Time, Money, and Lives Blog

I was listening to a radio interview with a cast member from the upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and I immediately thought of the iconic phrase, "these aren't the droids you're looking for.”  I have always loved memes and the classic Star Wars movies.  Considering the timing of the new release, I had a sudden urge to write a blog that applies the meme to laboratories looking for new Pathology transcriptionists.

I have always loved the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."  I can tell you that in my role as Account Manager at Voicebrook and in my personal life, this philosophy rings true for nearly every milestone I have met, every “elephant” I have eaten, and every new technology I have embraced.

One of the earliest priorities for a Project Manager in a VoiceOver implementation is to ensure that the physical dictation environment is properly setup for successful speech recognition use.   In many cases the PA or Pathologist may not have previously relied on a computer workstation as a regular part of their case reporting.  In other cases, if a computer workstation was available, it may not have been setup effectively to be utilized while working with case materials.  The reason it is so important to focus on the physical environment early in an implementation is that some of the requirements may involve equipment or physical setup that involves people or resources that take time to schedule or procure.

Feedback is important in many ways.  As I’ve recently learned, telling a six year old not to touch a campfire because it’s hot didn’t really register.  However, a very minor burn later and she understood in a much clearer way than any message I could have given.  I can’t wait for the teenage years.   Fortunately, all feedback doesn’t have to be painful.

As has frequently been mentioned in this blog, speech recognition technology is not an effective solution for Pathology Reporting when used by itself.  However, when combined with the appropriate hardware, pathology templates, devices, and workflow integration it is proven to help save time and money, and assist Pathologists in providing the highest standard of diagnostic care for their patients. I realize that these are just words to most, and absent seeing how this comes together in a lab environment it is difficult to understand.  That said, for the purposes of this blog, I wanted to share how just one voice command can be used to improve workflow, accuracy of dictation, and ultimately save time.