The future of medical dictation (MD) technology looks very bright indeed. Advancements in the technology that underlies today's modern digital voice assistants, are paving the way for medical professionals to not only take full advantage of what these voice assistants can do, but also to expand on the capabilities they already possess. For instance, one day all voice assistants will be equipped with a technologically advanced brain implant that will allow them to retrieve information that has been captured by their smart phone or other digital recording device and then to transcribe it into either text or audio format, according to the user's instructions. This is very similar to what pen-driven dictation equipment does today. However, one very important distinction will be that these electronic gadgets will have software that controls them instead of having a pen inside that controls the voice assistant.
Medical transcription companies can't produce voice assistants that are just as good as their computer-based counterparts every time, however they can make do with what they have. Transcribing medical records takes a lot of time and accuracy is something that can't always be counted on. That's why medical transcription companies often outsource their transcription needs to external companies who specialize in medical dictation devices. For example, one company recently started a medical transcription division by buying and refurbishing dictating equipment from an electronic manufacturer that had been in business since 1918!
This may seem like a rather odd thing to do when you think about it. When digital dictation equipment first came out, it was designed primarily for doctors to use. Over time the devices started to become more popular with the medical transcription industry. They started to replace voice tape transcription machines and were eventually adopted by hospitals and other medical facilities. Because transcriptionists also needed voice assistants, the companies that made the devices could provide them as well. It was a natural progression from what was essentially a glorified tape recorder.
Medical voice assistants worked alongside their dictation assistants in a two person operation. The dictation assistant would read aloud whatever was needed to be recorded, while the voice assistants played music that was appropriate for whatever was being said. The voice assistants would then match it to the audio in the dictation device and if the patient wanted to rewind to listen to a specific portion of the recording, he or she could do so.
A good thing about medical dictation devices is that you don't need to be a doctor to use it. Medical voice assistants are not highly trained professionals, but simply people who are good at talking. The end users simply record their dictations or voice notes in anything that can be played on a dictation device. People who might not be so adept at talking can also use voice recognition software to do the same thing. Medical voice assistants can handle patients' voice files on their own and when their shift is over they can simply take the files to their next shift and use the same devices to play music.
This type of software isn't limited to just voice assistants, however. Medical voice assistants can also use smart speakers like Sonos to stream audio to various different devices. If you have a medical call on your cell phone, you can take your phone's call button and direct it to any smart speaker that is capable of playing the appropriate file. If you want to make sure that everyone understands what you're saying, it could save you a lot of time and money by making it easy for all to hear what you're trying to say through your computer.
This post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription elaborate more on the topic, so you may need to check it out.
