Medical transcription in India started with a flourish more
than a decade ago, but is now showing more and more signs of ending with a
whimper. Technology has caught up and
the profile of the industry has changed radically; that it will no longer be an
employee intensive industry is a fact all transcriptionists will have to recognize
and live with. Companies in India
for their own survival are opting for Voice Recognition systems and downsizing their
workforce almost with a vengeance. The question is, will these companies
themselves survive for more than 2-3 years?
At the beginning of the decade, things were looking great.
There was always the risk of voice recognition coming into its own, but the
quality of the transcript spewed out by voice recognition programs was beyond
pathetic and transcriptionists heaved a sigh of relief, but voice rec bided its
time and, well, the Empire Struck Back. Quality of transcripts improved
dramatically, well not as great as company bigwigs claim them to be but they
are definitely workable. I have some experience with Dragon and MModal, and some
of my friends have worked on eScription used by Nuance. The general belief is
eScription does a great job delivering consistently high accuracy outputs of
above 90%. The other two are decent but there is still some way to go for them.
One reason might be Nuance informs the clinics and hospitals it serves that
they use a voice recognition platform and they actually take the trouble to
spend time with the physician to familiarize them with the system and how best
to dictate into it. With the dictator himself knowledgeable about the ins and
outs of the system, obviously the output is that much better.
