Time to upgrade to Read&Write 11.5 – It’s now Windows 10 Ready

Have you considered updating your Read&Write for Windows software to version 11.5?

This update provides even more ways for Windows users to access Read&Write – including in the new Windows 10 operating system, the Windows Edge browser, Office 365 in Edge and on high resolution devices and tablets.

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Read&Write 11.5 is now fully compatible with the new Windows 10 operating system, which was released earlier this summer and is now supported in the Edge browser. This means that Read&Write users can access tools like Text to Speech, Word Prediction, Dictionaries, Highlighters and other features from the Read&Write toolbar when they’re reading and working inside Edge. This is in addition to the existing support for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome,
 
Additionally, Read&Write 11.5 is now supported in Office 365 in Edge. As more and more internet users prefer the convenience of accessing their documents across devices with cloud-based services, loyal Microsoft users are transitioning to Office 365 and the Edge browser.   As schools move towards deploying Windows 10 and using Office 365 in the Edge browser, Read&Write for Windows will be there to provide reading and writing supports in this environment.

In addition to support for the new Windows operating system and browser, Read&Write 11.5 has now been optimised to work on devices with high resolution screens such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet.

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Now Read&Write can also better support users with visual impairments – content can be enlarged on your screen without affecting the look of the Read&Write features and toolbar.

This new update to Read&Write for Windows is available as a free, automatic update for all users that are using Version 11.5. You’ll get it right away if you turn on your automatic updates, or you can go to the ‘About’ box from your Read&Write toolbar and click the link to check for new updates there.

If you are running earlier versions (10.0 or 11.0) of Read&Write, please contact us to discuss pricing to upgrade to the latest version.

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Dragon Powers Professional Dictation and Documentation for PC, Mac, the Enterprise and Mobile Devices

Nuance Communications, Inc. have announced a new portfolio of Dragon speech recognition solutions, including the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app for iOS and Android, the new Dragon Professional Individual and Dragon for Mac desktop solutions, and Dragon Professional Group with the Nuance User Management Centre for group and corporate deployments.

These new products are, for the first time, enabling seamless synchronisation of key Dragon features across PC, Mac, iOS and Android through the cloud, ensuring that organisations and individual professionals can remain productive wherever work takes them, by accessing a consistent, customised dictation experience on any device.

Many companies, organisations and individual professionals across industries, including legal, public safety, social services and education, face critical, yet time-consuming documentation and reporting demands that too often lead to paperwork backlog, missed reporting deadlines or non-compliance. In addition, documentation inefficiencies can force professionals to focus too much time on typing and too little time on clients and core business activities that drive growth and profitability.

The innovative solutions in the new Dragon portfolio empower professionals and organisations to work smarter and more productively – in the office and on the go—with fast, accurate dictation and transcription, advanced customisation, seamless integration across devices, and centralised management of multi-user and enterprise deployments. As a result, professionals can complete documentation tasks more efficiently from any location with a personalised speech recognition experience customised to how they work and what they say.

“The time-consuming nature of documentation and paperwork can place considerable productivity constraints on organisations and individual professionals alike,” said Peter Mahoney, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Dragon. “By expanding our Dragon portfolio, we are extending the benefits of robust speech recognition and transcription across the workforce. Now, organisations can better manage their speech deployments, professionals can increase their productivity in the office, and field workers can complete their documentation in a more timely and convenient manner.”

Dragon for Groups and the Enterprise
The latest enterprise-ready Dragon solution includes Dragon Professional Group speech recognition software, Dragon Anywhere for mobile employees, the Nuance User Management Centre for centralised administration, usage tracking and license management. This complete solution can be deployed quickly and effectively to meet specific enterprise requirements and drive professional productivity across an organisation.

The new Nuance User Management Centre enables enterprises to track employee usage of Dragon Professional Group, redistribute licenses based on employee use, and manage or share customisations, including custom words, commands and auto-texts, across multiple Dragon users. Dragon Professional Group also supports Citrix virtualised environments for published applications. For added flexibility, Dragon Anywhere can be deployed and managed across an organisation as part of a corporate license, enabling enterprise customers to empower employees with professional-grade mobile dictation for significant productivity gains in the office or on the road.

Dragon Professional Individual
Dragon Professional Individual is an all-new version of Dragon for PC, enabling fast, easy and accurate dictation and transcription of documents, notes and reports with a fully customisable experience that optimises productivity at work. With advanced capabilities for customising words, automating repetitive tasks, and creating auto-texts to insert frequently-used text – all by voice – Dragon Professional Individual makes it easy to dictate, edit and format documents, spreadsheets, presentations or emails, fill out forms or simply reduce the physical stress of typing. Integration with the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app lets professionals continue documentation work—using all of their custom words and commands—on their desktop or mobile device for seamless productivity from any location.

Dragon for Mac
The new Dragon for Mac brings powerful, professional-grade speech recognition to Mac users. Upgraded with the latest Nuance speech recognition technology, it delivers greater speed and higher accuracy than previous Mac versions. In addition, a redesigned user interface makes it easier to access key features, get vocabulary recommendations, and add custom words and commands. Dragon for Mac enables professionals to dictate reports, spreadsheets, emails, and other documentation quickly and accurately, while advanced transcription converts any single-speaker audio file into an editable document. The ability to synchronize Dragon for Mac with the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app lets professionals continue working on documents at the office or on the road to be more productive anywhere.

Availability and Pricing
Dragon Professional Group and the Nuance User Management Centre will be available in English in the UK in late Autumn 2015.

Dragon Professional Individual will be available in English in the UK in late September 2015. Dragon Professional Individual is available to users upgrading from Dragon Premium, versions 12 and higher.

Dragon for Mac will be available in English in the UK in September 2015, with special upgrade pricing of for registered users of Dragon Dictate for Mac, versions 3 and higher.

Dragon Anywhere for iOS and Android will be available in English in the UK as a subscription-based application in late Autumn 2015.

Additional language versions of all Dragon products will be available later in 2015.

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Dragon Anywhere - Professional-grade dictation on your mobile devices

Nuance will shortly be releasing "Dragon Anywhere" which lets you dictate and edit documents by voice on your iOS or Android mobile device quickly and accurately so you can stay productive anywhere you go.

Dragon Anywhere offers fast dictation and high recognition accuracy that continually improves as it adapts to your voice. There is no time or length limits; speak as long as you want to, capturing all of the details needed for complete, accurate documentation.

It has robust voice formatting and editing options, including the ability to select words and sentences for editing or deletion.

You are able to voice navigate through fields of a report template and apply common formatting like underline and bold. There is support for auto-texts (frequently-used text passages) such as client or work order descriptions. You can also add custom words for industry-specific terminology for even better dictation accuracy.

Other features include simple importing and exporting to and from popular cloud document-sharing tools like Dropbox and note-taking apps like Evernote.

Click here to see a demonstration.

Due for release in September/October 2015. Watch this space for further updates.

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Olympus DS-5500 digital recorder- £100 off RRP

We are pleased to announce the release of a new promotion on the Olympus DS-5500 digital recorder with ODMS software (for a limited time basis). The DS-5500 is based on the same established design of the DS-5000 and was previously only available as a System Edition Kit, however is now also available with ODMS (Olympus Dictation Management System). 

The DS-5500 offers users the highest professional features, specifications and encryption levels. To support the limited release of the DS-5500 with ODMS, until 30 October 2015 we are promoting the product with a cost saving of £100 off of SSP. 

The DS‑5500 is the perfect solution for mid‑sized companies who want to benefit from a mobile and professional speech processing solution. It comprises reliability, security and simplicity at a level which professionals desire. 

This device is designed for professional dictation to turn speech into text. The slide switch allows the user to dictate without looking at the device to be able to focus on the content. Digital Dictation is made simple and secure.

The Digital Voice Recorder is in a full metal body with a reliable slide switch for simple operation. File Editing allows Overwrite/ Insert/ Append and the device lock function is via PIN with 256‑bit AES File Encryption. There is 2GB internal memory plus and External SD Card Slot.

The DS-5500 is supplied a Docking Cradle, AC Adapter, SD Card, Micro SD Card, Carry Case, Ni-Mh Rechargeable Battery, USB Cable and ODMS Software – Dictation Module.

Further information & pricing click here.

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Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 support for Windows 10

On 29 July 2015, Microsoft officially began releasing its latest operating system, Windows 10. According to Microsoft, Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade for qualified and genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 devices.

How does this relate to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13?
Nuance have confirmed that Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 is supported on Windows 10. Customers who have a qualified Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 device that already has Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 installed should be able to upgrade to Windows 10 without needing to re-install DNS 13. Similarly, customers who upgrade to Windows 10 should be able to subsequently install DNS 13 without issue.

Are there any known issues running Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 on Windows 10?
Windows 10 has two main modes: desktop mode and tablet mode. In desktop mode, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 should work with all previously supported applications. In tablet mode, where applications become viewable as full screen, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 should also continue to function normally with previously supported applications. There may be some cosmetic variances in the behaviour of the DragonBar, and some UI elements, such as the Learning Center, may appear in full screen mode. These issues should not impact the use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13.

Nuance are currently investigating the use of certain voice commands with Outlook 2013, which can cause Outlook to freeze. Customers can continue to dictate into Outlook 2013 using full text control without issue. Nuance will provide more detail regarding the use of voice commands with Outlook 2013 in additional support documents. Other supported versions of Outlook should work as expected with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 on Windows 10.

How will Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 work with new Windows 10 applications, such as the new Edge browser or Universal apps?
Edge is a new browser from Microsoft that comes with Windows 10. Microsoft has not published any APIs for developers such as Nuance that would enable them to do advanced integration with Edge. As a result, customers can do basic dictation into edit controls in an Edge browser but they may not be able use full text controls or other advanced voice commands. DNS 13 supports alternate browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Chrome, on Windows 10 with the same level of functionality provided on Windows 7 and 8/8.1. Universal apps are the successor to Metro apps in Windows 8/8.1. Dragon Naturally Speaking 13 will provide the same level of basic dictation support for Universal apps on Windows 10 as it did for Metro apps in Windows 8/8.1.

Windows 10 has new or modified features, such as the new Start menu, that were not available in Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1. As a result, customers may not be able to use voice commands to control the new features in Windows 10.

Will Nuance be providing a patch or update for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 on Windows 10?
Nuance are very pleased with the performance of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 on Windows 10.  They are continuing to evaluate Windows 10 and will notify customers if there are any planned updates.

Conclusion
Although Nuance are initially confirming that Windows 10 should work with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 (with the caveats noted above), further testing needs to be carried out on an operating system that only been fully released about 7 days before we start recommending it as a fully compatible operating system.

Historically, when Windows 7 was first released, there were some teething problems with Dragon's stability in this new environment. A Dragon patch was then released which addressed a lot of the issues end-users were reporting and internal Nuance testing (over a period of the first few weeks/months on the Windows 7 life cycle) uncovered.

If you are using a mission-critical PC or application, our current advice is to stick to Windows 7 or 8 until further compatibility information is released regarding Windows 10.

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UK Study reveals Clinicians Spend More than 50% of their Working Day Dealing with Clinical Documentation

 - 1 in 4 clinical documents do not include the detailed information they need when they need it -

The first report in the UK of its kind to measure the impact of inaccurate and incomplete clinical documentation on patient care, clinicians and Health Trust operating costs, has been published by Nuance Communications. The report, entitled ‘The Clinical Documentation Challenge,’ uses the ‘Business Value of IT’ methodology to identify, measure and monetise the value of clinical documentation challenges.

The research, conducted by independent research company Ignetica, focused on a comprehensive map of core clinical pathways for acute providers, identifying the many different clinical documentation types that impact clinicians and patients. The research included interviews with Chief Clinical Information Officers, as well as perception surveys undertaken with doctors, nurses, therapists and allied roles from four acute Health Trusts, thus reflecting the span of acute care across NHS England.

5 Top Highlights from the Research Revealed:
1. 50% or more of a doctor´s time is spent on clinical documentation processes;
2. 52 minutes per day is spent searching for information;
3. In 27% of instances of reviewing clinical documentation, the required information was not available or had insufficient detail/clarity at the time required:

~ 41% of these instances can be directly attributed to the completeness of medical notes
~ 11.5 hours per week is spent adding to clinical documentation
~ 68% or more of this time is generating narrative notes

4. 58% of the doctors highlighted that their notes were likely or very likely to be more complete if there was more time to spend on them;
5. The value of time searching for information is £19,474 per annum for senior doctors.

Understanding the true story of a person’s health is becoming increasingly critical, but it is also more complex than ever before. When clinical information is incomplete or inaccurate, the study found that multiple challenges can arise incurring additional work, process delays, potentially duplicated activities or risks associated with clinicians operating without the full information.

Commenting on the findings of ‘The Clinical Documentation Challenge’ Report, Peter Booth, CEO, Ignetica, stated: “While few would challenge the view that accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation is essential for integrated, effective, efficient and safe delivery of care, until today there has been little research, which extends through the patient and process factors to point to the wider economic implications. The research provides this insight for acute providers in England at a time when decisions made now about clinical documentation workflows will have implications for the quality of patient care and treatment in the future.”

Many Health Trusts are on the cusp of making significant technology investments in Electronic Patient Records (“EPRs”) and other e-health initiatives in order to boost productivity and to realise the vision of a paperless NHS by 2018, while ensuring that patient and care records are digital, real-time and interoperable by 2020.

“Clinicians are at the very eye of the storm,” notes Frederik Brabant, Chief Medical Information Officer, Nuance Healthcare EMEA. “They are being asked to change the way they practice, to use EPRs in ways like never before, and to document many more things in much greater detail – from clinical decision making, to patient access and for analytics by the Health Trust. In the transition to EPRs, it’s important to communicate the complete patient story and not get caught up in just checking the boxes. Patient information is the heartbeat of the healthcare system and this stems from physician narrative and structured text, which ultimately enables hospitals and health systems to provide better care.”

Nuance’s Healthcare solutions have the potential to improve the impacts described in the study. Nuance speech recognition solutions integrated into the EPR and other clinical documentation can help doctors, nurses and therapists to quickly and accurately capture the patient story at the point of care and transform it into meaningful, actionable information. Speech recognition can improve the completeness and accuracy of clinical documentation and help doctors, nurses and therapists to make better use of their precious time to focus on their patients.

Recently, Nuance conducted a 3,000-person survey across the U.S., UK and Germany. It found that while 97% of patients are comfortable with technology in healthcare, the clinician-patient relationship plays a primary role in the overall patient experience and keeping people satisfied and invested in their health. The results, published in an eBook, "Healthcare from the Patient Perspective", revealed the importance of clinicians establishing a personal connection with patients through eye contact, a handshake, a one on one conversation and privacy in the exam room. Findings demonstrated patients view technology as an enhancement that should play a supporting role in enhancing communication and information related to their healthcare.

Downloads of the reports discussed are available here:
"The Clinical Documentation Challenge"
"Healthcare from the Patient Perspective"

Freedom of Speech Ltd is a Dragon Medical Advantage Partner and provides many healthcare solutions (and associated services) that contribute to improvements in the quality of patient information captured, reduced turnaround times and increased productivity whilst at the same time saving Health Trusts money. Contact us for more information, solution demonstrations and pricing:

Call      | 01903 263007
Web     | www.freedomofspeech.co.uk
E-mail | info@freedomofspeech.co.uk

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Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 - New product launch!

Helps doctors meet the challenges of retaining a focus on the patient despite increasing workloads and to achieve more efficient and profitable practices and clinics

LONDON, UK, May 12, 2015 – Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced the UK English version of Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3, a front-end, real-time speech recognition solution for a single user working within primary care practices and clinics and hospital departmental working groups. It has been designed to be easy to deploy and is rich in end-user features while boosting information capture directly in departmental information systems or Electronic Patient Records (EPRs). Supporting more than 60 specialised medical vocabularies and the customised needs of practices and clinics, Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 helps doctors improve productivity and document specialised care and medical decisions faster and more accurately.

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 makes it easier for doctors to document care into medical records using their voice, by enabling them to capture the complete patient story at the point of care whilst at the same time quickly and easily navigating through the EPR using speech. This enables them to remain focused on their patient during the consultation, improving the quality and completeness of the patient note while saving the doctor valuable time. With Dragon boasting accuracy rates of up to 99 per cent, doctors can dictate medical notes three times faster into an EPR, helping them save 30-60 minutes a day through a more streamlined process.

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 is powered by the same award-winning Dragon Medical speech recognition technology used by more than 350,000 clinicians worldwide including within the largest, most advanced healthcare providers. Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 has been designed to turn medical dictation into text faster and more accurately with significant improvements in out-of-the-box accuracy over previous versions, while a newly designed DragonBar takes up less on-screen space when not in use.

As pressures mount in Primary Care to deliver more services for patients away from hospitals and closer to home - where patients want and need care - Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3 is a productivity and quality tool that can positively impact a doctor’s daily workload, the patient experience and the efficient running of a Practice or clinic.

Commenting on Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3, Dr. Alastair Dickson, GP and Health Economist, said: “Because it is easier and quicker to talk than to type patient notes created using Dragon Medical tend to be much more comprehensive and detailed, and I am better able to keep my appointments running to time. To keep up with the volume of correspondence and test results GP comments have tended to be quite short and to the point. Now that patients are starting to have access to their electronic medical records this brevity could sometimes cause the recipient anxiety. Thanks to Dragon Medical Practice Edition 3, now I can issue messages that are more informative. This allows me to give my patients the information they need faster and without the need for an appointment, freeing up space to see more patients and reducing demand for appointments. Using Dragon Medical reduces stress on the GP.”

For further information and pricing, visit our product page.

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