The goal of this study was to evaluate the recognition rate, learning poten
tial and amount of time needed to complete a report with the Philips; speec
h recognition system SP 6000 (Philips, Best, The Netherlands). Four radiolo
gists dictated reports of interventional radiology, MRI examinations of the
musculoskeletal system and CT examinations of, the thorax and abdomen with
the Philips system using the German language. The recognition rate of each
report and improvement rate after each learning phase of the Philips syste
m was assessed. The time needed to complete a report using the Philips syst
em was then compared with the time needed to complete Ea report using the t
ape-based system via a time analysis. The average recognition rate for the
four radiologists using the Philips system was 79.6%, which improved to 92.
5% after the third adaptation. Initially, the average time demand to dictat
e and correct one report was approximately 16.8 min, but this time decrease
d to 8.1 min after the third adaptation. In contrast, only 3.6 min were nee
ded to dictate and correct one report using the tape-based system. However,
with the speech recognition system, dictation, correction and transcriptio
n of the report can be completed within 15 min, whereas with the tape-based
system, it takes nearly 1 day. With the Philips system, speech recognition
can reach as high as 95% since each adaptation of the system improves the
recognition rate by approximately 5%. While the Philips system is associate
d with longer dictation times than the tape-based system, turn-around time
for a complete report is substantially shorter with the Philips system than
the tape-based system.