Saturday, April 19, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
HOPE springs for medical and non-medical professionals in Mindanao to pursue a career in medical transcription as investors are now eyeing at expanding medical transcription business in key cities outside Metro Manila.
In its Mindanao-wide consultation meeting held last April 11 in Davao City, the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAP) revealed that medical transcription industry players are poised for business expansion in Mindanao's "next-wave cities" such as Davao, General Santos, Butuan, Zamboanga and Tacurong which offer cheap occupation rentals while at the same time reach jobseekers in the provinces who can't afford for a medical transcription career in Manila.
"We are barely scratching the US market," said Myla Rose Mundo-Reyes, president of the MTIAP while referring to the Philippines' share in the global medical industry.
The Philippines, she said, is only serving one-percent of the total medical transcription market in the United States as against Canada and India, two of the leading MT service providers in the world.
The insufficient number of qualified workers remains at the top of MTIAP concerns as the country's 10,000 medical transcriptionists can't suffice the demand of general, business, legal, accounting and hospital transcription fields in the US.
Reyes added that while the US remains the top market for medical transcription, other areas in the European and Caribbean regions are also catching up in terms of growth in demand.
Transcription Alliance of Davao Incorporation shares MTIAP's desire to strengthen the advocacy for uplifting the quality and image of the MT career professionals in the Philippines, said its president Wit Holganza during the meeting.
The MTIAP aims to triple the current number of Filipino medical transcription workers as they projected more than US$8 billion in terms of outsource and more than US$726 million in offshore market opportunities by 2010.
It 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 medical transcription companies, said Reyes, adding that her group envisions the country to become the preferred offshore and outsource destination for medical transcription. (Medco)
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