A large-scale EHR implementation in Denmark has faced some resistance from clinical staff; medical doctors found it difficult and time consuming to input data by typing. A pilot project with speech recognition has now shown significant workflow improvements that can potentially reduce resistance to EHR adoption.

Anne Werner Løhndorf, department manager for Public & Healthcare Technology in NNIT and Mette Lindelof, a neurology consultant from the Zealand region, will present the findings of the pilot project at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki.

The largest IT project in Danish healthcare

The Zealand Region and the Copenhagen Capital Region in Denmark have jointly implemented the Healthcare Platform – what is believed to be the largest IT implementation project of Danish healthcare ever.

As a result, 44,000 healthcare employees and 2.5 million citizens will be provided with EHRs in the Healthcare Platform.

During the last quarter of 2018, the two regions in Denmark have added speech recognition to support data capturing and workflow efficiency in the Healthcare Platform. 

The pilot project looked at how speech recognition can provide better user experience for the clinical staff, more efficient workflows at the clinic, higher quality in the documentation and an improved patient interaction.    

Twenty-one doctors and two nurses at a neurological department were selected to test speech recognition within the pilot project, which suggests that speech recognition will be able to avert some of the challenges that doctors experience, and at the same time support the collection and use of structured data.

US study confirmed EHR optimization with speech recognition

A previously conducted multi-year study in the US had come to similar findings as the pilot study in Denmark.

The US study, conducted at the Vassar Brothers Medical Center, found that the EHR Net Promoter Score improved by 99 points after using speech recognition compared to previous input modalities. This illustrates the significant increase in user satisfaction with EHRs. Accordingly, 95% of users - primarily doctors, but also nurses and other medical staff - found the introduction of speech recognition for electronic documentation a good idea.

Nuance Healthcare to showcase latest speech recognition advancements

In Helsinki, delegates of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference can see the latest speech recognition technology at booth 6D21. Nuance Healthcare, one of the world’s largest and most innovative speech recognition providers for healthcare, will showcase its Dragon Medical solution with artificial intelligence features.

"We’ve added Artificial Intelligence to our speech recognition solution. This creates a completely new user experience. Gone are the days of voice profile trainings; Dragon Medical now delivers high recognition accuracy right from the start," says Milko Jovanoski, international marketing director for Nuance Healthcare.

"Even more though, deep learning algorithms let it adapt to the user’s active vocabulary by inspecting texts the user has created in the past, both by adding custom words to its active vocabulary and by learning the typical phrases and text patterns the user employs," he added.  

For the diary:

• The Health Anywhere Anytime session will take place on June 12 from 15:15 - 17:15
• Nuance Healthcare booth: 6D21

This sponsored article is part of 'The Road to Helsinki' series, which highlights innovative sessions and technologies at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference taking place in Helsinki, 11-13 June 2019. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.