Voice Recognition Transcription - A Success Story!

By Kristie Thorson, MAFP Communications Coordinator
From the May/June 2002 Minnesota Family Physician

The Family Practice Center in Willmar is experiencing success with voice recognition transcription. Instead of dictating to tape, doctors there use VIAVoice software, complete with a special medical vocabulary, to do their dictation.

“It’s a real positive change, said Dr. Michael Morris, a family physician at the clinic. “It has led to an 80% reduction in the cost of transcription services per month.”

Another benefit is the rapid turnaround. With tape dictation it would often take a week to get the information into a patient’s chart. Now, physicians see a patient in the morning and use the software. The medical secretary gets the information by noon and it is in the patient’s chart by that afternoon. Turnaround went from one week to 12 hours.

Dr. Morris says it will take some extra time initially. A physician has to set up a voice model, which takes about an hour. They do this by reading stories into the computer so the software learns to recognize your voice and style.

“It gets easier the more you use it,” Dr. Morris said. “At first, a physician will need to add about 20 minutes a day to their normal dictation time. There will also likely be two to three wrong words per paragraph that you’ll have to go back and change while the computer is learning.”

Once the voice model is fully developed, which takes about a month, someone other than the physician can easily do basic editing. According to Dr. Morris, what used to take one hour to type, can now be edited in 10 minutes.

The software is commonly available through a variety of vendors. Clinic administrator Gary McDowell says you will need a computer with at least 256 MB of ram. He says it cost them about $2200 dollars to get each doctor set up. Approximate cost breakdown: ViaVoice ($230), Medical Vocabulary ($150), ASR Group Medical Vocabulary for Family Practice ($375), new computer or computer upgrade ($1400 to $1600).