HIPAA Compliant Dictation Software

With HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, in effect, medical dictators and transcriptionists have to be wary with the use or exchange of patients' Protected Health Information (PHI) in their dictation transmissions. As a medical transcriptionist (MT), they have to maintain the privacy of every patient record being transcribed.

To protect patient confidentiality, it is recommended that your computer comes with at least the following:

• Firewall protection with solid password protection for user accounts
• Regular Windows or MAC updates for computer security
• Up-to-date antivirus software
• File encryption software (e.g., Dial Dictate, Web Dictate, or Express Dictate)

The recent stimulus plan (or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) included a specific act — called the HITECH Act (or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) which has specific requirements for the electronic transmission of patients' health information. For this reason, NCH Software has created a medical user version for its dictation software applications which integrate seemlessly with Express Scribe on the transcription side to maintain patient privacy through the transcription process.

Dial Dictate: HIPAA-compliant encryption to secure medical patient data when recording as .dct files.
Express Dictate: Supports HIPAA-compliant encryption, perfect to secure patient or client data for transmission over the Internet.
Web Dictate: Recording can be HIPAA-compliant encrypted for privacy and security.

Given that medical transcriptionists receive, send, and store confidential patient data, it's vital they recognize and adhere to HIPAA rules on privacy, security, and confidentiality. If this is accomplished, patient records are secured, data efficiency is obtained, and more importantly customer confidence is increased.

HIPAA offers a set of strict guidelines for protecting patients' privacy and information. Seeing as a lot of health organizations utilize NCH Software for dictating and transcribing medical records, we have carefully considered the best way to sustain these guidelines. MTs can rest assured that NCH Software will assist them in paving the way to a HIPAA-compliant future.

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Star Trek Software and Technology

The blogosphere has been inundated lately with people talking about the Star Trek 45th anniversary, and I have to admit I have been intrigued with some of the coverage, like the Star Trek Gadgets That Are No Longer Fiction list that Mashable put out, which is what leads me to software. It is absolutely amazing to think of how far software and technology has taken us in its short lifetime. How much longer before all of our once wildest fantasies become possible?

The computer on the deck of the Enterprise that answers to voice commands always seemed so convenient. We are approaching this type of technology already with voice activation. We've already seen voice activation being used with programs like Express Dictate. And we certainly take our technology with us by loading apps to our cell phones and tablets (see our pocket software including WavePad audio editor for the iPhone and iPad), not to be confused with communicators, tricorders audio the pad of the star fleet. We might not have transporters or replicators just yet, but new hardware and software is being created every day, so I can't help but wonder how close to the mark we will make it by the time we really do reach the 24th century.

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Voice Command Dictation

Did you know that you can set up custom voice commands to control dictation recording in Express Dictate? Express Dictate works with your computer's speech recognition engine so you can have hands-free control while dictating to write notes, flip through files, or to just relax a little.

To set up this feature you first need to configure your computer's speech recognition engine. Express Dictate requires a SAPI 5 compatible speech engine—but don’t worry if you don't know what this means—if you have either Windows Vista or Windows 7 you already have a speech engine that meets this requirement. To configure your speech engine, go to your system’s control panel (found from the Windows Start menu) and click Ease of Access, then Speech Recognition Options, then Start Speech Recognition. You’ll go through guided steps that will teach your computer to recognize your voice and accent.

Once you have finished that, Express Dictate will also be able to recognize your voice. To set up your custom dictation commands, open the Voice Commands tab in the Options dialog of Express Dictate and make sure the Enable voice commands box is checked. Click the Add button to create a new command, type in the spoken phrase you want Express Dictate to recognize and select the command it should trigger from the pull-down list by clicking in the Command column. Try to select voice commands that you aren't likely to use while dictating to avoid any unwanted program activity, yet specific enough that you will remember what they refer to. Once you're done, starting to record can be as easy as simply saying "Record."

To try out the new speech commands for yourself, download Express Dictate dictation software today and enjoy the added freedom of having hands-free control.

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To Droid, Or Not To Droid?

Whether or not to make any of our programs for Android phones and if so which ones has been a big question floating around NCH for a while now, and one that we have been going back forth on. And after the release of WavePad for the iPhone the question is at the forefront again. As the debate rages in the company I want to know what you think about having NCH applications for your Android phone.

No matter how you look at it, it is a significant commitment to begin development for a new platform. We do have a strong desire to have a full range of products, especially in areas like our dictation software where we are already offering a breadth of so users can choose what works best for them, which makes Android development seems like a natural addition. But on the other side of the coin there is concern that there won't be enough demand to justify the development expense.

Some projections estimate that Android will be the market leader by 2012, but the growth has been so fast it is hard to know if it will really have the lasting power. Is it possible that Android will fall out of favor given time and become only a minor player like Palm is now? Or is Android really here to stay?

I would love to see a developer begin work on Express Dictate for the Android, but I do have to admit it is hard to know if there is enough demand for that, or other NCH Android applications, to make it worthwhile. And with early evidence suggesting that Android users are even less willing to pay for applications than iPhone users, it is sadly just that much harder to justify the development commitment with potential returns such a question mark.

So I want to know. Would you use or even pay a small fee for a new version of Express Dictate for your Android phone? Would having WavePad on your Droid make your world more complete? Since demand is one is one of our biggest concerns I can't help but ask, who out there is just itching to have dictation software for their Android phone?

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Dictation & Transcription Software–A Powerful Duo

If you are a lawyer where the law is on the line, or have any other reason why you just can't rely on an automated speech-to-text system guessing at your speech there are still ways you can use technology to help streamline and improve the dictation/transcription process in your office.

Choose from a variety of ways to record dictations: record straight into your computer, dock a portable digital recording device to your computer, or record dictations on the go from your iPhone, pocket PC or palm PDA and transfer completed dictations directly to your typist when you're done. See our complete range of dictation software options to find the solution that works best for you.

On the other side of the coin, we also provide Express Scribe free transcription software. Express Scribe allows transcriptionists to easily manage the files sent from any of the many dictation software options, and provides valuable time saving features for completing transcriptions efficiently, including variable speed playback and optional foot pedal control. Also be sure to check out our other software tools for typists.

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Florida Lawyer Reduces Paperwork and Cuts Administrative Costs with Express Dictate

If any job can claim to be buried in paperwork, it would certainly be the legal profession. Everything that is said related to any case must be documented, on the record, creating a constantly growing paper trail that can be hard to stay on top of. Just ask Richard Georges, a lawyer in St. Petersburg, Florida whose practice handles real property, corporate, wills, trusts and estates law.

“Dictating memos, correspondence, and mounds of paperwork is something that lawyers do all day, every day,” Georges said. He used to spend his days dictating into handheld machines, carrying tapes to his secretary, or using expensive systems that sent dictation over cords to a carousel tape machine on his assistant’s desk. But that wasn’t enough. He also wrote important case details down on paper and brought his scribbled notes to his assistant for transcription.

The paperwork was overwhelming, and he needed a solution that would enable him to devote enough time to strategize, research, to counsel his current clients, and to attract new ones.

Georges writes a column called Future Lawyer for the Tampa Bay Review. He served on the Florida Courts Technology Commission by appointment of the Florida Supreme Court, and is a past Chair of the Committee on Technology for the Florida Bar. He also served on technology-related Committees for the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Committee of the American Bar Association and the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association. His knowledge, experience, and position afforded him the opportunity to do exhaustive research of every possible dictation solution.

He found Express Dictate digital dictation software was a perfect fit for his needs, allowing him to record and send dictation directly from his computer. The software also included a Palm OS version that allowed him to dictate from his cell phone when he was away from the office.

“Express Dictate is the most useful, easiest to use, productivity tool in my arsenal,” Georges said. “Just dictate, and email the result to your transcriptionist.” This new dictation process is far more accurate and less time consuming than the old tape machine system. “My assistant no longer has to listen to me read to her, which has made her very happy.”

To see how Express Dictate can revolutionize workflow in your legal practice or office, cut down on scribbled notes, and relieve your assistant from doubling as a transcriptionist, download a free 14-day trial today. For your transcriptionist, Express Dictate works seamlessly with the free transcription program Express Scribe.

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Blogging by Dictation

Earlier today I listened into a great webinar on Hubspot titled Vovici Blog Factory Delivers Customers lead by Jeffrey Henning of Vovici. One of my biggest takeaways from this session was getting more people in an organization involved to help you post more frequently, since studies show that posting more frequently can help make a blog more effective. More specifically, one comment from another attendee sparked a little light bulb moment that I wanted to share.

The comment was about a company executive who was short on time using a voice recorder to dictate for a blog post from the road and giving that audio recording to someone else to type up. The moderators mentioned how this could be very effective and how you could also even use that audio for a podcast. And while I don't think that words dictation and transcription were explicitly used it really made me think,

Why not take it this one step further and use dictation software for blogging?

Express Dictate is designed to email a finished audio dictation to a transcriptionist, but why not use it to send audio for a blog post to your blog's primary editor to polish and post, or send it to yourself to finish later, or even edit the audio to use as a podcast.

If you have a long commute what a great way to take advantage of that time using the mobile versions of Express/Pocket Dictate on your Pocket PC, Palm, or iPhone to help solidify your blogging ideas.

When I first started working in Denver I lived an hour south in Colorado Springs, and I can't tell you how many times the first thing I did when I got home was grab a piece of paper to jot down all the ideas and to-do list items that had entered my mind while I was driving before I forgot. How much more efficient it would have been to just dictate all these thoughts while I was still in the car. Perhaps this isn't an entirely new idea, but it really struck home with me as a simple way to make use of what would otherwise be downtime and help your blog at the same time.

This might be a good way to get someone in your organization with less free time involved in generating content for your company blog. They can just dictate and send from anywhere using a simple software solution like Express Dictate.

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Express Dictate Software helps a Medical Practice Find More Time for Patients

You’ve got to love it when someone calls what you’re offering “a revelation.”

Those are the words of Dr. Sam Rodgers, general practitioner at the London-based Marven Medical Center, which treats 5,000 patients.

On an average day, each physician at Marven Medical dictates between 8 and 12 letters using Express Dictate to make their recordings at a computer set up with a microphone. Combined, that makes for a lot of letters that need to be sent out.

“Express dictate has been a revelation,” Dr. Rodgers said. “We used to use tapes and dictaphones to record our letters. We now dictate the letters on to our desktop machines as we see the patient.”

Rodgers and his staff have found that in working with digital audio they have had improved audio quality, reducing the number of questions from the administrative staff about what the doctor was saying. They also love the backup feature, because they can recover recordings if there are any queries after the letter has been typed and sent. And the office’s workflow is much more efficient, as the letters are typed as soon as they are sent to the typist—no waiting for a tape to be filled with dictation before being given to the receptionist.

And those are just a few of the benefits to using Express Dictate Dictation Software. The software also allows for assigning priority to dictations, keeping track of transcription progress and the expected completion times, as well as having HIPAA compliant encryption capabilities.

If your office or firm is in need of its own “revelation,” give Express Dictate a try. Or take a look at our full range of dictation software to find more ways set up a dictation solution to meet your individual needs; including dictating on the go from your Pocket PC, Palm or iPhone.

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NCH iPhone and Android Update The Express Dictate iPhone App is here

That's right, I am finally making good on my promises of NCH iPhone applications. (July 2009: NCH Starting development for iPhone)

Pocket Dictate has been approved by Apple and is officially available and free to download through iTunes for your iPhone, making our range of digital dictation software nearly complete. You can use any of the applications in our dictation suite to record your dictations almost anyway you choose:

Express Dictate for your Mac or PC for easy computer dictation. You can also use Express Dictate with a portable dictation device, and simply dock and send your dictation files when you are back at your desk.

Pocket Dictate is the mobile version of Express Dictate which can be downloaded for your Pocket PC, Windows Mobile or Palm OS devices--and now your iPhone as well. A Droid version is currently under development, which will round out all your portable devices.

Web Dictate lets you set up a web dictation server so you can log in and record dictation files anywhere with a microphone and an internet connection.

With Dial Dictate, you can set up a phone-in dictation system, so that you can have a dedicated phone number to call whenever you need to make a dictation.

With all of these different choices you would be hard pressed to not find a solution that will work well for you.

So what's next for NCH apps?
As I mentioned, Pocket Dictate for Droid is on its way. We are also planning on porting PitchPerfect Instrument Tuner, WavePad Audio Editor, RecordPad Sound Recorder, and TempoPerfect Metronome Software for both the iPhone and Android. Those will keep us busy for a little while longer, but I'm sure there will be even more to add to the list after that, so if there are any of our products that you are dying to have on your phone, or if you have any feedback on Pocket Dictate be sure to let us know.

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Make Your Business More Efficient with Dictation and Transcription Software

Take Better Care of Your Clients
Free Up Time By Getting Software to Work for You

There’s no getting around it: There will always be more to do than there are hours in the day. Business owners are always looking for ways to deliver more bang for their buck, and that usually means focusing more on the needs of the clients and customers.

But in order to have enough time to devote to your customers, you have to find ways to streamline the administrative parts of your business. One method of reducing overhead time, and the stress that goes with it, is to cut back on some of your record keeping and data entry by using software that helps streamline the process.

Accounting firms, medical practices, and law firms in particular have the need for dictation and transcription software that cut out time, and even secretarial needs. With a portable dictation application like Express Dictate a lawyer should be able to dictate into their PDA, PocketPC, iPhone, or Droid phone from court, hit send and have the compressed audio file sent to their office or transcriptionist before even having a chance to forget any crucial details.

With the right dictation and transcription software, many small businesses are able to reduce the secretarial services traditionally needed. And they save time, so they can spend it with patients, clients, and customers.

Check out our full arsenal of dictation and transcription software applications. Or just look at them one by one, depending on your needs:

• Express Dictate - computer dictation software
  
• Dial Dictate - phone in dictation system
  
• Web Dictate - internet dictation system
  
• Express Scribe - foot pedal controlled transcriber
  
• TexTally - word count and typist billing tool
  
• FastFox - typing expander
  

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There’s an iPhone App for that – Coming soon...

It’s been over a year since the release of Apple’s App store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the success seems endless. To date, iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded over 1.5 billion applications. But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, Apple originally said no to outside applications. Can you imagine?

Today there are over 100,000 apps in the store and we are literally getting to the point where there appears to be an app for everything.

Soon you can expect to see some NCH products available for the iPhone and iPod Touch as well. Express Dictate a digital voice recording application, is going to be the first one available and our developers are currently working on getting it ready and new testing plans as we enter the iPhone arena. So any day now iPhone users will be able to record and edit audio with nothing more than their phone using the NCH applications they've enjoyed in the past on their computers and pocket PC mobile devices.

NCH already offers a wide range of software for windows mobile and pocket pc and now with the growing iPhone market and the success of Apple’s App store, migrating some of these popular programs is a natural progression for NCH.

To try to get a sneak peak for what is on the way you might want to take a look at Pocket Dictate which was the springing board for the new iPhone Express Dictate that is on the way.

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Across the Digital Divide

A police department gains efficiency with digital recording and transcription software.

It is always great to see some of the ways our software is helping people. This month Speech Tech Magazine featured a story about the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department, who are using two of our popular products Express Dictate digital dictation software and our free Express Scribe transcription audio playback software to help them step into the digital age and clean up their transcription process making it more efficient. At Rancho Cucamonga PD officers dictate their reports to be transcribed by support staff.

"We were looking for something easy to use that performs reliably. NCH so far has measured up to our expectations."

-Detective Steve Wolff

Read the whole story, Across the Digital Divide in the October 2009 issue of Speech Technology.

Also be sure to take a look at our complete range of dictation software applications if you are looking for a dictation solution for yourself or your business.

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iPhone VoIP Applications

Since its inception last year, Apple's App store has evaluate over 200,000 applications and updates. It has been reported that they receive 8,500 new apps a week!

But it still seems their guidelines are a bit unclear. Reviewers check for a variety of things such as: buggy software, crashing apps, use of unauthorized API, privacy violations, inappropriate content for children, and anything that "degrades the core experience of the iPhone."

Recently Vonage announced that their mobile application for iPhone made it through Apple's approval board. How is this possible? Vonage is a VoIP provider after all.

Through Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T they are obligated to follow AT&T's terms of service. This means iPhone apps cannot use AT&T's 3G signal to place calls. It does however leave room for apps to use the iPhone's WiFi signal.

This is exactly what the new Vonage app does. Although it has not been reported what exact capabilities the Vonage app will have, it will only be using the iPhone's WiFi to connect.

As the iPhone's exclusivity may be drawing to a close with AT&T, will the VoIP app approval process be altered?

Would you be interested in a VoIP application like our Express Talk on your phone?

Because of some of the unclear guidelines when we announced plans to start developing for the iPhone Express Talk want' originally on the list, but users of the Express Talk Pocket PC already enjoy the extra flexibility of being able to take their VoIP phone number with them wherever they go, and with the extra business features like transferring calls, call recording and a push to talk intercom.

The jury is still out, but perhaps there will be NCH VoIP iPhone apps on the horizon as well as Express Dictate and WavePad Audio Editor which are already being planned.

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Starting development for iPhone Applications

We are excited to announce that we have begun work on adapting some of our applications for Apple’s iPhone. So soon iPhone users will be able to record and edit audio with nothing more than their phone.

The first applications expected to be ready tor the iPhone are going to be ExpressDictate, a digital voice recording application, and the NCH favorite, WavePad Sound Editor, a fully featured professional audio editing application.

While you are waiting for the iPhone applications your can still check out the full versions of ExpressDictate and WavePad for a preview of what is coming to the iPhone near you.

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