Philips SpeechMagic Used In Largest Deployment Of Front-End Radiology Speech Recognition In The UK

Main Category: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine
Article Date: 17 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) announced today that its SpeechMagic technology now powers the largest front-end speech recognition site in the UK's healthcare sector. Using SpeechMagic, the 60 radiologists at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) are put in full control of the creation of medical reports. Physicians no longer have to wait for reports to return from the transcription department, which sometimes took several weeks. As a result, clinicians and referring physicians are provided with accurate medical data quickly, to support safe and speedy treatment.

As a key step for clinicians and general practitioners (GPs), accurate and fast radiology documentation affects the entire treatment process. Radiologists at the ARI experienced a common problem: the bottlenecks in the transcription department delayed the availability of medical reports - sometimes for several weeks. With the introduction of front-end speech recognition, dictations are automatically transformed into text, allowing radiologists to create and sign-off on written reports instantly after dictation.

Dr. Olive Robb, radiologist at the ARI said: "With the successful implementation of speech recognition, we have proven how positively a new technology can affect our working conditions and the services we provide to patients and clinicians. We were totally surprised by the lack of difficulties with the implementation and acceptance of our new speech recognition system. The technology has reached the level which allows doctors the full responsibility of report creation."

At the ARI, SpeechMagic is deployed as part of SolitonIT's reporting solution. The system is seamlessly integrated with the hospital's legacy Radiology Information System (RIS), to allow doctors to access the patient history from the dictation screen for comparing their results against previous findings. They scan the barcode from the patient record into the RIS, to automatically pull up the corresponding patient data and add it to the report. The report is available for correction and validation the moment the doctor presses the stop button on their recording microphone.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of "sense and simplicity." Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 125,800 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of USD 34 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.