Medical Transcription Industry Moving to Make the Philippines a Major Global Player



A significant growth is being envisioned for the Philippine business processing industry in the near future; much of this growth is centered in medical transcription.

This is the reason the Philippines is on the roll promoting its medical transcription capabilities to the United States in a bid to raise its market share before eying other opportunities, according to Myla Rose Mundo-Reyes, president of the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI).

Today, the industry silently supplies less than 1% of the US market. There has been a steady flow of business, so far, for Philippine medical transcription organizations.

With the growing shortage of medical transcription personnel in the US and inadequate new recruits joining the profession, MTSOs with proven offshore capabilities like the Philippines will be in an advantageous position in the future.

The medical transcription personnel in the Philippines is a pretty young population, with most transcriptionists falling in the 20-25 age bracket. Most of them have medical backgrounds, are familiar with US medical standards, terminology, and practices, and able to transcribe 1,000 lines per day with 98-99% accuracy rate. About 50% of Filipino MT professionals are physical therapy graduates, 40% are nursing graduates, and the rest are from allied sciences.

Philippine MT organizations operate 24 hours, 7 days a week, with the ability to deliver output in 3-6 hours in emergency cases. Each Filipino medical transcriptionist can transcribe up to 1,000 lines per day with 98-99% accuracy rate.

Target industry promotion

Inevitably, prospects for the industry's8217;s growth will not be limited to medical field, but as well as legal transcription, subtitling, billing, and coding.

's8220;With our huge pool of highly skilled, quality medical and technology professionals, the Philippines is the best destination for medical transcription services,'s8221; said Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila.

On October 7-12, the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI) will join the AHIMA Convention and Exhibit in Denver, Colorado organized by the Department of Trade and Industry's8217;s export promotion arm, Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM).

's8220;MTIAPI hopes to establish stronger branding, front-end awareness, and linkages with relevant international associations, as well as find partners and open up more business opportunities for our local MT companies,'s8221; said Reyes.

Last year at AHIMA, MTIAPI member firms linked up with the US Medical Transcription Industry Association and the American Association of Medical Transcription to help the Philippines's8217; visibility and highlight its capability in providing quality transcription services.

MTIAPI is the industry association behind the Philippine medical transcription industry. It is composed of more than 60 members including MT service organizations, MT educational institutions and MT professionals.

's8220;We want to send the good news in AHIMA that the Philippines has all it takes to become a robust player in MT. While the initial push for sending offshore work is largely driven by cost savings, more and more clients realize that quality makes a lot of cents for them in the end,'s8221; said Reyes. 's8220;We are pushing for a strong branding of quality services from the Philippines, not just cheap rates.'s8221;

Philippine MT companies do mostly medical reports, discharge summaries, operative reports, therapy rehabilitation notes, chart notes, and hospital and clinic reports using state-of-the-art software and equipment from the United States.

For information about the Philippine participation to AHIMA, please contact CITEM's8217;s IT Services and Electronics Division at (+632) 8325044 and (+632) 8312201 locals 212, 251, and 301, or email itservices @ citem.com.ph

Other useful links: www.mtiapi.com; www.citem.com.ph and www.citem.blogspot.com





Medical Transcription Industry Moving to Make the Philippines a Major Global Player