Medical Outsourcing
Canada hasn't enough medical technicians, nor sufficient numbers of high-tech medical machinery to meet the needs of Canadians.
It now transpires that, like other industries outsourcing to call centres in India, the medical technology industry has begun outsourcing as well. MRI, CT scans and X-ray images developed in Ontario are converted to digital format and sent over the Internet to the subcontinent where Indian radiologists, trained in Canada, interpret the scans and send back their results.
The costs are far lower, and the results are received in one-third the time it takes to get the job done right in Ottawa.
A company by the name of Telediagnosys, operating out of India turns around non-emergency results for a Canadian imaging centre in less than 12 hours, compared to the usual 48 hours for such results. This kind of outsourcing to companies set up for that very purpose and employing medical specialists trained to Canadian standards is on the verge of expanding.
The analysis of human tissue; pathology, and possibly even going as far as remote-control surgery appears on the horizon as the concept expands. This is a brave new world of increasingly complex and useful medical technology. In a nod to Canada's severe shortage of physicians and medical specialists, all symptoms point to the potential for the greater use of health-care outsourcing.
It's already happening in a myriad of other ways, by individuals initiating their very own foreign-based medical treatments. It's called international medical tourism. Where people from Europe or North America travel to Asian countries advertising special rates for tourists (still far more costly than like surgeries done domestically for the indigenous population)inclusive of travel costs and after-surgery care.
It's become a crucial part of the worldwide economy, reaching a value of $80-billion in 2008, scheduled to amount to six million medical tourists by 2010, worth some $162-billion. Needless to say there are caveats, mostly evolving around critical after-care once surgical patients return to their home base.
But the concept is enticing to the adventurous and those willing to take a gamble. To visit exotic new environments, different cultures and traditions, while knowing that medical and health needs will be taken care of efficiently and relatively inexpensively in modern hygienic hospitals replete with the latest medical gadgetry and trained professionals.
Some of those professionals having even been trained in Canada, with speciality certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. A growing concept, an entirely new industry, combining the curiosity of the world traveller and the needfulness of a patient.
Of course there will always be people who prefer to remain at home, close to the familiar, to family and friends and the comfort of the known. Who prefer their foreign travel untrammelled by the anxiety of anticipating surgery in the midst of their sight-seeing activities.
It now transpires that, like other industries outsourcing to call centres in India, the medical technology industry has begun outsourcing as well. MRI, CT scans and X-ray images developed in Ontario are converted to digital format and sent over the Internet to the subcontinent where Indian radiologists, trained in Canada, interpret the scans and send back their results.
The costs are far lower, and the results are received in one-third the time it takes to get the job done right in Ottawa.
A company by the name of Telediagnosys, operating out of India turns around non-emergency results for a Canadian imaging centre in less than 12 hours, compared to the usual 48 hours for such results. This kind of outsourcing to companies set up for that very purpose and employing medical specialists trained to Canadian standards is on the verge of expanding.
The analysis of human tissue; pathology, and possibly even going as far as remote-control surgery appears on the horizon as the concept expands. This is a brave new world of increasingly complex and useful medical technology. In a nod to Canada's severe shortage of physicians and medical specialists, all symptoms point to the potential for the greater use of health-care outsourcing.
It's already happening in a myriad of other ways, by individuals initiating their very own foreign-based medical treatments. It's called international medical tourism. Where people from Europe or North America travel to Asian countries advertising special rates for tourists (still far more costly than like surgeries done domestically for the indigenous population)inclusive of travel costs and after-surgery care.
It's become a crucial part of the worldwide economy, reaching a value of $80-billion in 2008, scheduled to amount to six million medical tourists by 2010, worth some $162-billion. Needless to say there are caveats, mostly evolving around critical after-care once surgical patients return to their home base.
But the concept is enticing to the adventurous and those willing to take a gamble. To visit exotic new environments, different cultures and traditions, while knowing that medical and health needs will be taken care of efficiently and relatively inexpensively in modern hygienic hospitals replete with the latest medical gadgetry and trained professionals.
Some of those professionals having even been trained in Canada, with speciality certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. A growing concept, an entirely new industry, combining the curiosity of the world traveller and the needfulness of a patient.
Of course there will always be people who prefer to remain at home, close to the familiar, to family and friends and the comfort of the known. Who prefer their foreign travel untrammelled by the anxiety of anticipating surgery in the midst of their sight-seeing activities.
Labels: Bioscience, Health, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 7:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home