Philips Releases UK MultiMed ConText

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE:PHG) announced the release of the UK MultiMed ConText for its speech recognition software SpeechMagic. The release is intended to enable UK hospitals to integrate a hospital-wide speech recognition system with their Electronic Patient Record (EPR). Dr. Harries, Consultant Radiologist, Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby explains: "SpeechMagic has reduced the number of work stages in our department significantly. Sources of mistakes have been eliminated and archiving of reports has become automatic," said Dr. Harries, consultant radiologist at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital. "Overall workflow is much faster as reports are now added automatically to patient files, saving time and human error. I now find it almost as quick to correct my own reports as to authorize them after correction." According to Philips, the MultiMed ConText covers specialized terminology for more than 90 percent of all medical disciplines and is based on more than 1 billion words obtained from medical documents. It is structured in various modules, including clinical and operative reports, discharge summaries, history & physicals, consultations, cardiology and emergency medicine. "Eliminating waiting times between examination and treatment is critical to reducing hospital stays to the time which is medically necessary," said Marcel Wassink, managing director of Philips Speech Recognition Systems. "By integrating speech recognition into EPR systems, medical IT companies can increase efficiency in the healthcare sector and help hospitals to deliver on the UK government's healthcare reforms."