In the past, I have written about issues directly related to our speech recognition solution in Pathology. Today, I’m changing it up a little and paying tribute to three particular Patient Advocates, each of whom has had significant experience with cancer.  The purpose is to highlight their experiences and use their stories as examples of patients having a positive impact on the Pathology community and treatment of future patients.

My colleagues and I are asked to list the importance and benefits of speech recognition in healthcare on a regular basis.  In response, we usually rattle off a number of benefits that we know to be true and a few that are subjective in nature.  What really surprises me is that the list has not changed much  since I became an early adopter of the technology as a Pathology Assistant back in the late 1980s.  Still, although the list has not changed, the technology has steadily improved and continues to perform better with each new software revision, each new computer processor, and each new microphone or related hardware option hitting the market.  This only makes for a stronger and more compelling list of reasons to use speech recognition as a reporting tool in healthcare.