Happy New Year from VoiceRecognition.com
A Quick Comment on 2005 and some
Prognostication for 2006!
2005 was an interesting year in the voice recognition industry. There continued some meaningful consolidation with a company called ScanSoft purchasing Nuance, and then changing its name to Nuance.
Their flagship product, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 continues to get critical acclaim in many industries, but most particularly the medical field.
If we can sit back and project what will happen in 2006, I will speculate (but it isn't really much speculation as we'll see below), that the number of large installations will drastically increase. When we started this business in 1994, we would occasionally sell a single user package, and not infrequently the sale would be followed by a request for a refund. Around the turn of the century, the request for refunds dropped almost to zero, as people who purchased the software became more and more satisfied with the results they were obtaining.
However it wasn't until shortly after the general release of version 8 that we started seeing 1 sale become 2, 2 sales become 4, etc. We are now seeing an increasing interest in information for licenses ranging into the many hundreds of users. This means that it is not just the occasional 'computer geek' who wants to 'play' with the software that is the prototypical purchaser. More and more fortune 500 companies are implementing it in entire divisions. An increasing number of hospitals and other large medical institutions are requiring its use amongst their medical staff. This clearly shows that, in the mind of 'corporate America', the benefits outweigh the costs of the software, training, implementation and other inconveniences asssociated with adopting new technology. It is no longer just for the interested sole practitioner, but rather for wide swaths of professional society.
Why is this so? I believe it is because of the ease of use, and the reasonably easily obtainable 99% accuracy rate. We would all like for voice recognition software to be 100% accurate, but please don't hold your breath waiting for this one. Like Zeno's paradox that shows that all motion is impossible, because in the process of getting from here to there you first must go half the distance. Then another half, and then another half. As you continue this process, you reach an asymptote (where the accuracy gets ever closer to 100%), but you never reach the goal. Similarly with the accuracy of voice recognition, we will exceed 99%, probably in the near future. However, while it may reach 99.9% in the foreseeable future, the 100% mark isn't likely.
Let's look at this obtainable 99% however. During my medical school training I was continually forced to carefully review the medical transcriptionists' printed words since I was told that they average 98% accuracy. Yes, I even saw the fabled 'Bologna Amputation' in my own operative reports, as I am an Orthopedic Surgeon, and I guess the transcriptionist didn't realize that 'Bologna' was not part of the human anatomy in the leg and that this wasn't the right term for a situation in which a surgeon cuts off a leg, below the knee.
Considering the relative ease with which a meaningful percentage of our clients (as well as others) are obtaining 99% accuracy, we believe that the public is now just becoming aware that with careful use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, that their printed output will be of BETTER QUALITY than what they are currently sending out of their offices. Yet, the cost is essentially ZERO, after the initial outlay for the software and training. It is an equation that businesses are beginning to take notice of, and for this reason, we are now aware of multi-hundred user opportunities in multiple states throughout the county.
Why do I write this didactic message on New Years' Day? I encourage you to think about the environment in which you are currently using the software. Are you interested in having your colleagues utilize the same technology as you are? Please consider encouraging them to contact us for a quote for a multi-user license, no matter which industry you are in. For simplicity, feel free to use our Request for Quote form: http://www.voicerecognition.com/rfq/
You never know: You may be considered the hero for bringing this to the attention of your company, and, if permitted, you may even receive a gift from us for the introduction. And, in any case - you win when this incredible technology is introduced to your company through your efforts.
In The News
Nuance Named Competitive Strategy Leader by Frost & Sullivan in European Healthcare Voice Recognition Systems Market; Dragon NaturallySpeaking Clear Market Leader in UK Healthcare Voice Recognition Market with 75% Market Share
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20051214005099&newsLang=en
Nightingale, a Canadian healthcare application service provider, is set to use Nuance Communications' speech recognition technology to enable speech recognition within its electronic medical records solutions.
http://www.commentwire.com/article_news.asp?guid=503D30F5-23F2-4449-B807-78FAD77343A1
DevSource.com has published an extensive article on building speech-enabled applications with ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 SDK (software development kit).
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4344151990.html
Specials
Thanks for reading all the way down to here for the specials!
This month, as we start the New Year, we want to make sure that all of our customers are on the newest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Therefore, we are offering a 25% discount off of the MSRP of Pro-Pro, Med-Med and Legal-Legal upgrades. Just use the coupon code JanUpgrade in the shopping cart, and your discount will be applied. For information on upgrades, please see: http://shop.voicerecognition.com/items.asp?Cc=UPGRADE
Please note, you must be logged in to see the discount applied, and of course, you may always call us to order.
For Medical Professionals Only.
We have recently released an exciting Comparison Matrix within EMRConsultant which allows you to visually compare different EMR products at a glance. For a brief flash demo of this technology, please see: http://www.emrconsultant.com/ and click the demonstration link in the bottom left corner.
And - if you are interested in an increasingly active forum on the subject of Electronic Medical Records, we invite you to participate in ours: http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/
Tech Tips
Sorry - Our Tech Tipster is still on Holiday.
More Tech Tips will be seen in our February Newletter.
Yours,
Eric Fishman, MD, and Gwen Florville
VoiceRecognition.com
1411 North Flagler Drive Suite 8400
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
phone: 1-800-245-2133
fax: 561-630-0375
email: info@voicerecognition.com
visit us at: http://www.voicerecognition.com