Digital dictation: a voice for healthcare

Digital dictation (DD) suppliers are split broadly into two camps: those with their own platforms, and integration vendors that develop bespoke systems for clients. Most sell through resellers and partners, with support functions split between the partner and the vendor. Most will supply an integrated system that interfaces with, for example, a patient administration system (PAS) and electronic workflow systems, but some - notably Nuance - will supply shrink-wrapped software for healthcare IT departments to deploy and customise. The market is evolving rapidly, largely owing to the increasing speed of PCs, servers and smartphones. The following list, organised alphabetically, is not intended to be exhaustive but provides a guide to some of the major suppliers. BigHand ( site ) London-headquartered BigHand was set up in 1996, and its DD software is now used by more than 100,000 users in more than 1,000 organisations. The firm is financially backed by the private equity division of Lloyds TSB. As well as offering a server-based DD system, the BigHand3 platform is available for the BlackBerry, iPhone and WindowsMobile smartphones in areas as diverse as legal and healthcare. In August, it launched a healthcare specific version of its suite of products, with product features designed specifically for the NHS. The firm's latest flagship trust project is at the Mid Yorkshire Hospital trust, which services a population of 500,000, with new hospitals entering service in Pontefract and Wakefield this current financial year. BigHand has been quite successful in signing new NHS trusts to its list of clients, including the Princess Alexandra Hospital trust and, more recently, three trusts using the Yorkshire and Humber NHS framework deal for DD: Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals, The Ipswich Hospital and Airedale NHS foundation trust. Dictate IT ( site ) Another London-based firm, Dictate-IT has two flagship NHS trusts, Derby Hospitals foundation and Newham University Hospital, and has a platform based on software originally developed by GPs and other doctors. With a total of 27 trusts using its technology - including Imperial College Healthcare, The Royal Free, St George's Healthcare, Barts and the London, Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals, Guys & St Thomas Foundation, East and North Hertfordshire - the firm claims its product is unique in terms of its GP origins. The company boasts a wide range of partnerships with Cerner, EMIS and iSoft, as well as Microsoft for Windows and Philips. The firm's DD technology interfaces with some PAS and electronic patient record (EPR) systems. In April 2010, Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals trust integrated Dictate IT's technology into a Cerner Millennium electronic patient record system following two years of usage. The trust is now using it general surgery, paediatrics, cardiology and 22 other specialities. In July 2010, the company won the UK's largest ever NHS outsourced transcription contract with Barts and the London, covering an estimated 7m lines of text a year. G2 Speech ( site ) Founded in 1998 by two medical professionals, G2's technology centres on speech-to-text technology, which it claimed is up to seven times more efficient than traditional transcription systems, with a direct cost saving of 30% compared with conventional secretarial support services. The firm has offices in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as the UK. The company, which unlike some of its rivals is focused on healthcare, claims to have 10,000 users of its technology. UK trusts are serviced from two offices, in Leeds and London. In March 2010 G2 was nominated in three categories at the Philips Partner Awards Ceremony for its marketing, partner and technical prowess. The firm won the former category award. Since then the company has aligned its technology with the Dragon voice recognition platform and most recently with Microsoft Windows 7. The firm's flagship trusts include Scottish health board NHS Borders and Southampton University Hospital foundation trust, where its MediSpeech platform was installed earlier this year. Nuance Communications ( site ) Massachusetts-based Nuance supplies both speech and imaging software to a variety of sector including healthcare, where its Speech Magic and newly-introduced Dragon Medical packages are in widespread use. The firm's technology is based on the old Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition platform, which dates back to the early 1990s and has been updated to support medical terminology in 75 specialities and sub-specialities. The firm claims that Dragon Medical is up to 99% accurate when used out-of-the-box, allowing staff to 'drive' their own speech-text sessions, with the resulting files then stored in EPRs. Nuance's software is sold as a shrink-wrapped package for trusts to install themselves, as well as through DD partner firms. Softech Global ( site ) Formed in 1990, Softech has its headquarters near Brighton, with a sales and marketing operation in North Yorkshire and research and development operations at two sites in India. Over the last eight years the firm has invested more than £2 million in R&D. Its Nomad DD system is used by a number of trusts, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and The Rotherham foundation trust. Earlier this year, Softech announced an expansion of its software's use at University Hospital Birmingham foundation trust where, after a year of usage, around 400 users in 29 departments across two sites are using Nomad. In April 2010, The Rotherham started a complete implementation of Nomad, following a series of trials lasting four years, during which it was integrated into the trust's McKesson PAS. The system is already live in orthopaedics and rheumatology. SRC ( site ) SRC sells and services DD systems from Grundig, Nuance, Olympus, Philips and Winscribe. The London headquartered firm has systems installed at more than 2,500 sites in different sectors worldwide. NHS clients include Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Dartford and Gravesham trust, Ealing Hospital, Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals, Taunton and Somerset Hospitals, Trafford Healthcare and more than 40 others. In February 2010, SRC secured a 2,000-user contract with University Hospitals of Leicester. Spanning three sites, the Winscribe system supports the DD needs of 50 specialities in nine clinical directorates, making it the largest acute hospital implementation in the UK. This summer (2010), the firm deployed a trust-wide electronic discharge summary system for the Hillingdon Hospital trust in west London, catering for 800 patient discharges a week. In August the firm launched a web-based clinical correspondence platform in conjunction with Bluewire Technologies, following trials with two NHS trusts. As with many DD systems, this integrates closely with PASs as well as with SRC's Winscribe system. Voice Technologies ( site ) Voice Technologies, with offices in Glasgow and Sheffield, claims to be the largest supplier of DD technologies to the NHS, with its systems in use by more than 350,000 clinical staff worldwide. Covering the health and legal sectors, the firm is a Philips and Winscribe senior partner. In July 2010, the firm won a contract to supply its WinVoicePro platform to NHS Tayside, NHS Highland and NHS Dumfries & Galloway boards in Scotland. The system is being used for inter-department electronic documents, as well as workflow with GP practices. WinVoicePro, the firm's flagship software, was launched in March 2010 and is in active use by six trusts in England and Wales, interfacing with PASs from several vendors, notably Cerner Millennium, iSoft, Philips and SCI Store. Winscribe ( site ) Founded in 1995 by Amtel Communications in New Zealand, Winscribe is in active use across sectors including healthcare, with more than 350,000 users worldwide. The firm's technology extends beyond DD into workflow management. The company has offices in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and in Reading, and has more than 100 service partners around the world. As well as offering a server-based DD platform, the firm supports BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile smartphones using a mobility suite that relates data, once transcribed, to the server, allowing 'dial-in' access to DD services. In July 2010 the firm linked with Nuance Communications to allow close integration between the firm companies' products. The move effectively embedded speech recognition into Winscribe's software-based DD, transcription management and workflow routing system.