Medical Transcription Philippines

Why not use computer dictation, speech-to-text programs?

Sometimes we are asked why a person considering transcription should not simply use one of the new and improving programs for computers that type while you talk. These programs recognize your speech as you talk into a microphone and type what you say into a document. The thought is that you would save a lot of money in transcription costs. In fact, several companies have sprung up and have marketed specific systems for the medical and legal communities.

The simple answer is that it is a matter of cost and convenience. If the total cost to the dictator is less using such text-to-speech systems, then they should use them. These systems are not yet sophisticated enough to pay for themselves, and may actually cost professionals more due to their ongoing time investment. For practical dictation, these systems have a long way to go.

When making that decision consider the following points:

Costs more overall
Why should a highly-paid professional spend time sitting in front of a computer editing their text, continually retraining the program for new words and names? Time is money and, at least today, text-to-speech programs seem to take time away from the professional. Some systems allow you to talk into a dictation machine; however, you must still worry about the points below.

Talk clearly
You must talk clearly and enunciate each word. The programs are getting better, but you cannot slur your speech, talk extremely fast, etc. The surrounding must be quiet, not a noisy room, lobby, or car. Multiple people cannot be talking around you or in the dictation.

Do you speak like you write?
Spoken English is vastly different from written English. You may be surprised at how unstructured spoken English appears when typed. It is regularly corrected some client’s spoken English into professionally appearing written transcripts. With speech-to-text programs, you will have to train yourself to speak in written English form.

This is not the only problem. Many of the clients do not always speak in an ordered linear format from beginning to end. Part way through a dictation, they will remember something that should be inserted elsewhere in the final product. With a human transcriptionist, you only have to give direction and the content for this to be accommodated. With a speech-to-text program, you end up spending more time.

Are you a secretary?
Once you have your transcript in the computer, do you know all the rules of grammar, spelling, formatting, etc.? If you do, great. Now waste your valuable time performing such an administrative function. Is your staff going to edit the transcript? If so, great. Do they have good secretarial skills that will produce letters, reports, and documents that present the professionalism you need?

Train, train, train…
Although these programs are getting better all the time, they are not yet like the science fiction portrayals of computers recognizing you talk. The programs today cannot recognize speech from every person; they must be “trained.” Even after they are “trained,” they will make occasional errors, and will almost always not understand uncommon words, new words, or new names. You must train them at least once each time such words arise.

Not for groups or poor quality recordings
Even if the computer can understand one person speaking clearly, it cannot yet even attempt to untangle a transcript of multiple speakers, sometimes talking at once, often in noisy conditions, some talking quietly, some talking loudly.

One day computer technology will allow natural speech transcription, editing, grammar checking, etc., at least for an individual speaker, and at least for practical dictation. That day does not appear to be here. However, if you like new technology, go out and purchase the relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf software ($100 to $400) and try it. If you are considering one of the medical or legal systems being offered by new companies, try before you buy.

source: www.type-thing.com