Friday, October 20, 2006 BPOs in medical field to benefit more Pinoys
INCREASING global demand makes medical transcription and telemedicine lucrative fields that Filipinos can exploit.
Maria Cherry Lyn Rodolfo of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) said in her report compiled by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies that demand for health-related business process outsourcing (BPO) services by hospitals and physicians in the United States is increasing.
Rodolfo’s report pointed out that the Philippines can take advantage of the development, which will provide additional jobs and income to the country.
In the US alone, the market is estimated to be worth $17 billion.
Transcription
“(And, some) 6, 700 hospitals in the US still require transcription,” she said in her report.
Medical transcription, which can be done anywhere over the Internet, is the process of transcribing or recording medical records.
A few companies have been established in Cebu to provide offshore medical transcription services to hospitals and clinics in the US.
Rodolfo said Filipino medical professionals and hospitals in the country can also offer telemedicine to medical institutions abroad.
“Radiological images taken in the US can be digitized and transmitted over the Internet, retrieved and analyzed in the Philippines. The findings are then sent back to the US,” she said.
But Rodolfo’s report said barriers, such as recognition of licenses and standards of Filipino physicians and health institutions, and the decline in enrollment in medical courses, have to be addressed for the BPO industry in telemedicine service to fully develop.
It said other health-related BPOs involve processing of bills and insurance claims.
Rodolfo said one of the frameworks of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade outlined the possibility of cross-border trade services or supply of services, such as medical transcription, telemedicine and other BPOs.
She said about 80 percent of the US medical transcription market is being served by India while the Philippines accounts for only one percent.
The country could get a larger share of the market considering that it possesses the advantage of having cultural and linguistic affinity with the US and less costly telecommunication lines and bandwidth, among others, compared to India.
Lower costs
Rodolfo said the costs of telecommunications lines in the country are 30 to 50 percent lower than India. The bandwidth cost in the Philippines has also declined by 70 percent during the past four years.
She said, though, that the rapid growth of the contact center industry is one of the reasons for the slow development of medical transcription service in the Philippines.
“Contact center industry is perceived to be more attractive than medical transcription,” Rodolfo said.
Nursing and care-giving jobs overseas, and the declining number of proficient English speakers among the country’s work force, also hinder the development of the medical transcription service.
Issues related to privacy of information is another obstacle, Rodolfo’s report said. (JBN)
