Front-end, interactive, back-end, deferred and batch recognition – what does it all mean, what’s the difference and which avenue is right for you and your organisation? When you’re new to the world of speech technology, the jargon can be mind boggling (even when you’re not new to it, technology develops so quickly it can be hard to keep track). Front-end recognition, also known as interactive speech recognition, is the process of creating documentation that is instantaneously presented to you on screen in real-time in a finalised format. Back-end recognition which is also known as deferred and batch recognition, creates the transcribed text in the background via the speech recognition server and is sent to editors or administrative support to be reviewed. In truth, both have advantages but it is dependent on your speech recognition strategy.
But what are the benefits of front-end speech recognition?
- Save money
Front-end or interactive speech recognition will save your organisation money. The reporting workflow process is made leaner and less people are needed to be involved in the process. The clinician can see what is being interpreted as they build documents and there’s no need for additional involvement in the creation of documents by administrative staff.
2. Improve the quality of documents
The clinician has clear visibility of what has been created and can edit as they see fit. Front-end recognition enables the clinician to quickly and simply make changes to a document with their voice, in real-time. This ensures documents are of high quality, accurate and complete. This way of working is particularly helpful when creating structured reports in pathology, radiology, A and E and for and patient discharge forms.
3. Clinician satisfaction
Ultimately, front-end recognition enables more autonomy over the creation of documentation for the clinician. Documents are processed far quicker and there’s no lag between steps of the creation process. Thus in turn allows for greater satisfaction – patients are receiving correspondence sooner and allows for swifter treatment or diagnosis.
4. Save time creating documentation
Time spent creating documents is significantly less. With front-end recognition, the clinician dictates, self-edits, and authorises a document, which can immediately become part of the patient’s medical record. This does however depend on the set up of your organisations’ workflow, your working environment and the clinician. We’ve found front-end recognition enables time savings particularly for: people with no or limited secretarial support (e.g. junior consultants), those creating documents out of hours, those working in urgent care (directly reporting into their EPR for instantaneous availability of clinical findings) and/or longer reports so that a clinician can actually review documentation in real-time.
5. Improved patient care
A patient no longer needs to wait for their letters and correspondence. We’ve seen patients leave the clinic with a letter in hand – equipped with all of the information they need about their referral or follow up appointment.
Front-end, interactive speech recognition can have many benefits over back-end recognition and even more so over traditional digital dictation but like anything, those using the technology have to be welcoming and open to trying new ways of working.
Recruiting skilled secretaries and typists can be a challenge and front-end recognition can help provide some relief. Additionally, at a time when clinicians are under more pressure than ever with COVID-19 and growing backlogs of appointments – introducing new technologies can seem like another hurdle, but ultimately will be of great benefit to all.
If you’d like to speak to one of our experts about speech technology and front-end recognition in your area of work call: +44 (0)20 4566 5024 or email: marketing@g2speech.com