Speech recognition empowers radiologists to work more accurately, efficiently and deliver a higher quality of reporting. But unlocking these considerable performance benefits is only possible when a speech recognition solution is deeply integrated with how radiology departments want to work.
Despite new innovations in technology, many radiologists have been working in a certain way for years, even decades on end. The idea of outsourced transcription, which was deeply embedded, was subsequently replaced by early versions of speech recognition. Even while teleradiology is expected to continue its growth over the next few years, the day-to-day process for many radiologists is reassuringly familiar.
Speech recognition as a mature technology has evolved over the years, it now has the potential to redefine radiology, bringing new levels of accuracy, quality, speed and security. But maximising these performance gains takes a considered approach to integration. The most impactful solution is one that’s deeply integrated, bringing the best possible speech recognition engine to existing PACS/RIS workflows.
Integrating speech with ways of working
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a rise in new ways of working. In some areas, consultant clinical radiologists have been allowed to continue to work remotely at least part of the working week.
Today, radiology reporting mostly takes place in clinical settings – but also at a wide range of different locations, using different devices. For speech recognition to be adopted, it needs to be easily available everywhere.
Crucially, the right speech recognition solution will deliver a seamless experience on every device, as fully featured as possible to allow radiologists to work without limitations.
Augnito is a cloud-hosted speech recognition platform that’s already supported on multiple devices, including:
- Desktops and laptops
- Web browsers on any device
- iOS and Android smartphones and tablets
As a result, radiologists can get the benefits of integrated speech recognition and word processing, wherever they need it.
Integrating speech with existing systems
A key benefit of speech recognition is reclaiming the time that would’ve been spent on manual or outsourced transcription. However, maximising this time saving is difficult when existing clinical systems slow the reporting process down.
Augnito includes an open API and SDK to integrate speech into any existing clinical system, as well as a Google Chrome plugin to enable speech in web-based software. This extends the time saving potential beyond Augnito itself and into every part of the radiology workflow.
Already, Augnito is being used by radiology specialists in a range of different platforms. The Augnito API makes it possible to embed real-time speech into any platform, creating time savings for radiologists without requiring an entirely new way of working.
Making adoption fast and simple
Many new technologies ask people to invest a lot of time and energy now for savings far into the future. Augnito is different, with a focus on a simple, seamless user experience from day one and savings that can be measured immediately.
Out of the box, Augnito is already built for a wide variety of radiology and clinical terminology. It supports any accent, delivering 99.3% accuracy instantly – with no need for time-consuming voice profile training.
At the same time, Augnito is quick to implement for technical and IT teams. As a cloud-hosted solution, there’s no need to make changes to existing infrastructure. Meanwhile, ongoing updates are seamlessly handled by the Augnito team in the cloud, avoiding the need to change individual user workstations and reporting devices.
The impact of Augnito on radiology performance
Deeply integrated to clinical workflows – and radiologist preferences – Augnito delivers more than accurate speech recognition. It impacts the way radiologists work and report for a measurable increase in wellbeing, standards, and patient outcomes.
Compared to typing, Augnito records patient data five times faster. Augnito also includes advanced options to push this time saving even further.
Macros allow for customisable ‘auto texts’, where standard phrases and blocks of text can be inserted by voice at the cursor, without the need to dictate in full. This reduces the input time for radiologists, so they can focus on the more complex terminology.
Meanwhile, templates enforce a regulated, structured way of reporting, so radiologists can create reports in a standardised format that’s easily shared and understood by colleagues. These reports can also be built around wider approved guidelines and unified standards, creating a further time saving and efficiency increase.
The next generation of speech recognition
With fewer radiologists, more time on site, and increasing backlogs of reports, speech has the power to deliver instant performance increases. But legacy speech recognition, without deep integration, still places a significant burden on radiologists.
As data is moved from one system to another, re-keyed by hand, or copied and pasted into the appropriate field, clinical risk is created. Only an integrated solution can remove the manual handling, preserve accuracy, and empower radiologists to focus on reporting quality, not technology.
Augnito is designed to deliver the next generation of speech recognition – accurate, efficient, secure and integrated. It’s speech recognition at the forefront of AI, built to support the future of radiology.
