10,000 files per week and it is growing every day all through word of mouth", says PTS founder and director, Chennai-born IT Security Planning Consultant Raji Swaminathan, who was prompted to start the service after attending the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

PTS has transcription centres in Chennai and Calcutta, employing 56 transcribers. The clientele includes medical and surgical specialists in orthopaedics, endocrinology, rheumatology, cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology and neurology.

All clients and their nominated staff have 24-7 data access to a secure on-line system enabling fast retrieval of patient data.

Fear of breach of security? The fears of breach of security are dismissed as Raji says, "PTS complies with the Health Insurance Commission regulations of encryption of data relating to patients and other medical information sent via the Internet. The service is hosted on the AC3 (Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications) secure computing infrastructure, which is operated as a joint venture between the state of New South Wales (NSW) Government and eight NSW-based universities".