This system provides an active vocabulary of 64,000 words and a general medical vocabulary of approximately 30,000 words with a 260,000-word dictionary. The medical vocabulary was quite adequate for use in family practice. The ability to create macros and templates is included with the software. Macros allow the user to formulate groups of words or paragraphs of text under a single or multiple word labels. When the user desires to insert these words or phrases, he simply uses the macro to have them automatically inserted as text.
Templates allow the user to construct outlines or forms, which contain data fields.
The user simply moves from data field to data field and dictates the necessary information into the fields. The use of macros and templates can dramatically reduce the amount of dictation necessary for routine notes and procedures. The user may also delegate proofreading and formatting may add considerable time to the dictation process. Performance utilizing this continuous speech product was quite adequate. The average progress note took approximately 1 minute and 50 seconds to dictate and an additional 58 seconds to proofread and format.