BUSINESSSpeech impediment: Technology getting slow startThe market for speech-recognition software is growing, but not as much as expected. Here are some theories on what's keeping physicians from using it, and what has to happen before they do.By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. June 14, 2004. Here's a tale explaining why speech-recognition software -- which promised the ease of using your voice to enter information rather than the hassle of typing on a keyboard -- hasn't caught on like its proponents thought it would. Internist Jeffrey Clode, MD, of Spokane, Wash., remembers a colleague at his 20-physician practice who told his computer that a female patient had come in after choking on peanuts. Except on screen, the software didn't get the dictation quite right. Instead of "peanuts," the software entered -- well, something more anatomical. "It was funnier than hell because our nurse practitioner found the error and was just in hysterics," Dr. Clode said. "You have to watch out [and proof carefully] when you use it." Although speech-recognition systems have been around for 20 years, fewer than 10% of doctors today use the technology that lets users speak into a microphone and see their speech converted into text on a computer screen in real time, said Bill DeStefanis, vice president of marketing at Voicebrook, a Lake Success, N.Y., company that sells speech-recognition services to hospitals. In 2003, the speech-recognition software market for dictation was about $300 million worldwide, including about $100 million for just the software and $200 million for value-added services such as training and integration, DeStefanis estimated. Health care, which makes up about 60% of that market, has been growing about 12% annually for the past three years, he estimated. By comparison, electronic medical records and practice management software and services for physicians totaled $1.7 billion in 2003, according to Forrester Research Inc. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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