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07 June 2019
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Q. What would you recommend for speech recognition software in practice?

Dr Kieran Murphy, who is in practice in Limerick, has recently answered this question: "Most of us now use computer-based practice management systems (PMS), and most of us have learned to use a keyboard to a greater or lesser extent. For many, however,touch-typing is still a black art and typing, especially of long pieces of narrative such as after a psychiatric interview or when preparing a medico-legal report, is a chore we would prefer to avoid. Does voice recognition software have a role? Be aware however that most PMS systems still need you to navigate them using a keyboard and mouse and their main role is for dictating text.

"Several very good voice recognition applications have a limited role for the GP. For instance, Google Assistant is integrated on Android phones and can be useful for dictating notes on the go but is not available for the PC and relies on at least a 3G data connection to work well. Google Docs Voice Typing works on any PC using the Chrome browser but only works in Google Docs and does not work with Office documents or any other PMS that I am aware. It also requires an internet connection to work. If you are an Apple user, then Siri offers a similar but less capable app that again only works with Apple apps and as far as I know not with PMS systems. Cortana, which integrates with Windows 10 gives you an ability to control Windows, including opening and closing apps using voice commands but has limited usefulness as a dictation tool. All of these are free.

"For those who have large volumes of dictation and do not need immediate speech to text conversion, several companies offer a medical dictation service. You dictate your letter or note which is exported to the cloud, it is processed by powerful remote voice recognition technology and returns a typed and corrected document, sometimes within minutes. However, it is expensive (about 50c per page) and is not suited to the average GP, being more appropriate fora consultant who is dictating large numbers of letters.

"My choice is Dragon, from a company called Compuspeak. I have been using this for over ten years. The most current version is Dragon 15 which, as a stand-alone product,is priced at €265. Buying it from Compuspeak is much more expensive with an individual licence costing about€1,500 with a significant discount for additional users within the same practice; it requires a separate licence for each user. They will set up your system and provide ongoing software support for €250 per year. The advantage of buying it from Compuspeak is that it comes with an Irish dictionary and a medical dictionary. This means that it recognises most Irish consultant names and place names out of the box without needing to learn them. It also recognises most medical terms and the more complex the term,the more likely it is to recognise it. This also includes the generic and trade names of most drugs on the Irish market."When it does make mistakes, and you correct them, it adds these corrections to the voice profile, improving accuracy over time. Initial training of the system to recognise your voice takes less than five minutes and is painless. I know several people who have tried to use Dragon with out the dictionaries and have become frustrated by trying to teach the system the medical terms and have abandoned the project.

Another advantage of Dragon is that it sits on your computer and is not dependent on an Internet connection.To the best of my knowledge, it can be used in each of the existing PMS. I use it in Health One, and while I cannot control the programme, I can dictate into individual items and also use it in the electronic referral forms.

It works with all the Office suite programmes and email.It can also be used with external devices such as digital voice recorders or the voice recorders on mobile phones with the voice files recorded while on the move, subsequently downloaded to the software to undergo voice recognition in order to create a typed document. One can also dictate a voice file for a secretary to process to voice recognition and do the corrections. For those with limited typing capability or a desire to reduce the use of the keyboard and avoid repetitive strain injury, I can strongly recommend it."

 

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