Ditching the tapes: Philips SpeechPro digital dictation

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2007. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

Key points: Ease of use. No hunting for tapes and Dictaphones. Could be used over separate sites. Cost: depends on size of system. Availability: available from Philips distributors.

In theory at least, you should always have a reason to introduce a change, particularly an IT one, as history shows us that sometimes the IT solution is actually harder than the paper one that went before it. Some products are solutions in need of a problem. However, it was a desire to work better that made me look at this project.

For some time I had been unhappy at the way we dictated. We now have 15 doctors, and finished tapes were put in a basket with the date on. Some would dictate during consultations or at the end of surgery and leave a tape with a few on. Others like me put it off and did a whole load at once, perhaps once a week. Letters weren’t getting done in the order that the patient was being seen, and often there was quite some time from dictation to signing. Also there wasn’t an easy way of prioritising letters other than putting them on a separate tape and marking them as such. There was also the usual scramble to find tapes and possibilities of them going missing or batteries running out in the machine. You never seemed to have a tape when you needed one. Another concern was no real way of knowing how efficiently the secretaries were working other than looking at the basket, which was always full.

There are a couple of products on the market, and we approached a local company who had sold software to nearby surgeries. Lexacom was one option, but we were informed that for our size the Philips solution was cheaper and more flexible. A Philips SpeechPro microphone is attached to every computer by USB port, and we also purchased two digital hand machines, as a couple of partners were adamant that they wanted to still take work home. Interestingly, they seem to have stopped this. You can get a machine like an answer machine that you ring from home and it takes down the dictation, and this would work well if you did a lot from home or worked from multiple sites. We were offered a free trial for a month, and the salesman told us no one has ever asked for it to go back.

To use it, press the record button, then you can cut and paste the details into the name field and fill in any other information you want. It has all the usual features - forwards, rewind, record, play - and you can record over things. You can also insert things without wiping what is there. The quality is excellent, and after pressing the end button - once for normal, two times for high priority - the dictation has gone and is waiting to be typed. In theory you don’t even have to be on the same site. You can see an overview of all the work waiting to be done or filter for yours. The secretaries can also split the work more easily, with perhaps the more experienced taking the longer letters or doing medical reports. You can even open the dictations again before they have been typed, in case you want to change or add something.

I like never having to look for a machine or tape, which means my letters tend to get done straight away and thus typed quicker. It required little training and is so well liked that even one of my change-resistant partners has been heard to praise it. We also feel we have a better view of what the secretaries are doing, as you can see where the secretaries are up to and check if things have been done.

Declaration, added 2026: this piece mentions Lexacom as a rival product. I had no connection to them in 2007; I’m now their Medical Director.