Voice Recognition Software Is Not The Savior It Was Thought To Be

When voice recognition software was first introduced there was a big sigh of relief in medical transcription circles. Many professionals thought that it would replace the hard working MT and provide doctors with a more affordable alternative to producing their medical documents. But that's not what happened. There are a few good reasons why voice recognition did not replace the medical transcriptionist.

1. The software must be trained to recognize the voice of the primary user. Doctors and physicians do not have that kind of time.
2. The production of quality medical records requires an analytical mind to ensure that terminology is spelled and used correctly and that the meaning of the document is not lost.
3. Software packages do exactly what you tell them to do so any human error will go undetected without a human editor.
4. When 98% accuracy is expected, there is not a lot of room for error and the voice recognition software cannot correct itself.
5. Heavy foreign accents are difficult to translate and may require additional research.

Doctors and physicians do not have the time required to make voice recognition software work the way it should. Therefore, they continue to use medical transcription services. In fact, medical transcriptionists are more in demand now than ever. Many medical transcriptionists do use voice recognition software, however, to aid them in the production of quality medical documents.