Speech recognition technology in the medical field is allowing clinicians to be more productive by dictating and transcribing many of their findings automatically. This dramatically reduces the amount of time they have to commit to going over there daily logs. The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is looking into ways this technology could revolutionize the organization.
Established in 1948, the NHS is funded through central taxation and provides the vast majority of the health services to residents of the United Kingdom for free. The size of the organization is not conducive to making quick decisions to adopt new technologies to improve its operations. Although speech technology is readily available and is being adopted by clinicians in many developing countries to improve their efficiency, the NHS is lagging behind in this endeavor.
One of the key obstacles for the implementation of speech recognition is the integration with legacy systems. The cost is one factor currently stopping the organization from using a proven technology, but the group has recognized other clinicians by presenting £50,000 (or close to US$80,000) as part of its innovation awards in the use of speech recognition technology.
Nuance (News - Alert) Communications, a globally recognized voice and language solutions provider for businesses and consumers, held a forum in central London to let medical professionals weigh in on how this technology has improved the efficiency of their practice.
The consensus among the attendees was that using the technology allowed them to considerably improve their practice. The intuitive medical edition of the Nuance platform is especially designed to recognize virtually all medical conditions and therapies, so doctors, nurses, and other health practitioners can speak freely knowing what they say will be recognized. The software also has the capability to learn any word or phrase by training it to recognize the new additions.
Doctors can dictate virtually anything and have it transcribed automatically. This includes letters to process referral requests by using the Web-based Choose and Book service. Once the letter is finished it can be e-mailed to another doctor or healthcare facility for laboratory work or therapies. All of this is accomplished without having to use a medical transcriber. The cost-saving measures the software provided their practice was also highlighted by the attendees.