As voice recognition technology is gaining momentum, organisations are actively looking for ways to implement it in their healthcare practices to offer the best patient care. From appointment booking to virtual health guides, voice recognition has vast applications within the medical field.

The importance and application of voice-enabled virtual assistants are growing in the healthcare sector and revolutionising the way doctors provide care to their patients. Big tech firms and startups alike are keen to expand speech recognition capabilities, considering the significant potential of voice-enabled tools to boost productivity and transform the patient experience.

Also, this powerful technology has the capability to make diagnosis faster, assist clinicians with documenting the patient’s story, and to make communication easier for patients that may have difficulty reading or understanding information that’s presented to them on the paper.

In this blog post, we’ll go over everything about voice recognition technology and how it can empower the healthcare industry to improve the quality of patient care.

The What and the Why of Voice Recognition in Healthcare

Voice recognition technology uses speech patterns to not only decode human voice but attribute that voice to certain speakers. Voice recognition is not just limited to recognizing spoken words, it includes the identification of emotions in speech, assessment of language skills, and speaker identification. And that’s what makes it a powerful technology.

It has a vast application in the healthcare industry, especially when it comes to completing bureaucratic tasks like medical documentation. With voice speech, you can:

• Search databases for patient information easily
• Make recordings and dictate information into the EHR
• Schedule visits and follow-up seamlessly
• Make diagnosis faster while cutting down on errors
• Allows patients to remain connected without face-to-face contacts
• Improve patient engagement and satisfaction by making it easier for them to access their medical records & refill prescriptions

The State of Voice Recognition in Healthcare - Facts & Figures

The growing adoption of voice assistants in the healthcare sector will fuel demand for voice recognition solutions. Here is a breakdown of the state of voice speech in the healthcare arena. According to research:

• The global speech and voice recognition market is projected to grow from $11.21 billion in 2022 to $49.79 billion by 2029 at a CAGR of 23.7% in the forecast period.
• Speech and voice recognition software played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Apple’s Siri helped patients by recommending telehealth apps through the CDC COVID-19 assessment.
• In April 2022, Google LLC launched speech recognition technology ‘Speech-to-Text API’ to boost the voice user interface that uses a neural sequence model to improve accuracy in 23 languages and 61 of the supported localities.
• Amazon, the only other giant tech player with a voice-based offering for healthcare, has deployed Alexa services in several healthcare organisations.

Well, the numbers and the facts pretty much speak for themselves, don’t they? It is quite evident that healthcare officials need to invest in this massive technology to stay on top of their diagnosis game.

5 Ways Voice Recognition Technology Will Empower Healthcare Space

Meeting patients’ expectations requires skilled doctors equipped with robust technology. Voice recognition technology when combined with AI and machine learning can empower the healthcare space in the following ways.

1. Increased Productivity of Healthcare Professionals: The important role that voice assistants can play in operating rooms or even in any physician’s room is capturing clinical notes. This helps doctors save a lot of time writing prescriptions or recording complete medical histories of any patients suffering from chronic diseases and focus on what they do best - treating patients. It helps to improve the patient care delivery process and keep patients a top priority. Also, the technology assists medical professionals to take care of more patients at a time and makes inter-department communication more efficient and effective by reducing the turnaround time.

2. Improved Patient Care: Modern healthcare complexity can often slow service delivery, which is frustrating to doctors and patients alike. Speech recognition can minimise the burden of information exchange and data collection and allow more focus on the patient-professional relationship. Also, speech recognition in healthcare can improve the accuracy and speed of medical diagnosis and treatment. By analysing the voice patterns and other vocal characteristics of patients, voice recognition systems enable doctors to identify medical conditions and prescribe appropriate treatments with greater accuracy and efficiency, which, ultimately, will improve patient care. For instance, voice recognition technology can help doctors identify vocal abnormalities that may indicate the presence of certain diseases, such as cancer or heart disease.

3. Better Recording and Updating of EHRs: Advancements in AI, machine learning, and cloud computing are helping to drive the implementation of voice technologies in updating healthcare records. Accurate speech-to-text programs have shown the ability to transcribe physicians’ notes more precisely than the average human medical transcriptionist. Also, voice recognition models provide a method for eliminating common challenges like insufficient documentation of procedures and illegible handwriting.

4. Enhanced Post-Discharged Patient Care: Voice assistants have become an inevitable part of the patient recovery system. Whether it’s staying in a hospital, or after discharging a patient to recover at home, speech recognition helps patients connect to their environment, especially when they have restricted mobility. For instance, voice recognition can adjust the temperature of the room, request nursing assistance, or find out more about your medical condition from trusted sources using various healthcare apps. Voice assistants like Alexa, are well-suited to help patients manage their chronic conditions. By asking simple questions like ‘have you taken your medicine today?’ Alexa can help ensure that patients remain compliant with their treatment requirements.

5. Better & Fast Diagnosis for Effective Patient Care: The accuracy of voice recognition makes diagnosis faster and more effective because it cuts down on errors made while keying information into computers, which can result in misdiagnosis. For instance, voice recognition technology could be used to automatically extract and analyse data from EHRs, allowing doctors to quickly identify trends and patterns that may indicate the need for further testing or treatment.

What Does the Future Look Like for Voice Recognition in Healthcare?

The future of voice recognition in healthcare is likely to involve the integration of voice recognition technology with other digital health tools and platforms, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and telemedicine systems. This will allow healthcare professionals to access and analyse patient data in real-time, and to provide more personalised and effective care. By and large, the future landscape of voice recognition in healthcare is bright and holds great potential to improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of medical care. By leveraging the power of AI and machine learning, voice recognition technology is set to revolutionise the healthcare industry and improve patient outcomes. As the technology continues to advance and become more widely adopted, we can expect to see more and more healthcare providers using voice recognition to improve the way they diagnose and treat patients.

The Bottom Line

Healthcare organisations need to capitalise on voice recognition technology. As this technology becomes more mainstream in the healthcare space, patient experience will change dramatically, and you need to provide the best possible care and experience. From transcribing documents, and making diagnoses faster to assisting patients with disabilities, voice recognition can help you save time, and money, and make healthcare professionals’ and patients’ lives easier and happier