Dragon speech recognition software

[kvnchrist]

I'm not trying to sell anything, but most you know about yet my spelling errors and how atrocious they can be. I finally found something that will allow me to keep up with everybody else, and allow everybody to understand me fully. I went out to Walmart and while looking for some new computer games, I found this software that I have heard of earlier on an advertisement. While I was skeptical, I was interested in it, because I'm not all that great at this texting thing.

 

This software is really cool. It comes with everything you need, the headset the software and a guide. The thing actually has you go through a test to tell your speech level volume and speed, and then it sets up a special profile just for you. It takes a while to get used to it, but new work and do it. At first it's hard for it to differentiate between black sounding words like; there as an over there and there as an it's their product, but it learns as it goes. It also comes with special commands to punctuate and edit your text. The whole thing is rather good, I'm using it now and I have misspell the word yet. LOL

[Denina]

I wish that software had never been invented. I'm a medical transcriptionist and more and more health care providers are using this. As a result, my income has decreased substantially. What used to potentially be a $40-50k/year job is now down to about $27-30k/year job, if lucky and willing to work 10-15 hours a day, which I typically do. It's partly because of providers sending their dictation overseas where it's cheap and partly because of more providers using speech recognition software instead. Now, more and more transcriptionists are, instead of transcribing actual dictation, are now correcting those speech recognition screw ups which pay half as much though we still have to know the same amount that we did when we actually transcribe word-for-word it so we recognize the errors. Just thinking about it makes me cuss enough to turn the air blue.

 

And what's sad is that when it comes to speech recognition in the health care field, there is a crap ton of pitfalls. Medical terminology isn't really that hard once you understand what all the prefixes and suffixes mean but a lot of them sound very similar and there a lot of words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Most providers aren't all that diligent when it comes to enunciation or spelling or anything else. A mistake that speech recognition makes that is not caught by the proofreader could have serious consequences up to and including death to a patient. And I know the types of mistakes the speech recognition makes. Overworked and underpaid transcriptionists having to proof that, especially when they're tired may not catch those types of errors. The good ones usually will, but we're only human and we can't catch them all. As more people rely on less reliably-trained transcriptionists/proofreaders because so many are leaving the business because of low pay, we're going to see a lot more accidental deaths and serious problems due to these types of errors. The transcriptionist/proofreader will ultimately be blamed for the error and will take the fall along with the provider, but honestly, no transcriptionist on the planet gets paid enough right now to have to take a fall. Many of us can't even afford insurance.

 

Most transcriptionists I know, myself included, are very conscientious and we do the best we can. But as more providers turn to the speech recognition, I worry. I would much rather pay a little more to go to the doctor and have the transcription done right than have any provider use the speech recognition. Still room for error, of course, but I feel that margin is much less.

 

Using speech recognition for more casual things such as posting on a forum like this, I'm all for it and I'm glad it works for you...but still, I wish it had never been invented. I want my pay to go back up to what I should be earning. I carry a lot of responsibility and stress on my shoulders doing what I do and really, I don't get paid enough for it. Unfortunately, now I'm kind of stuck with it. Because of the income, I can't afford to buy a second vehicle so I can get to and from a better job. Moreover, transcription is definitely my niche. I'm good at it. And I admit, even despite the low pay, I love it. But I would also love to be paid what I'm worth. I would also love to not have to work up to 15 hours a day in order to make a decent living. And I do blame speech recognition for part of that. I can think of a half-dozen offices the company I work for used to transcribe that now doesn't because the providers switched to speech recognition software. I also will not go to any of those offices for my health care because of it. In fact, before I will see a doctor for the first time, I will ask that office whether their providers use speech recognition for their dictation. If the answer is yes, I go somewhere else.

 

But transcriptionists have really gotten the shaft in recent years. Doctors depend on us to make sense of their mutterings in order to provide quality care to patients. But the health care industry is doing everything they can to cut corners to increase profits (here in the USA anyway - I can't speak for anywhere else). Most of the health care industry does not really understand or appreciate what we do. They say, 'Oh they're just typists.' What they don't realize is that the job is a lot more than just typing. So, they figure that's a good place to cut corners. It should probably be among the last few they should. But trying to explain that to people who have it stuck in their heads that it's just typing is the equivalent of banging your head on a brick wall but less painful.

 

/end rant

Edited December 24, 2011 by Denina

[kvnchrist]

I wish that software had never been invented. I'm a medical transcriptionist and more and more health care providers are using this. As a result, my income has decreased substantially. What used to potentially be a $40-50k/year job is now down to about $27-30k/year job, if lucky and willing to work 10-15 hours a day, which I typically do. It's partly because of providers sending their dictation overseas where it's cheap and partly because of more providers using speech recognition software instead. Now, more and more transcriptionists are, instead of transcribing actual dictation, are now correcting those speech recognition screw ups which pay half as much though we still have to know the same amount that we did when we actually transcribe word-for-word it so we recognize the errors. Just thinking about it makes me cuss enough to turn the air blue.

 

And what's sad is that when it comes to speech recognition in the health care field, there is a crap ton of pitfalls. Medical terminology isn't really that hard once you understand what all the prefixes and suffixes mean but a lot of them sound very similar and there a lot of words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Most providers aren't all that diligent when it comes to enunciation or spelling or anything else. A mistake that speech recognition makes that is not caught by the proofreader could have serious consequences up to and including death to a patient. And I know the types of mistakes the speech recognition makes. Overworked and underpaid transcriptionists having to proof that, especially when they're tired may not catch those types of errors. The good ones usually will, but we're only human and we can't catch them all. As more people rely on less reliably-trained transcriptionists/proofreaders because so many are leaving the business because of low pay, we're going to see a lot more accidental deaths and serious problems due to these types of errors. The transcriptionist/proofreader will ultimately be blamed for the error and will take the fall along with the provider, but honestly, no transcriptionist on the planet gets paid enough right now to have to take a fall. Many of us can't even afford insurance.

 

Most transcriptionists I know, myself included, are very conscientious and we do the best we can. But as more providers turn to the speech recognition, I worry. I would much rather pay a little more to go to the doctor and have the transcription done right than have any provider use the speech recognition. Still room for error, of course, but I feel that margin is much less.

 

Using speech recognition for more casual things such as posting on a forum like this, I'm all for it and I'm glad it works for you...but still, I wish it had never been invented. I want my pay to go back up to what I should be earning. I carry a lot of responsibility and stress on my shoulders doing what I do and really, I don't get paid enough for it. Unfortunately, now I'm kind of stuck with it. Because of the income, I can't afford to buy a second vehicle so I can get to and from a better job. Moreover, transcription is definitely my niche. I'm good at it. And I admit, even despite the low pay, I love it. But I would also love to be paid what I'm worth. I would also love to not have to work up to 15 hours a day in order to make a decent living. And I do blame speech recognition for part of that. I can think of a half-dozen offices the company I work for used to transcribe that now doesn't because the providers switched to speech recognition software. I also will not go to any of those offices for my health care because of it. In fact, before I will see a doctor for the first time, I will ask that office whether their providers use speech recognition for their dictation. If the answer is yes, I go somewhere else.

 

But transcriptionists have really gotten the shaft in recent years. Doctors depend on us to make sense of their mutterings in order to provide quality care to patients. But the health care industry is doing everything they can to cut corners to increase profits (here in the USA anyway - I can't speak for anywhere else). Most of the health care industry does not really understand or appreciate what we do. They say, 'Oh they're just typists.' What they don't realize is that the job is a lot more than just typing. So, they figure that's a good place to cut corners. It should probably be among the last few they should. But trying to explain that to people who have it stuck in their heads that it's just typing is the equivalent of banging your head on a brick wall but less painful.

 

/end rant

 

well, I'm very sorry for your predicament. Maybe if a couple of the doctors get in a massive lawsuit because of this software making errors, they might just figured out it's not worth it. All I can say is it works for me, but I am not in the healthcare field. It would seem that field needs to be as accurate as possible to permit them from losing their license. Thank you!

[hoofhearted4]

I'm not trying to sell anything, but most you know about yet my spelling errors and how atrocious they can be. I finally found something that will allow me to keep up with everybody else, and allow everybody to understand me fully. I went out to Walmart and while looking for some new computer games, I found this software that I have heard of earlier on an advertisement. While I was skeptical, I was interested in it, because I'm not all that great at this texting thing.

 

This software is really cool. It comes with everything you need, the headset the software and a guide. The thing actually has you go through a test to tell your speech level volume and speed, and then it sets up a special profile just for you. It takes a while to get used to it, but new work and do it. At first it's hard for it to differentiate between black sounding words like; there as an over there and there as an it's their product, but it learns as it goes. It also comes with special commands to punctuate and edit your text. The whole thing is rather good, I'm using it now and I have misspell the word yet. LOL

 

i honestly dont know what your old text would look like (though could just go back and look im sure) but if this text was written with the Dragon software, thats impressive it works that good. its not perfect, you didnt misspell anything, but there were some grammatical errors, case and point you said "and I have misspell the word yet" should be "and I haven't misspelled any words yet" or something to that effect....but yea. impressive. better then i thought something like that would do. glad to know its not a complete gimmick.

[adam0718]

Dictation Pro works just as well as Dragon for me. I recommend using a good quality microphone, like the Logitech ClearChat headset. The Dictation Pro software is completely free and requires just a few minutes of training : http://www.deskshare.com/dictation.aspx