Govt junior colleges to offer medical transcription course

For the first time in the state, the commissionerate of intermediate education, Andhra Pradesh government, and the Indian Association of Medical Records Services (IAMR) have embarked on an initiative to introduce medical transcription as a vocational course in junior colleges.

Towards this direction, the commissionerate and the IAMR had jointly organised a 15-day pilot programme for training government junior college lecturers in the state in medical transcription, which concluded here on July 29.

Twenty seven lecturers "� three each from nine government colleges and minority institutions in tier-II towns "� have been selected for the all-paid programme with an intention to start a six-month course in their respective colleges.

These include government junior colleges in Guntur, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Kadapa, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam, Warangal, Mahabubnagar and Kakinada.

The course will commence from August 6, 2007.

"About 270 inter students from the nine colleges will be trained as medical transcriptionists and issued a certificate. This will enable them to get more employment opportunities immediately after their intermediate, and earn Rs 6,000 per month at the entry level. The programme will also be run full-time in summer for two months," Ramakrishna Tummala, president of IAMR, said.

According to him, Hyderabad currently has 200 small and big medical transcription companies, which provide employment to 20,000 youth. There is a need for 10,000 more trained transcriptionists.