8 Things to Consider Before Committing to a Medical Speech Recognition Software
Before committing to a medical speech recognition software, there are several key points to consider.
In this article, we’ll explore the top 8 considerations you should make when determining which solution would best fit your team’s needs.
- Accuracy
Accuracy is the first and most important consideration to make for any type of speech recognition software, but is especially important when it comes to healthcare.
In healthcare, inaccurate recognition can cause errors in documentation that can either take away time from the physician – or, at worst, be overlooked. Physicians might need to make clarifications on or edits to their documentation when these errors arise.
Time spent resolving speech recognition errors could be better spent elsewhere. The software is designed to save time – not create more problems.
Inaccurate speech recognition stands in the way of patient care, which is why this should be your primary consideration when selecting a solution for your team.
- Speed
Accuracy is an important measure of any speech recognition software’s proficiency, but recognition speed should also be considered. Also known as return time, recognition speed is the amount of time it takes for the speech recognition software to recognize and transcribe speech into text.
Speed and accuracy are two ends of the scale that balances speech recognition. There can be an extremely accurate speech recognition platform with low recognition speed and vice versa. To get the most out of speech recognition, you’ll want balanced speech recognition that is both accurate and quick.
Faster recognition can make it easier to catch errors as you speak because you’ll be able to see the words recognized as you go. If recognition speeds are slower, the populated text will lag behind and can only be edited afterwards.
- Security
General purpose speech recognition has come a long way, making day-to-day tasks just a voice command away. However, virtual assistants and default speech-to-text platforms do not have the same security measures in place as medical speech recognition software.
Medical speech recognition software is designed not only to recognize words phrases that would generally only occur within a medical context. It also designed for HIPAA compliance, which leads to increased security measures.
Data encryption is the most important security feature for healthcare speech recognition – and there are several models of data encryption which can allow a higher level of security. It’s also important to keep an eye out for how, or if, data is stored by the software.
- Support
A support team can make or break any software. A team that’s there to help when problems arise – and one that won’t just direct you to a help file, but rather guide you through and strategize a solution that meets your individual needs – can be an invaluable asset.
Good support means upgrades based on user feedback, an understanding of your team and solutions based off that understanding, and building a relationship between both teams.
It may not be immediately evident which software has a good support, but finding reviews online can give you a good idea of who has bad support – bad reviews will generally reference the software’s support and can be an indicator that problems were not resolved.
For healthcare speech recognition software, be sure to also visit the KLAS Research Speech Recognition reports, which are an industry standard in product comparisons. These reports have a section dedicated to support, where you can find which vendors are most dedicated to their customers.
- Environment
Facility size can also factor into which environment is most appropriate for your speech recognition software. Larger facilities might consider on-premise speech recognition whereas smaller practices would be more quipped to handle cloud-based speech recognition.
Installing servers will not be practical for every healthcare facility. Cloud-based solutions work for healthcare facilities of any size, but there are still some applications for on-premise server solutions.
More so than size, a facility’s workflow, structure, and data security policy will determine whether on-premise or cloud-based speech recognition is more appropriate. Be sure to find a solution that meets the needs of your facility.
- Cost
Once you’ve considered the above factors, you’ll need to balance your priorities with the cost of the software.
The most trusted healthcare speech recognition solutions available today all utilize a license structure rather than one-time payments, which makes it even more important to spend the time looking at what you get for the price you pay.
Considering cost while making your purchasing decision doesn’t mean finding the cheapest option – it means finding a solution that does everything you need for a price that you’d still be willing to pay. To determine how much you’d be willing to pay, consider the alternative: a full-time transcription staff.
Not all speech recognition software is all-inclusive, either. Sometimes key features can be hidden behind paywalls. Be mindful of additional costs when evaluating your options, as they quickly add up – especially if you are purchasing licenses for a larger team.
- Customization options
It’s probably clear by now that to get the most out of speech recognition, you need software that directly matches your team’s needs. That’s why you need to consider the customization options offered to both admins and users before committing to a medical speech recognition software.
Some of the most important customization options are shared templates or shortcuts across an organization, specialty speech contexts, and administrator security customizations.
It’s equally important that users are able to customize the software to their liking. Options to build shortcuts, add recognized phrases (including proper nouns) to the recognized vocabulary, and change display settings on their device can keep providers in control and lead to higher overall satisfaction with their speech recognition software.
- Installation & training
You won’t get much mileage out of new speech recognition software if your team is not trained properly. Key time-saving features might be completely overlooked or users might get frustrated with the software.
Look for reviews of the speech recognition software to determine whether users have been happy with their training since they started using that software. This often goes hand-in-hand with the vendor’s support team.
Now that you have a better idea of what to consider before committing to a medical speech recognition software, it’s only a matter of finding the right solution for your team.
What’s right for your team?
The speech recognition solution that works best for some might not be the be the best solution for your team. For example, a private physician practice would not get the most out of a speech recognition solution built for enterprises. This is where pricing and licensing become more important – you should look into whether the solution you are looking at has options for your team’s size.
Fusion Narrate is a cloud-based speech recognition solution by Dolbey built for accuracy and customizability. To see if Fusion Narrate is the right fit for your team, visit our features page to learn more.
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