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upping production, echo dictation vs instant text vs other? - reinventing the wheel

Posted: Oct 24, 2011

I had posted previously to the tech board and it was suggested to post here instead. Am wanting to up my production, increase my lph in order to increase my pay since my cpl rate has gone down. Was thinking about using Dragon to do "echo dictation" but the cost for Dragon medical is prohibitive. Would like to know what other methods are available to increase production and people's experience with using word expanders such as InstantText or something else. I have gotta do something in order to continue to make it in this business! Any help/input is appreciated. TIA!

when I did echo dictation a long time ago - olderthandirt

[ In Reply To ..]
what I found was not that my lph increased, but the use of my hands on the keyboard decreased. I averaged 300 lph either way. If you are straight typing without the benefit of a word expander, you should definitely invest in one if you feel DNS is too expensive. I haven't priced it recently so I don't know what it costs in today's market. I didn't like and gave up on Instant Text. I loved Smartype (which I hear will be making a return soon), but until it is back on the market, take a look at Shorthand. You can download an abbreviation file to get you started so you don't have to build everything from scratch if you don't want to. Plus you can try it out to see how you like it. The down side is that it is about $30 a year, every year. It is not transferrable from one computer to another.

I am using Dragon 10 and it seems to be working just fine - use it just as I do shortcut keys

[ In Reply To ..]
check on line on some of the sites that sell and you can probably pick it up for less than $100.

echo dictating Dragon alternative - doing it now

[ In Reply To ..]
You might have a look at "Knowbrainer.com" website. They use Dragon speech engine 11 and have a medical vocabulary that is just as extensive as Dragon's but considerably less expensive. Dragon is greedy, and Knowbrainer wanted to make this option more affordable, and they did.

echo dictation - reinventing the wheel

[ In Reply To ..]
thanks for the info on Knowbrainer. I just bought Dragon 11.5 from Amazon for less than $130 WITH the mic included. I did not pop for the $1600 medical version. Am installing tonight and am gonna try it to see how it works. I hope that with training the software, it will work despite not having the extensive medical vocab built into it. FYI, anyone else thinking of doing this needs to know that it needs 2 gigs of RAM to run, especially with other windows open/running at the same time. Will report back once I have tweaked this. Stay tuned....

echo dictation - doing it now

[ In Reply To ..]
I wish you the best, but if this doesn't work for you don't get discouraged. Echo dictating can work well, just not sure how well it will work for medical without the medical vocabulary. Do keep us posted. I can help you a lot with microphone choices and other info if you like, as I have had a couple of years to work out the kinks and would be happy to share. I mention the microphone because you don't typically get a microphone with the software that is really going to get it done as far as the accuracy Dragon is capable of. It may leave you thinking the software doesn't work very well when in actuality you just need a better microphone.

You can try Instant Text and see - for yourself

[ In Reply To ..]

You can download Instant Text 7 Pro at link below. We are going to have a November Special where you can try out the available fully-functional trial version for 2 months before deciding whether you want to purchase a license. An Instant Text user license allows you to have it on all your computers if they are identifiable as yours without having to pay each year and for each computer.

A short guide to Instant Text 7 is available at:
http://www.textware.com/it7pro/getting_started/getting_started.htm

and the Instant Text 7 manual can be downloaded at:
http://www.textware.com/demo/demo.htm

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