Threat of speech recognition software to medical transcription industry

Speech recognition software (SRS) is the software, which converts human voice into words. So in an ideal situation, if a doctor dictates in the Dictaphone, he will automatically get a transcript without any human help.

The main job of a medical transcriptionist is to listen to audio dictated by doctor and transcribe it into words. Therefore, the speech recognition software is considered as a biggest threat to the medical transcriptionists. It is said that on one fine day, speech recognition software will replace all medical transcriptionists.

Let us see if it is possible at all in an unbiased way.

Advantages of speech recognition software:

1. For some dictators, it can give amazing accuracy.

2. Sometimes, it catches very difficult words, which an MT would not find easily.

3. It can prove very cost effective in some situations.

4. It consumes less time.

5. With the advent in technology, they are getting smarter and smarter day by day. The price will also decrease in the future.

Disadvantages of speech recognition software:

1. Its accuracy varies with dictators. Sometimes it is 90-100% accurate but sometimes it is not even 10%.

2. It cannot do formatting on itself, which is an important part of transcription.

3. It cannot correct the mistakes committed by the dictator.

4. It easily makes mistakes at sound alikes.


5. It is very costly.

6. It may catch unwanted sounds like paper rattling or other people talking around.

7. The final transcript has to be checked by a human being as it is not that reliable.

Conclusion:

So, we can come to a conclusion that at least at the present situation, an SRS cannot replace a human medical transcriptionist, but it can certainly cut the jobs of number of medical transcriptionists. Because, at the end level, there will certainly be a need of a proofer who will correct the mistakes and make sure everything is fine. So, it is less threatening to editors than to MTs.

It can be our good friend also. It will transcribe for us and what we have to do is just proofread it.