Medical speech recognition that can automatically code clinical information

“Lexacom Echo is invaluable. I absolutely love it.”

Katherine Wilkinson is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner working in Lincolnshire and using Lexacom Echo every day for all of her consultations, notes, and patient communications.

She has been a Lexacom Echo user for two years, and the total number of words she has transcribed so far is approaching one million.

Katherine’s medical centre uses the clinical system SystmOne, and AccuRx to communicate with patients via text message.

“We only have 10 minutes per patient, it’s stressful – I can’t impress enough what a difference Lexacom Echo has made.”

As talking is far quicker than typing, Katherine explained how the accuracy of Lexacom Echo speech recognition makes her job easier clinically – and also personally – when it comes to the pressures presented by the time constraints of patient appointments:

Saving time – and reducing stress
“One of the reasons I find Lexacom Echo so invaluable is because we only have 10 minutes per patient. This means introducing ourselves, assessing them, making a physical assessment, writing up notes, referring, investigations… to be able to do everything and type it all accurately is hard, it’s stressful.”

“Lexacom Echo has actually meant that I can see myself surviving until retirement; it’s not just about ease from a clinical point of view; I can’t impress enough what a difference it has made.”

“It’s giving us the ability to give the patient a breakdown they understand, just by speaking into the microphone”

Patient mode in Lexacom Echo adds easy to understand explanations to medical terms, so that patients can better understand their notes, and their health. Saying the word “hernia” gives the following definition, automatically: “hernia (an abnormal protrusion of a tissue or organ through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides)”.

In practice, this means two things for Katherine; firstly that she can help her patients more, and secondly that time savings are brought to her medical centre as a whole.

Help patients more
“AccuRx is linked in with SystmOne and it allows us to text patients, so if we’re texting them back and saying, for example, your blood results are ‘borderline’ or ‘satisfactory’ – or whatever we’re saying – because I use your system it’s even adding explanations into these texts.”

“Everything is so time limited in our role, and it’s giving us the ability to give the patient a breakdown they understand, just by speaking into the microphone. So my text messages that are quickly explaining things are explaining them even better.”

More time savings
“Patients can see all of their notes now – and just today I noticed a very good description when I said ‘hernia’ and read what Echo added afterwards in brackets. So if the patient was looking at their notes and didn’t know what a hernia was, they probably wouldn’t seek a further consultation because it does actually say it. Without me writing it all out, it just pops up!”

“Coding is really, really beneficial”

Medical mode in Lexacom Echo automatically codes clinical information, standardising data input and saving a huge amount of time. Saying the words “chesty cough” results in “chesty cough (1719.)” being coded in SystmOne, with no extra effort from a clinician.

Katherine notes that two key benefits of this are for QOF points, and auditing.

QOF (The Quality and Outcomes Framework)
“It’s great that it’s coding it. If it was a code that was to do with QOF points, say, ‘blood sample taken’, that is automatically part of CQC. So that’s where the new feature is really, really beneficial.”

Auditing
“I use my standard sentences, like, ‘bilateral breath sounds on auscultation’, and, ‘no audible wheeze, coarse creps’ – and it automatically puts the codes in. I think this is brilliant for the partners, when they need to perform audits it will be quite the feature because they could just search the code rather than looking for a word.”

“Quick, accurate, and stress-free notes mean more time for patients”

“I loved it so much when Echo was released. Seriously, this has done so much for me professionally and personally. I had an appraisal the other day with the lead GP and I said Echo is the one thing that has allowed me to spend more time with patients – because I know I can write consultations up accurately, quickly, and without stress. I cannot sing your praises highly enough.”

Find out more

Lexacom Echo is the only speech recognition product that recognises medical terms and add explanations for patients, and also the only product able to code clinical information automatically.

Book a demonstration today, see what Lexacom Echo can do, and bring these innovations to your practice.

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