Sangita Sultania G. Roy; http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050416/asp/calcutta/story_4616862.asp

Transtek, a leading healthcare B.P.O. organisation in the Eastern region, is starting a medical transcription training programme for students of the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy, Narendrapur, according to news reports.

To begin with, five students have been shortlisted for the six-month programme. The expertise for the training will be provided by Transtek, while Ramakrishna Mission will provide infrastructural support.

“We found information on the Internet that blind people are working as medical transcriptionists in the U.S.A. This inspired us to take up the cause,” says Sudarshan Bagri, Managing Director, Transtek.

It helped that basic computer education forms part of the syllabus at the Narendrapur Academy. Ramakrishna Mission makes screen-reading software available to its students. The typing skills are, of course, mastered through practice.

The Mission has welcomed the Transtek move. “Economic rehabilitation for blind people remains a big problem even today. This is a step in the right direction. Medical transcription will probably open up a new avenue for blind people,” says Sunil Baran Pattanayak, Principal of the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy.

Medical transcription is an outsourced operation, whereby dictation given by doctors in the U.S.A. on a patient’s case history and diagnosis is sent overseas as a digital recording. This information is then transcribed or typed by employees in India, a skill that relies more on auditory than visual ability.

Successful candidates will be absorbed by Transtek. If the experiment clicks, the firm plans to expand on the idea and employ 500 blind people over the next three years.