Crescendo Launches Healthcare Speech Recognition Blog

Professionals working in either healthcare or speech technology have a new blog to turn to for up-to-date industry developments, case studies, and best practices. In addition, professionals also gain a powerful means of creating a topic-based dialogue through comment boards, where they can post regarding emerging areas of development and advice. The blog, created and developed by Quebec-based Crescendo Systems, fills a gap in their presentation of a healthcare-focused site dealing with speech technology.

Claire Betis, marketing manager at Crescendo, says the company’s idea for a blog stemmed from customers requesting a means with which they could stay abreast of developments and news within the area. While Betis currently posts all content, she claims anyone in the field, "can contribute to the blog by posting comments."

The site, which launched in late July 2007, posts a new thread at least once every two days, and, states Betis, has been, "really successful so far." She attributes the site’s popularity to the field’s expanding presence within the healthcare IT market.

"You see a lot of blogs on consumer speech recognition, or telephony speech recognition, but very few focusing on healthcare," Betis says."We see customers now being aware of tailored technology and tailored systems for the healthcare community. The healthcare community is more aware of this, and the consumer and professional world as well."

Though Crescendo is a vendor of speech recognition applications, the blog’s posts remain vendor-neutral. Topics such as reports on the field’s market in Europe and updates on a new report regarding the benefits of speech recognition for physicians provide an accurate survey of the types of topics discussed.

In a further attempt to keep the site content-neutral, Betis says she is in the process of recruiting both speech recognition and healthcare professionals to lead discussions and add posts.

Betis says she hopes the blog helps potential customers make well-informed decisions before purchasing from a vendor, or acts as a community for professionals to share ideas, experiences, and challenges.

"This blog aims to help [people] realize that today speech recognition is part of the overall hospital IT infrastructure,"she states. "Given that professional speech recognition is still a relatively new technology, we still have a lot to learn, both ourselves and customers. That’s why I think the interactive aspect of a blog is a good way to discuss best practices, problems, and solutions."

The Speech Recognition Blog can be found at http://www.speechrecognition.wordpress.com.