Voice Recognition Helps Doctors Get More Out Of E-Health

I can certainly agree with this article and I'm sure there are many physicians that would do the same.  After using Dragon dictation, one physician commented to me "no wonder your emails are so long, now I see why" as he realized that I too use Dragon for my business as well and it really helps being able to dictate versus having to type everything...especially for those who are challenged a bit by the keyboard.  As I demonstrated in one video, Vista Dictation is certainly worth a look too, so if you have purchased a new computer/notebook with Vista installed, it certainly couldn't hurt to give it a try.  You may need to purchase a microphone if your desktop computer does not have one, or if the microphone on a tablet or notebook does not come equipped with dual array microphones.  BD  

One of the biggest complaints from doctors trading in their paper files for electronic health records is that typing in patient info takes too much time. For some doctors, an e-health record might mean an extra 3 to 5 minutes of extra work per patient. In a busy practice or hospital, that time can add up quickly. But some doctors are avoiding that hurdle by speaking commands as well as patient notes into their E-health record systems. Voice recognition functionality is not only helping to drive utilization of e-health record systems among doctors, it's also helping to dramatically reduce the cost of medical transcription services.

The e-medical record software has drop-down templates from which physicians can enter information about patients, such as during exams and in providing data about medical history. However, the voice-recognition software provides the e-records an added boost by allowing doctors to add details that would otherwise be excluded from the data, or have to be typed in.

Rather than dictate notes that need to be transcribed by third parties, the voice-recognition software can add the information directly to patient's e-health records, where doctors can read through them immediately for editing or checking for errors.

"It's no question that [voice recognition] is helping to drive physician adoption" of EMRs, said McGraw. "It's not the reason why EMR is getting adopted, but it's one more feature that adds ease of use," she said.

Voice Recognition Helps Doctors Get More Out Of E-Health -- E-Health -- InformationWeek