For more information, check out
www.ozetrainer.com.au

MEDICAL transcription is an ever-growing and successful industry, but not well known.


The industry has only evolved since the capabilities of the internet have been exploited. The industry is worth an estimated $18 billion in USA and it contributes over $10 billion to the Indian economy. 




It has not been quantified in Australia, but each metropolitan hospital estimates around $5 million is spent on secretarial services.


Medical transcription (MT) is the process of converting physician dictation into an electronic format where it becomes part of a patient’s permanent medical record. 


MTs transcribe quite challenging but interesting records and they are a vital part of the patients’ care.


The demand for skilled medical transcriptionists is huge. As the population ages and grows the documentation of medical records is only getting more technical and longer for each patient and the need for skilled MTs increases. 




Hospitals and clinics are outsourcing at the growth rate of 30 per cent per year in Australia, and it is only possible to work from home as a skilled, highly trained MT. 


They can work for national medical transcription service companies as an independent contractor. The company supplies all the work and the dictations may come from anywhere in the country or indeed in the world. 


MT’s can travel if they’re working for an MTSO, all they need is an internet connection. it’s a wonderful new way to work. 




There is also potential to work for a local transcription company as an employee or at a hospital or medical clinic, or for MTs to start their own business.


Ozetrainer is the only accredited MT course available in Australia. The full qualification is BSB40507 Certificate IV Business Administration (Medical Transcription) and they are a registered training organisation.


Ozetrainer firstly provides extremely comprehensive training. This training is government recognised, nationally recognised and industry supported. 




Graduates are keenly sought by the major Medical Transcription Service Organisations, as well hospitals and clinics.


Ozetrainer has placed 98 per cent of its graduates in satisfying work from home positions. Upon graduation they assist students in work placement.


Most transcriptionists work from home as private contractors and they can work and live anywhere in the country. 


There are so many advantages in studying and working as a MT, most of all having the ability to do it from the home.




For more information, check out
www.ozetrainer.com.au

As companies modernize their business practices, driven by the need to remain competitive and retain critical survival capabilities, such as, agility and flexibility in a fast changing marketplace, it is opportunities galore for players in the Medical Device Outsourcing market. Outsourcing offers several advantages to OEMs, which include access to dedicated product design teams/expertise, manufacturing-cost reductions, minimizing the number of process steps involved, cost-effective customized products, and improved time to market, among others.

Interestingly, in comparison with other manufacturing industries like automotive and industrial equipments, the medical devices industry has been relatively late to latch on to the outsourcing trend, deterred primarily by thorny legislative issues.

Regulatory issues have been a major barrier, given the fact that medical devices are strictly governed by medical legislations. However, in recent years, the economic advantages of outsourcing have far outweighed the bottlenecks confronted and as a result outsourcing is currently a growing trend with major medical device OEMs. With the future characterized by volatility in commodity prices, and currency fluctuations, manufacturing processes, including that for medical devices, will come under direct pressure requiring OEMs to remain cost effective and flexible and to rapidly adjust to changing external market stimulants.

Outsourcing against this backdrop will emerge even higher to be the sharpest competitive edge for medical device OEMs.

The healthcare industry is resilient but not immune from the developments in macro-economic environment.

Under such a scenario, growth in the medical-device outsourcing market decelerated to single digits in the year 2009 discouraged by reductions in contract manufacturing orders from OEMs burdened with softening demand, liquidity shortages and longer sales cycle of products However, the recession interestingly has pushed the concept of outsourcing medical device development and manufacturing out of its orbit. Several medical device OEMs have and are continuing to re-evaluate supply chain dynamics in a bid to leverage cost efficiency under a scenario where increasing profitability is solely dependent upon reducing production/manufacturing costs.

The year 2010 has already witnessed a “rubber band effect” with contract manufacturing orders/deals springing back into force with recovery in the economy. The vigorous snapping back of growth is largely the result of OEMs recalibrating strategies to reduce costs, lead times, increase execution speeds, and flexibility. Steady growth is forecasted for the upcoming years, as revenue starved companies’ prowl for outsourcing solutions that are cost-effective, and convert their costs from fixed to variable.

Most medical device outsourcing service providers are focusing on expanding their capability and expertise with end-to-end full service portfolio offerings. Full-length services typically range from product design, development and production including, value added services such as R&D, engineering services, packaging, and supply chain management. In the upcoming years, companies with dual prototyping and production abilities are poised to score the maximum gains as OEM preferences skew steeply towards service offerings that promise radical reductions in time to market.

Like other industries, shift of manufacturing bases to low-cost destinations has been gaining pace in the medical device industry. In the upcoming years, Asia is expected to lead the way as the most preferred offshore destination because of the quality and scale of labor it has to offer. Sensing opportunities, several European companies have relocated significant portion of their operations to Asian economies to reap the benefits of lower operational costs.

As stated by the new market research report, the US accounts for a major share of the global Medical Device Outsourcing Services market. By device category, outsourcing services offered for Class II Devices is the largest segment. OEMs leveraging the most of specialized outsourcing services are expected to be those operating in a business environment where cost-containment and product differentiation represents perennial needs.

In the post-recession period, organizations will continue to retain their appetite for cost effective solutions, but will however demand more value-creating productivity. Growing recognition of the economic and operational efficiencies and benefits of a device outsourcing model promises strong future growth. World Medical Device Outsourcing Services in the field of Radiology is expected to surge at a projected CAGR of 9.4% over the analysis period.

Major players in the global marketplace include Accellent Inc, Advanced Scientifics Inc, ATEK Medical, Flextronics International, Benchmark Electronics, Inc, Code Refinery LLC, Creganna Tactx Medical, EtQ Management Consultants Inc, Greatbatch Inc, HCL’s Life Science, Intertech Engineering Associates Inc., Lake Region Medical, Medical Device Consultants Inc (MDCI) Inc, Memry Corporation, Minnetronix, Inc, Nortech Systems Inc, Plexus Corporation, RTEmd, Sandvik Materials Technology GmbH, Symmetry Medical Inc., Vention Medical, among others.

The research report titled “Medical Device Outsourcing: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, company profiles, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. The report provides market estimates and projections for Medical Device Outsourcing Services in (US$ Million) for major geographic markets including United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific and Rest of World.

For more details about this comprehensive market research report, please visit – http://www.strategyr.com/Medical_Device_Outsourcing_Market_Report.asp

Medical treatment is expensive and there’s a shortage of qualified medical expertise in Australia. Medical outsourcing may offer the Australian public and health industry a number of benefits in managing costs and streamlining administrative efficiencies.

Pick up any newspaper and you will see that the Australian health system is buckling and failing.

A series of spectacular scandals in NSW especially has placed the spotlight on the lack of rigour and the huge level of risk inside the system, with the liability for patient care and community outcomes sitting squarely in the lap of politicians.
Devoid of a centralised, federal approach to procedural standards, the administration of critical hospital functions such as post surgical medical transcriptions have been left in a ‘catch as catch can’ situation.

A system in crisis is one ripe for transformation and State political parties in crisis are desperate to generate some good news. The development of new procedural guidelines to make key supporting functions of the health system operate more efficiently is a prime opportunity.

According to recent research from IBIS World there will be a substantial increase in the demand for health services in the next 5 – 10 years of around 5 – 10% per annum. The Australian healthcare market is influenced by a number of demographic trends, including:

• A growing and aging population (The Australian Bureau of Statistics projects that over 17% of the Australian population will be 65 and over)
• Anticipation that Government will increase their spending on health over the next five years
• People are living longer and consumer expectations for improved healthcare are increasing
• Technology is giving rise to new clinical therapies, which in turn are addressing more and more medical ailments and aiding in earlier diagnosis and prevention of diseases.

Given some of the trends mentioned, the growing demand for health services over the coming years will drive demand for ways to streamline medical procedures and diagnostics and more efficient ways of managing medical administration and records keeping. Outsourcing offers a number of benefits to allow hospitals and providers of health services to meet this demand while keeping costs down and quality high.

One major area that simplifies yet enhances medical administration efficiency is the outsourcing of medical and patient record management. In the interest of space and fewer tactical and organisational issues, hospitals outsource the storage and upkeep of records to offsite-specialised centres that ensure foolproof protection. Outsourcing medical data facilitates collation and digitization of information from multiple sources – maximising information access to the patient and practitioner, giving secure, long-term storage of medical records, minimising cost of storage and sharing information globally and minimising cost of travel.

Except in a few areas such as HR and Payroll, and a few other back-office applications hospitals and other medical service providers, Australian has been slow to embrace medical outsourcing particularly if it’s off shored. Medical transcription, also known as MT, is an allied health profession, which deals in the process of transcription, or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals into text format. MT is a standard process in the USA, however it is still a cottage industry in Australia. There are over 900 public and private hospitals and hundreds of individual and clustered groups of specialist physicians. Every day there are tens of thousands of medical reports generated daily, over worked specialists and surgeons are under resourced and administrative support budgets eroded by failing health systems.

Although it is not necessary, reports sent from the USA to medical transcription facilities in India and the Philippines can be turned around in an impressive two hours. It’s hard to believe but in Australia by comparison a medical report can take from a couple of days to six weeks to produce.

The UK and US are further ahead in terms of outsourcing medical services to places like India and the Philippines. Areas outsourced include MT, diagnostics, data management, and HR, payroll, and credit management.

A thriving trend in the medical outsourcing scene today is the delegation of high-end diagnostic tests and diagnostic imaging. Some institutions are even going as far as outsourcing the complete management of laboratories.

In a recent statement Brendan Earle, Partner from Freehill’s Lawyers in Australia, stated, “Healthcare is heavily regulated, politically contested and subject to considerable media and public scrutiny. Front page issues such as workforce shortages, regulatory change and government budgetary policy have a real and immediate effect on the industry.”

A failed outsourcing relationship could attract significant attention from the government, the media and the public, making hospitals vary wary about making outsourcing decisions particularly if it involves offshoring.

PharmCentre, a US based medical and healthcare call centre, announced that it is increasing its presence in South Asia region with the addition of offices in India. PharmCentre supports pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device, and healthcare industries. PharmCentre is a division of MakroCare and has focused on the Life Sciences industry for over 13 years.

PharmCentre provides product hotlines, medical information, AE/SAE Triage, PV Call center, product complaints, patient recruitment, patient retention, site management in clinical trials, EDC support and other BPO support services.

This presence along with other locations in USA and Philippines offer 24×7 coverage of it’s services to global customers. With its motto of “One Call makes a difference,” PharmCentre believes that call management plays a vital role in retaining customers, protecting brands and reaching to patients effectively. Their teams consist of highly qualified pharmacy, nursing and life sciences graduates with customer-centric approach skills.