New AI-speech recognition software to help UK GPs save time on writing

  • Healthcare technology company, Clanwilliam Group has introduced two AI-powered speech recognition solutions to the UK GP and primary care market, to help save GPs and health staff time.

    Dictate Swift and Dictate Live are being delivered by Dictate IT, a company acquired by Clanwilliam Group in 2018.

    Dictate Swift is a workflow-based speech recognition solution designed to support existing letter production processes. Doctors securely dictate from their iOS or Android smartphone; the medical letter is then made available via the web-based application for their administrative staff for final review and completion. The software facilitates remote working and is also integrated with local practice management systems, provided by EMIS Health and TPP.

    Dictate IT’s second product offering in the market is Dictate Live which provides immediate speech-to-text conversion. GPs place their cursor where they want the text to appear, and dictate. Their voice is picked up either from their desktop microphone or Dictate app making the process completely seamless. Dictate Live works with any third party system.

    Research has found that, in general, people can speak three times faster than typing. Therefore, using Dictate Live could provide enormous potential for time saving on clinical note capturing.

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    With over 30,000 clinical users and almost 20 years’ experience of supplying NHS Trusts with digital dictation and transcription software, Dictate IT has been developing speech recognition in their AI labs since 2014.

    The company is the only UK supplier to have developed its own cutting-edge deep neural net based medical speech recognition engine, enabling highly accurate speech recognition for UK medical dictation.

    Howard Beggs, Founder and CEO of Clanwilliam Group said: “Over the years, Clanwilliam Group has grown through a series of strategic acquisitions, including Dictate IT. Since 2014, close to €200m has been invested in acquiring complementary companies and technologies enabling Clanwilliam Group to grow to a global healthcare technology and services business that provides products and services that are used in every major healthcare setting globally.

    “The last 18 months have demonstrated the need to continue to innovate and develop the way in which we deliver primary healthcare," he continued.

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    "Dictate IT’s entry into the GP market is one such example of this. The AI-powered software this solution provides helps to navigate the needs of remote working, all the while supporting clinical and administrative teams in a connected and instant way. Through the experience of Dictate IT in the UK, we intend to further develop the offering and expand into other regions, including Ireland.”

    Rob Hadley, Commercial Director of Dictate IT added: “Our proposition for GPs is simple – cost effective products that deliver immediate benefit, with little or no implementation effort required. Our products don’t require any voice training or hardware and cover a wide range of accents found across the country.

    “Additionally, we continue to expand our provision of speech recognition into secondary care settings, therefore we expect to soon have multiple regions where we provide end-to-end digital clinical correspondence services. The resultant integrated approach will radically expand the scope of benefits that we will be able to bring to our NHS customer base.”

    For more on Clanwilliam Group log onto www.clanwilliamgroup.com.

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