SAN DIEGO – The University of California's San Diego Medical Center will expand its use of speech-recognition technology to several facilities, allowing physicians to include real-time speech recognition in documenting electronic health records.

The voice-based technology will make it possible for physicians to document patient encounters for the EHR without the need for medical transcription or reliance on typing and mouse navigation.

Medical center executives have selected Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance Communications' Dragon Medical software.

"We selected Dragon Medical as a tool for our physicians as they work within our EHR system," said Ed Babakanian, CIO of UCSD Medical Center. "At UCSD Medical Center, speech recognition has become an important component of our EHR implementation, allowing doctors to accurately capture the patient encounter information. Speech recognition has helped physicians get information online faster, which has shown benefits from a productivity perspective and in terms of communication timeliness, which in turn has also helped improve the delivery and quality of patient care."

UCSD Medical Center has been using Dragon Medical for three years. Approximately 170 physicians are using the technology, and more are being trained to use the software. By employing Dragon Medical alongside its Epic EHR system, Babakanian said, the medical center has seen a noticeable improvement in provider efficiency, and with reduced reliance on medical transcription officials expect significant, ongoing cost savings.

With more than 100,000 physicians using Dragon Medical to dictate patient information into EHRs, speech recognition is increasingly recognized as an essential component to successful EHR rollout, say Nuance executives. Speech-supported EHRs have been proven to make clinicians up to 25 percent more efficient than those using non-speech-enabled EHRs, according to the company.

According to a survey completed by 1,255 physicians who have adopted Nuance's Dragon Medical, 69 percent said it made their EHR faster and easier to use, 83 percent said it improved the quality of their electronic patient notes and 81 percent said it significantly reduced transcription spending.

"While EHRs are at the forefront of the healthcare information technology agenda, adoption is lagging with less than 2 percent of U.S. hospitals having fully switched to EHRs," said John Shagoury, president of Nuance Healthcare. "UCSD Medical Center is ahead of the curve with its use of EHRs. By providing physicians with multiple documentation options, including speech recognition within the EHR system, the facility is positioned for increased physician utilization of the technology as well as improved provider efficiency and more complete clinical documentation."