Teleradiology and GATS-An-800 lb Gorilla Down the Hall

Abstract

In early February 2004 President Bush’s chief economic advisor, N. Gregory Mankiw who was once Harvard’s youngest tenured professor, made a comment that attracted a firestorm of political invective. He told Congress that if a service could be rendered more cheaply by foreigners abroad than by Americans in the US we were better off importing it than producing it at home. According to an article on his testimony which appeared in The Economist magazine, to prove his point Mankiw used the example of radiologists in India analyzing studies of American patients’ images sent via the internet. This pronouncement elicited two types of responses [1]. Inasmuch as it was the beginning of the presidential election season, the remark was seized upon by populists in either party who rained abuse on Mr. Mankiw for such a statement. A common retort “how dare we talk about exporting jobs and in this case, the jobs are radiologists.” Yet professional economists on both sides of the aisle agreed with him, understanding that this was a typical consequence of globalization. In the aggregate it benefits many, even though it may dislocate a few in the beginning until those negatively affected relocate and redirect their employment. In fact the increased liberalization of service provision spanning national borders under the rubric of free trade continues to be a policy of the present government.