Speech Recognition betters the HIT, says Philips

 

 According to Nick van Terheyden, Chief Medical Officer at Philips Speech Recognition Systems, the implementation of enterprise level Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) systems, such as EMR applications, promises to provide more cost-effective care in the future.

 A quote from the CMO, at the 2008 The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference.
“Speech recognition can reduce costs by 30 to 40 percent, and early users will have a very high competitive advantage.”
{HIMSS is the healthcare industry's membership organization focused on optimal useage of healthcare information technology}

 Moreover, By bolstering speech recognition with Natural language Processing, then interfacing to language engines with mapping capabilities - "Not only are transcription costs reduced using speech recognition, but even more importantly next-generation speech recognition tools will allow clinicians to interact with medical standards even before a dictation is complete, says Mike Levy, Chief Medical Officer of Health Language Inc.

 This is impressive - almost real-time, quasi-interactive speech recognition..

 Says Mr. Levy: "For example during the patient encounter, the clinician could dictate into the SR system and be presented with pertinent information such as: decision support including drug information and drug interaction checking; clinical pathways to provide the latest evidence-based information about treating diseases; patient information such as handouts that can be given to the patient at the point of care; order sets such as recommended medications, tests, labs, and other orders pertinent to the patient; and suggested billing codes".

 Says Mr. van Terheyden of Philips:
“Speech recognition and natural language understanding bridges the gap between clinicians and technology.”