Outsourcing blues

As radiology reporting outsourcing becomes popular and more prevalent, things may get a little tricker. Arjun Kalyanpur has an interview published at Auntminnieindia.com on this subject where he discussses the pros and cons of outsourcing. This follows the recent publication of his article in radiology. As mentioned earlier in this blog as well, there are problems related to board certification, among others.

Having said that other disciplines are not necessarily having it easy. There was a major hoo-haa last week when it was revealed in a report in the Daily Mail that transcripts sent to India from London, for transcription, had major bloomers, that could have affected patient management. Many commentaries have used this to air their own issues on this subject.

To add my two piece. "Its all about the money, stupid." The day it no longer becomes cheaper to outsource, it will stop. As long as it is technically possible and someone is saving money or making money, it will continue in one form or another.

Why our future doctors copy....

There is an article on this subject in the Express Newsline. The reason for this article is the suspension of Dr. Chittaranjan Purandare, an honorary gynecologist at J J Hospital for signing the theses of 5 students who were to appear for the CPS (College of Physicians & Surgeons) exams.

All this makes bizarre reading, more so because, as usual, the reporters don't seem to have understood the facts at all. And based on the facts listed it doesn't make sense as to how someone could be suspended from a State Government hospital for some issues related to the CPS, which is an autonomous body existing for the sole function of doling out diplomas and degrees to those who don't get into the teaching hospitals.

The fact of course, is that the majority of theses, at least in radiology, whether for the MD exams or for the DNB exams, are rubbish...either copied from earlier theses or shoddily done and written. Any everyone, from the teachers to the examiners, knows this. So what's the big deal here?

Radiology Forums - www.radiologyforums.com

There is a new site called Radiology Forums. Though it has its own URL, it actually is a subsite of www.radiologyworkers.com, which is a site for technologists.

Considering that www.auntminnie.com already has forums, this probably is targetted to technologists rather than radiologists

Sir Godfrey Hounsfield and CT - short obit

Sir Hounsfield passed away on August 12th. If Roentgen was considered the "Father of Radiology", Hounsfield was considered the "Father of Modern Radiology".

His death is a loss to us. It's worth considering where we've come since that momentous invention in the early 70s. This article helps.

Radiology-pathology tie-up - DCA-Metropolis...is this the future?

Sify has a news item about a tie-up between Diwanchand Satyapal Aggarwal (DCA) Imaging Centre and Metropolis, a pathology centre for providing pathology and radiology services. For Metropolis, it offers an entry into the New Delhi market and for DCA it offers a way of reaching out to markets, cities and towns through Metropolis' pathology network.

Is this the future? Tie-ups between radiology and pathology chains to provide synergy for both?