The software then adds these words to its dictionary, helping to eliminate errors. The future Because of the lukewarm reception from the medical community, speech recognition vendors are also trying to come up with new ways to attract physician interest. For physicians who don't always have a computer handy, for example, there are digital recorders that allow physicians to dictate their notes wherever they happen to be and then later plug the recorder into the computer and let speech recognition software transcribe their notes. The consensus, however, is that it's going to take more than such relatively minor gains to bring doctors on board. If a patient is being seen for a lung problem, for example, the system will generally ask a series of questions regarding the eyes or other organs to ensure that the record is as complete as possible.
Templates are available for primary care, cardiology, emergency medicine, pathology and radiology.
They save physicians a lot of time on paperwork and give them more time for patient care. Speech recognition systems that also know what elements of a patient exam need to be documented may help prevent physicians from being fined for insufficient documentation during audits. HCFA has said it will become more aggressive in auditing documentation and will deny payments or penalize physicians who bill the agency without sufficient documentation in patient notes. Michael Ginsburg, MD, creator of VoiceDoc, a product that uses IBM speech recognition technology, said that because products like his help physicians provide all the necessary documentation, they ultimately help them choose the right billing code. But some, such as editor Mr. Meisel, think that even more sophisticated solutions are needed to entice doctors.