Dictation, Done Better

Speech recognition errors spur an accuracy makeover

Rather than using both hands to type his addendum notes, hospitalist Niraj Patel, MD, uses his voice. Dictating, he said, cuts the time it takes to complete a note from about 10 minutes to somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes.

Freeing up his hands allows for multitasking. “I can physically scroll through the labs and scroll through the resident's note in real time, so for myself, it's just way faster,” said Dr. Patel, an attending at Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, Pa. “I also feel like it's a little bit more fluid in explaining my thought process.”

Physicians have documented using medical dictation software (e.g., Nuance Communications' Dragon products and M*Modal Fluency for Transcription) since EHRs began to trickle into the mainstream. However, for all its longevity and reported advantages, the technology still has its quirks.

Read the full article in ACP Hospitalist.

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