Diagnostic jobs the latest to be outsourced

[OhioChick]

Wednesday, May 7, 2008, Chandigarh, India

Ater business, knowledge and legal process outsourcing, Indian industries are now eyeing ‘diagnostics jobs’ outsourcing from other countries.

According to industry experts, a number of hospitals in the US and Europe are outsourcing laboratory and diagnostic tests to India as it helps in saving cost and money while maintaining quality.

The Indian diagnostics and pathology laboratory business is around USD 864 million and is growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually, they say.

Accordng to the FICCI, the size of the global clinical trials market was nearly USD 10 billion and estimated to have touched USD 26 billion by 2007. “Diagnostics and lab testing outsourcing is certainly the most potential business domain. We are trying to tap available opportunities in it,” says Dr G.S.K Velu, managing director, Metropolis Health Services India Ltd.

“There is an excellent outsourcing opportunity to test around one million samples a year,” he says. The other emerging sector —Clinical Research Outsourcing (CRO)— is also witnessing a surge in the country. The drug manufacturing units are outsourcing different phases relating to the development of medicine to India.

In the case of diagnostics, X-rays and other procedures are done abroad and the reports by experts are written here and sent back, while in the case of lab tests,the photomicrographs are electronically sent here and the doctors send back the results, says Velu.

“We plan to offer tele-pathology services to cater to the needs of foreign clients faster,” he says, adding that countries like West Asia, Sri Lanka, Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and UK outsource tests to India.

At present, the volume is not very high but the market potential is huge as European countries as also the US are in talks to outsource their work in this area.

Metropolis, that provides hospital laboratory management services and outsources a number of diagnostic-related works to India, has a number of labs in West Asia and South-East Asian countries, including Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

“We process more than 10 million sample tests per year and around one per cent from outsourcing,” Velu adds.

“There is a great opportunity for tapping CRO in the nation. The volume of business is expected to touch the USD 1-1.5 b mark by 2010,” says Dr Umakanta Sahoo, managing director, Chiltren International, a global CRO firm.

There are as many as 30 global CROs and 100 companies involved in doing clinical research-related jobs in the country.

Most of the work comes from the US (almost 20 per cent) and Europe (70-80 per cent). We undertake approximately 300 studies a year, he says.

“It is not the lack of expertise behind outsourcing clinical research-related jobs, but availability of manpower and time saving,” he says.

The sector is also poised to deliver excellent job opportunities and career options to research fellows. McKinsey estimated that the Indian CR (clinical research) market will grow to USD 1.5 billion in value by 2010.

“A research job is not regarded much in our country. We need to train researchers to meet the growing demands in CRO,” he adds.

Asserting that the country has a bouquet of products to offer to foreign clients and attract outsourcing, he says: “There is an urgent need to market our products globally. The government has to start speaking globally about diagnostics and lab work outsourcing in the same way as information technology.” — PTI


http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080507/jobs1.htm

[Triana]

1. I'm sure Senator Punjab would be a great proponent of this, eh? n/t

[OhioChick]

2. Of Course.

:)

[pfitz59]

3. My Repuke Radiologist friend.....

isn't gonna like this.

[OhioChick]

4. I believe that a hospital in Dallas has been doing this for years...

Here's another article:

Outsourcing: remember all those Indian radiologists?

Politically, though, radiology could not be more different. Unlike software engineers, textile workers or credit card customer service employees, doctors have enough political power to erect trade barriers, and they have built some very effective ones.

Not all workers are politically equal…

A FEW years ago, stories about a scary new kind of outsourcing began making the rounds. Apparently, hospitals were starting to send their radiology work to India, where doctors who make far less than American radiologists do were reading X-rays, M.R.I.’s and CT scans.

It quickly became a signature example of how globalization was moving up the food chain, threatening not just factory and call center workers but the so-called knowledge workers who were supposed to be immune. If radiologists and their $350,000 average salaries weren’t safe from the jobs exodus, who was?

On ABC, George Will said the outsourcing of radiology could make health care affordable again, to which Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York retorted that thousands of American radiologists would lose their jobs. On NPR, an economist said the pay of radiologists was already suffering. At the White House, an adviser to President Bush suggested that fewer medical students would enter the field in the future.

“We’re losing radiologists,” Representative Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said on CNN while Lou Dobbs listened approvingly. “We’re losing all kinds of white-collar jobs, all kinds of jobs in addition to manufacturing jobs, which we’re losing by the droves in my state.”


http://seekerblog.com/archives/20080506/outsourcing-remember-all-those-indian-radiologists/


More Penny-Pinching HMOs Outsource Americans’ Private Medical Data to India
July 25th, 2006, Permalink


If you’ve had some nasty or embarrassing illness in the past 12 months, perhaps an ailment so unusual or damning you’d prefer to hide it from your employer, friends and loved ones, then here’s a shocker: There’s a good chance that a stranger in far off India knows all about it. And the kicker–it was your health-care provider that told him of your secret battle with plantar warts, rampant hirsutism, and pathological addiction to eBay.

Like most other parts of corporate America, the health-care industry is quickly learning that there are enormous savings to be had through offshore outsourcing. At an increasing rate, insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are farming out to cheap-labor countries everything from claims processing to diagnostics to drug testing. Total spending on offshore outsourcing by the U.S. health-care industry will grow from $321.7 million in 2005 to an expected $575.3 million in 2008, according to IDC.

Along with that work is going gigabytes of private, patient data–information so sensitive that it could be used to deny someone a job or make them ineligible for life insurance. There’s a widely held myth that federal regulations like HIPAA prevent that sort of data from going abroad. That’s not the case. As long as the foreign processing company adheres to U.S. rules concerning privacy and security it’s permitted.


http://www.oocenter.com/blog/archives/2006/07/25/more-penny-pinching-hmos-outsource-americans-private-medical-data-to-india/