The Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is urging nursing graduates to consider the more than 100,000 non-clinical but medical-related job opportunities in the healthcare information sector of the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

In an interview published in Manila Standard Today, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz cited a Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) report that also described the healthcare information sector as one of the fastest growing in the outsourcing industry.

“With the fast-growing and innovative trends and advancements in the healthcare industry, I encourage health professionals, nurses especially, to think out-of-the-box, beyond the traditional clinical jobs, and explore other emerging medical and health-related careers needed by our labor market today,” the Labor Secretary said.

Careers in healthcare information outsourcing include clinical appeals specialists, medical transcriptionists, medical coders and billers, medical secretaries, medical butlers, clinical research associates, medical representatives, and medical assistants.

Baldoz added that employees in the healthcare information industry are typically in knowledge process outsourcing, processing and analyzing information and technical data.

According to the BLE Career Guide, jobs in healthcare information outsourcing have a starting salary of P14,000-P18,000. Clinical appeals specialists in the BPO typically receive P20,000-P40,000 a month. Compensations also depend on type of employment, hours of work, and typing speed.

The labor secretary said that by 2016, the country’s outsourcing sector is projected to bring in around 8% of the Philippines’ total gross domestic product (GDP).

She added that the DOLE continues to support the implementation of the IT-BPM (Information Technology and Business Process Management) Roadmap 2012-2016. Targets of the roadmap include 1.3 million direct and 3.2 million indirect employment opportunities.

The IT- Roadmap 2012-2016 asks the government to implement program and policy interventions such as enabling structural changes, including more autonomy in curriculum design “to roll out talent interventions; expediting initiatives for K-to-12; further improving tertiary education capacity; aligning local ordinances with national laws;” and continuing tax holidays.