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Does anyone use the newest dragon nat. speaking voice-rec software with amazing charts? Does it work well? Easy to train? Does it actually make charting faster and easier? Is it worth the cost? I hate typig and am not fast at it. Being left-handed, I can't spell well either.
What do yall think? Thanx,
Nate

We are using Dragon Medical version 11. Simply, I could not practice without it since dictating the charts is no longer an option, and I have a vendetta against templates. I assume the latest version is better yet.

I have used Dragon on and off years, and as we have had an influx of potential clients who are not skilled typists (or interested in learning to be), we talked with other Docs who use and recommend DNS-Medical, and ended up establishing a business relationship wit h Dragon. [Disclosure]

As far as faster - what I have observed is that it seems faster, but I'll let other speak of their first-hand experiences.

As far as cost justification, I have done a few of those for the board over the years. So, using numbers provided by others, I would estimate that over a year, you would have to be able to save between 1-1.25 hours per month to re-coup your initial cost. If you choose to spread the cost of the software over 3 years and didn't choose any additional support or upgrading, that means you need to save between 20-30 minutes a month.

Having been dependent on sleep spell-checkers for years, I am glad to have a medical professional confirm that is is all because I am left-handed. And spell-checkers don't fix everything as evidenced.

Dragon Medical is a life saver for us non-typing docs (who took PE instead of typing in high school). It integrates very well with AC, and saves me hours.

It doesn't work as well with Updox, can't capitalize or spell-correct. Listening, Tobin?

Nate,
I have been using dragon since about 2003 and upgraded to version 11 just before going with AC last fall.

I broke it down this way:
At minimum 1000-1500 dollars a month to pay a transcriptionist for a busy practice, and turn around time is 2-3 days

dragon version 11 I think is about $1500 if you buy the medical version, but it should last for at least 2-3 years before upgrading again. initially seems slower, but easy to train, but you get all your corrections done as you dictate and no turn around time--so more efficient than typing or paying a transcriptionist, and in 1-2 months of paying the transcriptionist bill you will pay for the dragon
I template out my normal male and female full exams and full ROS's and dictate any abnormals over the normals, so in my opinion the combination of templating and dragon can't be beat for efficiency.

We have Dragon Medical 10 at the moment. Haven't started using it yet, but we do transcriptions in house.

Dragon medical 10.5 with Philips speechmike on old computer. Dictates well into Amazing Charts but need mouse to navigate. Commands are very helpful but again navigation within AC is difficult.

Dragon Medical 10.1. 3-in-1 Tablemike. Mouse for navigation.
I can't imagine typing my notes, and I type 90 wpm.
Dragon is much faster.
Dave
FP

Just got done with some Dragon training, and to pass along a few tidbits.

DNS12 is released for other platforms, but DNS12-Medical isn't out yet - will be a while. That isn't always clear in current info.

If you are thinking about going to DNS12-Medical after it comes out, being on a 64bit OS and having a minimum of 4G RAM is recommended to run their best algorithms.

Nate,

Forgot to mention I use the MIC ll from nuance, and it rests on my desk. Use it like a tabletop mic, but more accurate than my 30 dollar tabletop mic, but not sure it was worth 450 dollars, but it works great. I am currently using XP 32bit OS with 4 ram but soon to upgrade, but even with that system the dragon has served me well, and it seems the dragon works much better in AC than in microsoft word.

I bought Dragon Medical Practice Edition V. 11 at the same time I purchased AC. I have never used voice rec. software previously and was reluctant to try. I am not a fan of templates. As a psychiatrist, I like to have individualized notes. I have been thoroughly impressed with Dragon. I would say it's 97% actually out of the box after doing the 5 minutes training session. Already, I cannot imagine charting without it. It words great AC. I use the headset that came with it which works perfectly. The high price is worth it!

I also use Dragon (Medical 10.1)-but not quite sure what you mean when you say that dictate any abnormals over the normals-how do you navigate to the normal portion of text in your template, select it and then dictate over the top of it--do you use voice navigation, keyboard, fields ? I really need help in speeding up my AC encounter form.

Thanks

Indy, some talk about Dragon 12 being able to use multiple processor CPUs more effectively, increasing accuracy & speed "by 20%". Same thing as they said for version 11, but I found the incremental changes were, well, hard to perceive (to put it kindly). Did you get any impression that this was more than sales fluff with version 12?

I feel the need for speed...

Dr Dinosaur,

HEENT: extraocular muscles intact, pupils equal round and reactive to light, TM's canals unremarkable, nares mucosa within normal limits, oral mucosa within normal limits
Neck: there is no thyromegaly, adenopathy or bruits
Cor: regular rate and rhythm without S3 S4 or murmur
Lungs: clear to auscultation and percussion without any sign of wheezing or crackles
Breasts: there is no dimpling or masses
GI: no hepatosplenomegaly, no rebound or guarding, bowel sounds are present, no evidence of distention
GU: the external genitalia is normal and the cervix is within normal limits and nontender, on bimanual exam there are no uterine or adnexal masses
Rectal: the stool is brown, guaiac negative, there are no rectal masses
Ext: there is no cyanosis, clubbing or edema
Neuro: cranial nerves two through 12 are intact, motor grossly nonfocal, sensory no obvious deficits, reflexes intact
Skin: no rashes, ulcers, or suspicious skin lesions


So what I do to my female template is if there is 3+ edema, I left click on the words just to the right of Ext: and drag my mouse across till it all lights up blue and then delete the entire section--there is no cyanosis, clubbing or edema, and then place my mouse where the t was in there and with voice transcribe three plus edema, and then move the template to the physical exam section

It really works nice, because most patients have many more normals than abnormals and you don't have to keep redictating the same female exam every time.

Now if I don't do a pelvic or rectal, I just delete those 2 sections, and hit the delete button after putting the cursor on the n of distention at the end of the GI: section so the Ext: section abuts up against the GI: section so the note looks nice.

I hope this helps.

I simply had to intervene only to strongly suggest a minimum of 8 GB of RAM with 16 being optimum in regards to Dragon Medical 12. As for version 11.5 we strongly suggest 4 on the low side with 8 being optimum. RAM is cheap now and will increase your computers overall performance. When a Doc has less than 4 we typically reject the sale as we would rather our clients have a good experience. It's better to have a lifelong customer than to send one package out the door.

I have heard similar claims; there was a bit more detail about what is going on technically that makes me think that perceivable improvements are more possible. Multi-processor chips will be important to getting the most out of the next release.

Because we do a significant amount of virtualization, we will continue to benchmark on both Intel and AMD; AMD is recently proving a far better price/performance advantage - if speed is what you need. My current beast box is 8-core [amd fx 8150] on top of 32G RAM and SSD drive array.

I was stashed @ Topgun when they started the movie work; some entertaining stories about that American classic. Perhaps over beverages next get-together.

If any of you have any specific or technical questions about Dragon Medical or the hardware and software that goes with it feel free to post them in the Third-Party Vendor Discussion sub forum. I have been a member of this forum for over four years and have answered many questions. I also have many Amazing Charts clients utilizing this technology.

Nate,
I started out on V.6 non-medical about 8 years ago and went to 10.1 Medical about 8 months ago. I use templates in the PE section and freely dictate my HPI and Plan. Using commands is essential. For changing sections of dictation or a few words, I recommend the comman "select" and then the word or "select from (choose word) to (choose word)" and the entire phrase will be selected and can then be replaced. The "insert after" or "insert before" command is also handy for putting the cursor wherever you want. The accuracy is amazing and most people can't type that fast. You can also use a "macro" to store a phrase or paragraph that you consistenly use and drop it in anywhere (i.e. recommendations, side effects, risks, warnings, entire procedure notes,etc.). I can't imagine doing notes without it, though the initial training may take the software 1-3 months to really be great.
Steve

I use Dragon 11.5 pretty successfully. It won't work in AC on the same machine that is running the EMR program, so I run Dragon on a laptop or my office machine and remote to something else that is running Amazing Charts.
It's a little clumsy, but it is an inexpensive way to get up and running with voice recognition-- to see if you can make it work.
Maybe after Dragon 12Medical comes out I'll spring for it.
They used to have a version for "small offices" that was cheaper than the standard medical -- I guess they stopped that.