Nuance unveils Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4

Nuance Communications has launched Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4, the latest on-premise version of its industry-leading clinical speech recognition solution for GP surgeries.

Through deep learning technology and extensive medical vocabularies based on the unique way clinicians speak; Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 puts Nuance’s leading artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology in the hands of hard-pressed GPs in smaller independent practices.

Through increased documentation efficiency, it allows for more time with patients, improved quality to better inform care teams and staff, and increased turnaround time and cost savings.

Dragon Medical Practice Edition is an easy-to-install, easy-to-use documentation solution that makes it easier for clinicians to document care into the electronic patient record (EPR) using their voice five times faster than typing and saving them an hour or more per day.

It is distinct from non-medical speech recognition, supporting more than 60 specialised medical vocabularies for British English.

Thanks to deep learning technology and neural networks, Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 offers even more speech recognition accuracy.

Deep learning and neural networks mimic the way the human brain recognises and learns patterns. The technology allows the software to continuously adapt to the user’s voice pattern, dialect and accent.

The ambient acoustics of the user’s environment are also taken into account, helping automatically refine performance.

This ensures the speech recognition remains precise and accurate even when dictating in noisy clinic situations.

“The outstanding performance of Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 is a culmination of decades of Nuance’s innovation in AI,” said Michael Clark, senior vice president and general manager of Nuance Healthcare provider solutions.

“By applying machine learning to real-time document capture, we are helping address the challenges of smaller surgeries to transform the documentation process directly on the individual user's PC, and improve both the clinician experience and patient care.”

Other highlights in this release include:

• Improved touchscreen usability: Compatibility with Windows 10 touchscreen devices provides clinicians with more productivity and the ability to document how they want. Hybrid touch and keyboard interaction also work together seamlessly for controlling multiple features
• Enhanced usability: The newly-designed DragonBar provides easy access to popular capabilities and automatically collapses when not in use, freeing up screen space
• Simplified User Profiling: User profiles that contain information about the user's language and allow more-accurate, user-specific speech recognition can now be created with just a few mouse clicks
• Optimised Profile Creation: Eliminates the need for users to spend time teaching the software the proper pronunciation of specific words and commands
• Easier first-time License Authentication: With a user name and login ID, Nuance Healthcare connection partners remotely authenticate new licenses of Dragon Medical Practice Edition through a secure internet connection. No more bulky boxes or CDs to juggle, store or lose

Dr Simon Wallace, Nuance chief clinical information officer and a former GP, said: “This latest release feels more like a ‘partner’ to a GP’s work rather than just a productivity tool.

“The more-precise speech recognition adapts to the GP’s speaking style and environment. It feels super-fast and super-smooth, rarely interrupting the dictation flow.

“With the burden of clinical documentation reduced, GPs are able to capture the detail of the consultation into the EPR faster, more efficiently and in greater detail without increasing the time pressures of their busy surgery.

Less time documenting means more face-to-face time with each patient, thus improving the doctor/patient relationship.”