IBM MED SPEAK / RADIOLOGY
THE FIRST of the continuous speech recognition products is available, as of September 17, 1996, with IBM's MedSpeak/Radiology® for Windows NT®

IBM's MedSpeak/Radiology for Windows NT offers a vocabulary of 25,000 words and is obviously designed specifically for the radiology field. With an average accuracy rate of over 95% in Beta testing, this real-time continuous speech recognition product is likely to revolutionize the speech recognition industry.

Using radiology data from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York as well as Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MedSpeak/Radiology offers real-time dictation, editing and electronic signing of reports using a personal computer. Unfortunately it cannot run on just any personal computer, however. The minimum specs are a Pentium Pro 200 megahertz (MHz) processor with between 32 and 64 MB of RAM. Additionally, the system will run on a local area network or LAN. In addition, MedSpeak/Radiology can be fully integrated into hospital information systems (HIS) or radiology information systems. It offers an HL-7 compliant message protocol.

This is a speaker independent, speaker adaptive program, requiring little training. However, a 15 minute enrollment period will enhance initial recognition. Once in use, the program saves both the printed as well as the spoken text. Thus, a transcriptionist can edit the report if desired.

MedSpeak/Radiology has sophisticated macro features, allowing the user to add their own macros for standard phrases, greatly simplifying the process of dictation.

"We have been following speech recognition technology at the Massachusetts General Hospital for over 10 years, mostly with great disappointment, until our experience with the MedSpeak/Radiology system," said Dr. James H. Thrall, Radiologist-in-Chief, Massachusetts General Hospital. "From my standpoint of having responsibility for generating over 400,000 radiology reports each year, I see enormous potential for speech recognition technology to be a valuable and cost-effective tool for radiologists."

This is the only continuous speech recognition system currently available from IBM.

An on-line brochure is also available for your perusal. This brochure contains detailed information on the MedSpeak/Radiology product and its applications. We highly suggest it if you are in the market for a continuous speech or dictation product, or even if you're just interested in the technology.

MedSpeak/Radiology is priced at $19,495 for a 1 workstation system, software, hardware, training and support included.