SILICON VALLEY, CA – Speech recognition software company Dragon, used by doctors and other professionals worldwide for transcription, announced the launch of a new dictation program able to recognize and indicate groans, sighs, moans, and other exasperated guttural sounds frequently made by physicians while dictating patient charts.
“We call it Dragroan,” said company spokesperson Brian Moffitz, “and this update to the previous Dragon dictation software will change conventional medical dictation as we know it.”
Moffitz explained the benefits of the software at a recent press conference:
“Communication in the medical field is becoming more and more about reading, and less about listening, so vital non-verbal cues are lost in the process. With Dragroan, dictating physicians can add the personal touch of an annoyed sigh or an irritated groan directly into patient charts and reports, thus retaining critical non-verbal signals of aggravation or disappointment with patients, hospital staff, and even other physicians.”
Various medical organizations have praised the new technology, with the American Board of Radiology (ABR) being one of the most vocal.
“We hope that with this technology our colleagues and ordering physicians might start to consider maybe, I don’t know, typing more than one or two words in the ‘Reason for Exam’ field when ordering scans,” said Dr. Mary Nygar, radiologist and ABR Director. “Now, I don’t think this one feature will solve the problem completely, but I’m optimistic.”
At press time, the Dragon spokesperson indicated the company is also looking into ways of recognizing and indicating other types of subtle verbal cues, such as “impatient speed of voice, nervous or unsure trembling pitch, and arrogant tone, further setting us apart from all the other complacent speech recognition software companies out there who couldn’t care less about innovation.”
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