Automatic speech recognition for report generation in computed tomography.

Purpose: A study was performed to compare the performance of automatic spee ch recognition (ASR) with conventional transcription. Materials and Methods : 100 CT reports were generated by using ASR and 100 CT reports were dictat ed and written by medical transcriptionists. The time for dictation and cor rection of errors by the radiologist was assessed and the type of mistakes was analysed. The text recognition rate was calculated in both groups and t he average time between completion of the imaging study by the technologist and generation of the written report was assessed. A commercially availabl e speech recognition technology (ASKA Software, IBM ViaVoice) running on a personal computer was used. Results: The time for the dictation using digit al voice recognition was 9.4 +/- 2.3 min compared to 4.5 +/- 3.6 min with a n ordinary Dictaphone. The text recognition rate was 97% with digital Voice recognition and 99% with medical transcriptionists. The average time from imaging completion to written report finalisation was reduced from 47.3 hou rs with medical transcriptionists to 12.7 hours with ASR. The analysis of m isspellings demonstrated (ASR vs, medical transcriptionists): 3 vs. 4 for s yntax errors, 0 vs. 37 orthographic mistakes, 16 vs. 22 mistakes in substan ce and 47 vs. erroneously applied terms. Conclusion: The use of digital voi ce recognition as a replacement for medical transcription is recommendable when an imediate availability of written reports is necessary.