ScanSoft Introduces Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8

PEABODY, Mass. - ScanSoft, Inc. announced the availability of Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Medical 8, a new release of the speech recognition solution designed for healthcare organizations. Dragon NaturallySpeaking converts speech into text at up to 160 words per minute, automating the input of patient information and eliminating the cost and turnaround time associated with the manual transcription of patient notes.

"The promise of speech recognition in healthcare is rapidly turning into a reality, driven in part by new products that deliver significant improvements in accuracy, speed and flexibility," said Barry Hieb, M.D., research director with Gartner. "These applications are being embraced because they give care providers a powerful way to improve the quality of patient care while actually reducing transcription costs."

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8 speech-enables virtually all Microsoft Windows applications, including most PC and Web-based EMR systems, as well as Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect and Lotus Notes.

"Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the voice recognition product that gives me an unrivaled level of interoperability with my EMR," said Robert Frank, M.D. with Advanced Healthcare in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "I can document directly into the EMR with an exceptional degree of speech accuracy, while voice commands allow me to control the EMR simply by speaking. Adding Dragon NaturallySpeaking to my EMR workflow has improved my prescription-entry, communication, and documentation efficiency - all while reducing my use of transcription services by 97 percent."

ScanSoft has also delivered the Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK, which is used by developers and integrators to incorporate speech-to-text and voice command capabilities directly into in-house and commercial applications. The Dragon Naturally Speaking SDK supports integrating both dictation and batch processing capabilities into applications, on either desktop clients or server systems.

"Our ChartLogic EMR system has embedded the Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine for over eight years," said Craig Roush, vice president of marketing and sales, ChartLogic, Inc. "With the advancements that ScanSoft has made to speech recognition technology, speech is no longer nice to have - it is a competitive requirement. The use of speech within ChartLogic gives us a competitive advantage, providing our users the flexibility and speed they need to succeed."

ScanSoft has added a number of key features to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8, including:

• Expanded Medical Vocabularies - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8 has expanded its set of specialty vocabularies from four to 14: Cardiology; Emergency; Family Practice; Gastroenterology; General Medical; Mental Health; Neurology; ObGyn; Oncology; Orthopedic; Pathology; Pediatrics; Radiology and Surgery. The product provides a core vocabulary of 300,000 words and thousands more in its specialty vocabulary sets, and also allow the addition of words to existing vocabularies, or to create new custom vocabulary sets.
• Roaming User - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8 allows healthcare professionals to access their unique user profiles anywhere on their network, and automatically synchronizes updates and voice adaptations centrally. This enables care providers to use speech from any nurse or care station.
• Mobile Dictation Support - Healthcare professionals can use ScanSoft-certified handheld recorders, Pocket PC or Palm Tungsten devices to dictate on the go. Recordings can be processed through Dragon NaturallySpeaking by the care provider or an assistant, with a transcription created automatically.
• Network Administration - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical is available with a pre-configured MSI file for push installations throughout a network environment. The ScanSoft DNS Administrator utility enables IT professionals to manage and update user profiles and vocabularies from a central network location.
• Speech Recognition for Developers and System Integrators - The Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK (Software Developers Kit) enables integrators to add custom speech capabilities to commercial and in-house EMR and HIS applications, and can be deployed on a central server for "off line" or "back end" speech recognition.