Speech Recognition Market Growth Attributed to Benefits of Adoption, Including Meaningful Use

OREM, UT, February 15, 2011 (Press-News.org) Providers report a demonstrable return on their speech recognition dollars, according to a new report from KLAS. "Speech Recognition 2010: Vocalizing Benefits" includes feedback from 355 providers and covers both back-end and front-end speech-recognition technology. Participants of the study indicated benefits of speech recognition such as staff reductions, improved report turnaround times, and increased physician satisfaction, among others.

"The speech recognition market is ripe for healthy growth," said Ben Brown, report author. "Currently, less than one in four hospitals use the technology, however, in light of meaningful use and the benefits providers point out in this study, we expect it will assume a more prominent place in the role of clinical documentation."

Still there is room for improvement. Providers would like speech systems to learn more quickly. Some customers report accent challenges with speakers who are not native English speakers. Some also report that adopting a front-end speech technology tends initially to be disruptive to workflow.

Though there is a learning curve, and some providers report a workflow interruption while adopting speech recognition technology, physicians are getting used to it and embracing it. "Generally the KLAS survey finds that a culture change occurs as providers begin to fall in love with speech-recognition technology. Once physicians realize that by spending a few more minutes up front they save time and money in the long run, many are sold on it," said Brown.

Nuance continues to be the power player in the speech recognition market. Nuance's eScription takes first place in the back-end section of the report, a direct result of happy, loyal customers who are able to document direct savings. Dolbey Fusion Speech performs well against Nuance with their back-end speech system.

Nuance also performs well in the front-end speech segment, taking both first and second place with PowerScribe and RadWhere. MedQuist's SpeechQ is Nuance's biggest competitor in front-end speech software and is also growing their stake in the industry. Agfa's TalkStation has been improving slowly and steadily, but suffers from inadequate support and poor functionality and takes fourth place out of four.

To learn more about the speech recognition market, as well as the vendor solutions in this study, the new KLAS report is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase the "Speech Recognition 2010: Vocalizing Benefits" report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors, and vendors. Working together with executives from over 4500 hospitals and over 2500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends, and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures performance of software, professional services, and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch.