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Improving mobility and convenience of dictation for ophthalmologists

The facts

The customer
Australian Eye Specialists, Melbourne, Australia
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Philips partner
VoiceX Communications
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Australian Eye Specialists, in Western Melbourne, provide eye care that improves their patients’ quality of life. Established in 2014, the specialists offer excellent patient care using advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies.


Operating with a team of doctors from two locations, the specialists are required to dictate and transcribe their daily correspondence. They needed a workflow solution that is flexible, easy to use and supports a cohesive environment between the two offices without risking any loss of information.

The dictation workflow of the past

Their previous workflow was more of an IT headache than a documentation system. Vesna Corelli, the Practice Manager, explained the difficulty she faced on the previous workflow infrastructure: “The specialists were using mainly voice recorders for their dictations which were then downloaded on the computer. Afterwards it went into a shared Drive. There were times when we would lose our files while transferring them from one Drive to the other. Or if we only had one voice recorder for multiple specialists and they were taking turns to dictate, it would overwrite the dictations. If any of the dictations went missing during these transfers, then all the dictations would be lost for that day.”  

Dr. Nandor Jaross, the principal ophthalmologist, spoke of his experience on the process workflow: “The uploading of the documents from an author’s end was very cumbersome. It was very slow at times and not user-friendly, if I was trying to work remotely.”  

We do need to be mobile these days. So wherever I travel, and I am waiting for a flight, I find a quiet place to do my dictations on my smartphone app, and I upload the recordings for my typists to access those files straightaway.

Dr. Nandor Jaross
Principal ophthalmologist

Philips SpeechLive solution for easy correspondence and no backlogs

Post-implementation of SpeechLive, the solution has helped to improve the workflow turnaround significantly. Vesna enthused: “SpeechLive was the best thing that happened to our practice.” She explained that even though Dr. Jaross uses Philips SpeechLive on his smartphone, the rest of the team still uses traditional voice recorders.  An automated upload to SpeechLive from the voice recorder is done via the uploader client that forms part of the SpeechLive solution. The browser-based management makes the admin tasks more convenient to handle. As the designated workflow administrator, Vesna can now easily define the authors and typists. It has significantly reduced their documentation backlog. Vesna said: “We’re now up-to-date with our patient letters.  We haven’t had anything in the backlog for more than a day or two.” 

Previously it used to take Vesna two to three weeks to send the patient findings and letters to respective correspondents. “Our referrers love it that they will get the correspondence within a short time, whereas it was taking weeks before. So, that’s a massive improvement.”

Flexibility to do dictations from everywhere

An ophthalmologist like Dr. Jaross often deals with a high number of patients with varied level of acute conditions each day. The accuracy of the patient records is essential not only for record-keeping but also for consulting with other medical professionals. To avoid delays and backlogs, the specialists must spend less time creating documents – a goal that is supported by mobile dictation. Dr. Jaross stressed on the importance of mobility in the medical profession: “We do need to be mobile these days. So wherever I travel, and I am waiting for a flight, I find a quiet place to do my dictations on my smartphone app, and I upload the recordings for my typists to access those files straightaway. This way, I can be like a road warrior armed with SpeechLive. It’s fantastic!” 

Easy plug and play for support staff

Not only the doctors benefit from the flexibility  but the supporting teams as well. Rina Caruana, who supports the specialists of the Australian Eye Specialists clinics, mentions that the solution has been straightforward to implement: “The dictations are automatically available and I don’t have to do anything extra. It has made my work a lot easier and faster.” Rina and the other support staff use the Philips foot control and ergonomically designed headphones while doing their transcription work. “It’s just plug and play, really. We were briefed on how to use it once and were able to start using the solution straight away.” 

Vesna explains that the improvement in productivity was immediate. The solution is now vital for the practice to be able to produce the correspondence back to the referrers: “The transition to SpeechLive was easy and fast because you have the software on the phone and don’t require any additional device. Dr. Jaross uses the app exclusively because it’s so easy. It’s on his phone, and he can look at the patient’s chart and dictate on the spot. Before, I needed to keep spare voice recorders in the practice to accommodate other doctors.”

The support staff is no longer required to be in the office to transcribe. Philips SpeechLive is a web browser-based workflow management solution, and the dictation files can be accessed from any location. It doesn’t require any stand-alone computer or any additional software to configure the system. For employees like Rina, it allows her to work from home and retain the same workflow functionality.  

Speech-to-text technology is becoming an efficiency Driver for medical practitioners. Due to the complex nature of their work and the high patient volume, it can accommodate the changing requirements by saving time on the paperwork while prioritizing patient care. 

More satisfied customers

“The program is extremely easy to use and user-friendly. I honestly wouldn’t change anything. The upload process and labeling are as easy as it gets.“

Steve Dillard, Corporal, Gillette Police Department, Wyoming, USA

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“Keeping my IT systems constantly up to date and reinvesting every three months was simply time-consuming. I wanted a cloud solution that was maintenance-free and easy to use.“

Matthias Kucera, Lawyer, Hard, Austria

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“Lockdown prompted the change, but the versatility offered by SpeechLive is something we didn’t know we were missing.“

Adrian Barker, IT Manager, Ison Harrison Solicitors, UK

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“In the case of an urgent dictation, I send it with a red indicator and I can monitor it by simply consulting the software, to find out when it has been dealt with and by which secretary.“

Anne-Sophie Vérité, Laywer

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