Alden Prepress to expand in medical transcription

Alden Prepress Services Pvt Limited, a subsidiary of Alden Group, UK, is planning to expand its activities in medical transcription and related BPO fields to cash in on the medical transcription outsourcing boom.

The company, which is into typesetting operations, expects substantial growth in medical transcription segment in the near future. It has received three big tenders from UK hospitals in the last few weeks and expects to bag more deals as UK hospitals are looking to outsource such services as part of cost-cutting measures, a company release said.

Alden has been doing medical transcription works mostly for US market over the last 12 months.

The company plans to increase its headcount for medical transcription services from the present 20 to 200 by the end of this year.

It has two offices in India - one in Chennai, which employs 420 people, and another one in Tiruchi, which employs 80. It will be recruiting more science graduates at its Tiruchi centre, which is being expanded to undertake numerous medical transcription projects, the release added.

The Chennai office was recently accredited by Investors in People, a UK-based standard assessment body.

The printing jobs are being undertaken in its centres in the UK, India and Malaysia. Its Chennai office also develops software, and this helps the company generate additional revenue.

William Alden, managing director, Alden Group said, that the Chennai office occupied an important part in the company's global strategy to diversify its operations in publishing and BPO fields.

With more prepress jobs for scientific, technical and medical journals being outsourced to India by US and European publishers, Chennai operations would take up the lead in expanding Alden's global operations, he added.