Dictate.IT Attends Best Practice Birmingham 2023

Dictate.IT attended Best Practice Birmingham at the NEC on Wednesday 11th – Thursday 12th October.

This was Dictate.IT’s third year exhibiting at Best Practice Birmingham, the UK’s largest General Practice event that offers a free, world-class, accredited CPD training programme for the entire general practice and primary care workforce.

Visitors to the stand were trying out our Spin to Win wheel and getting the opportunity to try the speech recognition solution for themselves. Prizes on offer included a Fortnum & Mason hamper and 2 months free speech recognition!

We had another incredibly successful year at Best Practice Birmingham. Visitors to the stand were really enthusiastic about our solutions and, as always, it was great to get chatting to members of the primary care sector to understand their challenges and requirements. We can’t wait for Best Practice London in February 2024!

Faiza Saleem, Sales Director, Clanwilliam UK

Clanwilliam launches UK Division with new leadership team

Clanwilliam has launched a UK Division backed by a new leadership team. The new division will bring together five leading UK brands with a track record of delivering for the NHS, led by new managing director, Stuart van Rooyen.

The creation of the UK division will encourage the exchange of ideas and technology between the brand teams and create a focus for investment in solutions to support the NHS and UK healthcare system. Clanwilliam’s UK division will invest over £10million in research, development, and innovation over the next three years.

Clanwilliam founder and group chief executive Howard Beggs said: “Our technology has been in use in multiple healthcare environments across the UK for over two decades, from operating theatres to pharmacies in the high street. This planned investment will help us continue to support the NHS and wider healthcare stakeholders with their digital transformation plans.

“The creation of our UK Division, alongside our planned investment in R&D, will build on that legacy. It underlines our commitment to making sure that the NHS can continue to access the digital technology it needs to address current and future challenges.”

Clanwilliam was founded in 1996 by Howard Beggs to help doctors utilise technology to deliver better care. Today, Clanwilliam is a global healthcare group of more than 25 technology products and services committed to improving healthcare across the world.

It has 16 offices and more than 1,050 staff in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and India, serving healthcare customers in over 20 countries.

At launch, the UK Division of Clanwilliam will comprise:

  • Bluespier –theatre management systems and virtual clinics
  • Dictate IT – digital dictation and speech recognition
  • Maxwell Stanley – data quality consultancy and clinical coding
  • Medisec Software – document management software and,
  • Informatica Systems – patient intervention and population health management tools.

Some of the £10million investment in R&D will be used to modernise and expand the product portfolios of these companies over the next three years, while the rest will be used to develop new solutions and patient-focused technology.

Stuart van Rooyen, managing director (UK) of Clanwilliam, said: “It is a privilege to be taking on this new role and driving forward our new strategy for Clanwilliam in the UK. The people and products that make up our division have great potential to work closely together, leverage synergies, and share solutions to problems for the benefit of our healthcare customers.

“There is a real opportunity to invest further in cloud-based solutions that are easier to deploy and maintain, to focus on mobility so clinicians can do their jobs on the devices we all use every day, and to make our products and services interoperable, so our customers can get more of the innovation they need straight out of the box.”

In total, the Clanwilliam UK division has a presence in 89 different NHS trusts. Other Clanwilliam products are used by thousands of professionals in community pharmacies and private practices across the UK.

A good example of a recent innovation is the launch of Clanwilliam’s speech product [Dictate Live©] into the primary care market. The product has been developed to suit primary care workflow and needs, and nearly 300 practices and PCNs across the UK are already using it to streamline document production and clinical noting.

Stuart van Rooyen added: “This is a great example of how Clanwilliam innovation delivers value for clinical users. I look forward to leading this division at what is an exciting time for Clanwilliam and the healthcare systems with which it works.”

Dictate.IT Attends EMIS NUG Conference 2023

Dictate.IT attended EMIS National User Group Conference 2023 at the prestigious Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Thursday 14th – Friday 15th September.

This was Dictate.IT’s second year at the EMIS NUG conference, an annual event that allows EMIS users across the country to come together to share best practice and hear the latest industry news.

The Ditate.IT stand was manned by two Dictate.IT Account Managers, Carl Downing and Hassnain Shah who were offering visitors to the stand the chance to try our speech recognition solution for themselves.

No Hidden Costs – Customer Support

Dive into the fourth installment of our ‘No Hidden Costs’ series as we tackle a crucial element that often comes with unexpected costs: Customer Support.

We’re all too familiar with the frustration of navigating through endless automated menus or waiting on hold, only to be met with a representative who doesn’t fully grasp the issue. But did you know that some digital dictation solutions actually charge extra for these customer services?

In the healthcare sector, where time is of the essence and patient care can’t wait, this is particularly concerning. And it gets more convoluted when dealing with providers who are merely resellers. These intermediaries can often only handle low-level queries, forcing you into a lengthy and frustrating process of raising tickets and getting updates.

However, with Dictate.IT, you’re never alone.

Our dedicated support team consists of trained professionals who understand not just our product, but the healthcare environment you operate in. We strive to resolve any hitches quickly, ensuring minimal disruption to your practice. And yes, there’s no extra fee for our top-tier support. Why? Because we believe that stellar customer service isn’t an “add-on.” It’s fundamental to the experience we promise and provide.

Our knowledgeable team is readily available via email, web-chat, or phone, and we’re always happy to screen-share and talk you through our solutions to ensure you’re getting the most from Dictate.IT

With Dictate.IT, you’re not just purchasing a product; you’re investing in a partnership. Our transparent pricing, including the unmatched £23 per month for Swift and £30 with Live, covers it all. No hidden fees, no surprises.

Stay connected for our final piece in this series which will elucidate the comprehensive value Dictate.IT brings to the table. If you missed our previous posts on microphones, training, and updates, be sure to catch up on those as well!

No Hidden Costs – Licences

What do we mean when we say that our speech recognition and digital dictation solutions have no hidden costs?

This is the fourth article in our ‘No hidden costs’ series, where we’ll be detailing 5 areas that you shouldn’t be paying extra for – or paying for at all – when you have a speech recognition or digital dictation solution at your practice. In this post, we’ll be talking about licences.

Charging a licence price per user is a common model, and one we use ourselves here at Dictate.IT. Our clinical correspondence workflow tool, Swift, is available for £23 per month, per user. If you add Live, our dictate-to-cursor solution, that price is £30 per month, per user.

However, we recognise that ‘authors’, i.e. users that dictate, are utilising the products the most, and we therefore don’t charge for administrative licences. So, if you have a practice of 5 clinicians and 3 administrators, you’ll only pay for 5 licences.

This is particularly relevant with our clinical correspondence workflow tool, Swift. Free of charge administrator licences have full access to the solution and can view and edit letters as required.

So, when you’re looking for a solution at your Practice, it’s worth considering the total cost of licences, rather than the individual licence price. It’s another reason we can say that our pricing is unrivalled.

Keep an eye out for final article, which will detail what else in included in our licence price. And if you’ve not read our first three articles, about microphones, training and updates, go back and read them, too!

No Hidden Costs – Updates

What do we mean when we say that our speech recognition and digital dictation solutions have no hidden costs? 

This is the third article in our ‘No hidden costs’ series, where we’ll be detailing 5 areas that you shouldn’t be paying extra for – or paying for at all – when you have a speech recognition or digital dictation solution at your practice. In this post, we’ll be talking about updates. 

It’s common for apps and tech solutions to include upgrades to the service as standard. But this hasn’t been the case in healthcare technology, and we want to change that.  

We have development teams constantly working on enhancing the solutions that we offer, whether that’s adding new features or researching the industry to ensure our products continue to serve healthcare teams effectively. 

Our solutions come with mobile apps at no extra cost – we don’t believe in charging for convenience. 

When you purchase Dictate.IT’s speech recognition and digital dictation solutions you pay one price, which includes all the functionality of our product. So not only are there no hidden costs, but our pricing is unrivalled as a result. 

If you want to know what we mean by unrivalled prices – our clinical correspondence workflow tool, Swift, is available for £23 per month, per user. If you add Live, our dictate-to-cursor solution, that price is £30 per month, per user. 

Keep an eye out for our next two articles, which will detail what else in included in that price. And if you’ve not read our first two articles, about microphones and training, go back and read them, too! 

No Hidden Costs – Training

What do we mean when we say that our speech recognition and digital dictation solutions have no hidden costs?

This is the second article in our ‘No hidden costs’ series, where we’ll be detailing 5 areas that you shouldn’t be paying extra for – or paying for at all – when you have a speech recognition or digital dictation solution at your practice. In this post, we’ll be talking about training.

Training can be costly, both financially and by taking up significant time within your practice. Dictate.IT offers intuitive speech recognition and digital dictation solutions, as well as accessible training resources.

Many speech recognition solutions require voice training, meaning time needs to be invested into the software before it’s able to accurately transcribe text. Dictate.IT’s speech recognition solutions require no voice training and are 99% accurate from first use. Once you have been given your login details and completed our easy install process, you can be dictating within seconds.

Our product is designed specifically for medical terminology ensuring confidence in correct spelling of medicines, treatments and procedures.

Suppliers of speech recognition and digital dictation solutions often charge for training time, during which Practice team members will be shown how to use the products. Here at Dictate.IT, we’ll happily train your staff and support you fully throughout the trial while you get up-to-speed, for absolutely no extra cost.

Besides, training required for Dictate.IT’s speech recognition and digital dictation products is minimal – our solutions are intuitive and simple to use. We pride ourselves on our customer focused approached and have designed our dictation solutions to be as intuitive as possible, as confirmed by one of our customers:

“GP’s all agree the dictation software is the best we’ve used, intuitive and could be used with little training.”

Simon Bagley, IT Manager, The Ridgeway Surgery

Keep an eye out for our next three articles, which will detail what else in included in our pricing. And if you’ve not read our first article, about microphones, go back and read that, too!

No Hidden Costs – Microphones

What do we mean when we say that our speech recognition and digital dictation solutions have no hidden costs?

This is the first article in our ‘No hidden costs’ series, where we’ll be detailing 5 areas that you shouldn’t be paying extra for – or paying for at all – when you have a speech recognition or digital dictation solution at your practice. In this post, we’ll be talking about microphones.

Many speech recognition and digital dictation providers require the purchase of specific, and often costly, microphones for use with their products, in order to get the most accurate recognition. This additional equipment can double the cost of the software and render the solutions ineffective if not purchased. It’s a hidden cost that you don’t consider when procuring a digital solution.

Which is why there’s no specific hardware required with any Dictate.IT solution. Our speech recognition and digital dictation tools either integrate with existing equipment, or utilise the microphone on your mobile phone using our free app. Modern mobile phones have excellent microphones built-in, so there’s no need for expensive equipment when you likely already have a great solution sitting on your desk. It also means no more fighting with your colleagues for equipment that’s in short supply, especially when they’ve taken it home accidently.

If you would prefer a headset or microphone however, we suggest you get a reasonably-priced one on the internet. There’s no need to spend hundreds of pounds – it’s simply not necessary.

But how can we do this when others can’t? Our speech recognition solution is AI-powered and intuitive. It’s designed to understand medical terminology. As long as you’re in a reasonably quiet place and you speak clearly, the speech engine is 99% accurate using a mobile phone or microphone.

And talking of those unrivalled prices – our clinical correspondence workflow tool, Swift, is available for £23 per month, per user. If you add Live, our dictate-to-cursor solution, that price is £30 per month, per user.

Keep an eye out for our next 4 articles, which will detail what else in included in that price.

Dictate.IT Attends Primary Care and Public Health 2023

Dictate.IT attended Primary Care and Public Health 2023 at the NEC Birmingham, on Wednesday 17th – Thursday 18th May 2023.

This was Dictate.IT’s first year attending Primary Care and Public Health, the UK’s leading event for NHS and private clinicians working in primary and community care. 2023 was the shows 31st year and the theme was Showcasing Innovation and Best Practice in Primary and Community Care.

Visitors to the Dictate.IT stand had the chance to try the speech recognition solution for themselves, plus a chance to win a Fortum & Mason hamper worth £140 or 2 months of the speech recognition solution completely free.

Dictate.IT was extremely honoured to be awarded ‘Best Small Stand’ by the event organisers on the second day of the show, with the win being credited to the stand design and upbeat manner of the Dictate.IT team members.

We couldn’t be happier with how our first year at Primary Care and Public Health went – we met lots of clinicians that are struggling with the growing administration burden faced by healthcare teams. It was a pleasure to show them a genuine solution to some of these challenges. It was also a real surprise to win Best Small Stand, we were all very proud.

Siobhan Moll, UK Marketing Manager, Clanwilliam

10 Things to Consider When Implementing Speech Recognition at Your Practice

As speech recognition becomes more popular within general practice, it can be hard to know what to look for when selecting a solution. Whichever solution you decide to use, make sure you consider these 10 important factors ahead of implementation.

  1. Integration: The speech recognition solution you choose should be compatible with any existing systems in use within the Practice, from the clinical system (like EMIS or SystmOne) to Microsoft programmes like Word and Outlook.
  2. Hardware: Some speech recognition solutions will require specific hardware, which may require additional cost and time to implement throughout the Practice. It may be more efficient to select a solution that can be used with existing microphones, foot pedals and headsets. If you don’t have existing hardware, select a solution that comes with a mobile app that can utilise the phone’s microphone.
  3. Accuracy: Trial the speech recognition solution for at least a couple of weeks before you commit to a purchase. The solution should have accuracy rates above 98%, especially for medical terminology. It should also have the ability to understand all accents, so make sure you test out the solution on a variety of different team members.
  4. Costs: It’s important to get more than one quote and compare ‘hidden’ costs, such as upgrades, hardware (as mentioned above), training and ongoing support. Another consideration is exactly who you have to pay to have access to the solution – at Dictate.IT we only charge for clinical users, for example.
  5. Word of mouth: Find out what other Practices are using, or ask potential solution providers for contact details of existing customers that you can speak to.
  6. Usability: Practice staff are busy enough without needing to spend hours understanding the quirks of a new system. An intuitive, user-friendly solution will also ensure maximum buy-in across the Practice. Equally, you don’t want the solution to be so basic that it’s not useful – check for helpful workflow features, such as canned text and voice navigation.
  7. Training: Not only should you receive training on how to use the product, but it’s important to understand how much voice training is required before the speech recognition is accurate. Some providers, like Dictate.IT, require no voice training.
  8. Access: Solutions can either be server- or cloud-based, so consider which would suit your Practice the best. Server-based will likely only be accessible from one computer in one location, which might not be appropriate for GP’s that work from more than one Practice. Cloud-based solutions can be accessed from anywhere using a login via a web browser.
  9. Security: Any solution that you implement within your Practice should comply with NHS security standards and ensure that patient data is safe and secure.
  10. How to best spend all the time you’ll be saving!