A week with Voicebrook

First off, I'm so pleased at how much I remember about navigating the software. Go me! It has made the transition smoother than it could have been otherwise. That and my keyboard is a lot more accessible than it was last time I started using voice transcription software. Right now I'm doing things around 80% with voice controls and 20% with mouse clicks and typing.

Second, it makes everything take longer. A big contributor to that is how long each window takes to open, and that we're opening more windows than before. It is 5-10 seconds here and there, but it adds up. Then there's the proofreading and the editing, but I'm sure that will improve as I use it more and the software gets better trained. At least I hope so. I'm used to being able to cut while dictating instead of having to stop every time I say something to watch the words going into transcription to make sure they are the right words in the right place.

The net time turn around time is lower because it doesn't have to get dictated, go into the queue for the transcriptionists, and then transcribed. But it used to be handled by me and the transcriptionists, instead of just me... Meanwhile, the transcriptionists, who are still doing a bit of transcription (we'll just say that the doctors are easing into using Voicebrook, rather than going cold turkey), are picking up other administrative duties in addition to the ones they were already doing. What will happen long term remains to be seen.

Overall the software works well, the accuracy is 95%+ and that's good. But oh, that few percent that it isn't getting can be so frustrating!! Cholelith vs choleliths and having to correct things like 3 vessels to three vessels. I remind myself that it comes with training and it isn't nearly as bad as it was the last time I went through this 4 years ago.

I have added to the stock of templates with some personalized ones. Also, I've prefilled some bits with things that are the case much more often than not, like the aforementioned three vessels. It saves time to default to that and change it when it isn't right than to dictate something over and over. I'm working on maintaining a good attitude about it, mostly because I don't have a choice in the matter so might as well suck it up and forge on with what I have to work with. Hopefully speed will pick up.

Neglect, but interesting things upcoming

My laptop is not currently working, so I've been doing most of my internet accessing on my phone. It isn't the best way to blog, which is one reason why there haven't been any updates lately. Also... I don't have any study obligations this year, so I've gone INSANE with Halloween! I started sewing in August. I love it!

Next week we're transitioning from live transcriptionists to Voicebrook, so that'll be something worth talking about. I have experienced training my Dragon (medical) and it'll be interesting to compare the medical version to the pathology specific one. Voicebrook is specifically tailored to pathology, but Dragon had a solid pathology vocabulary built into it as part of the larger medical lexicon. Personally, I'm more concerned about how it will interact with our version of Cerner since there are different active windows that I'll have to navigate either using the mouse or with voice commands. I know the software folks say that voice navigation will be easy and intuitive but we'll see.

Attitudes at work are not entirely enthusiastic about the switch, but the powers that be want it, so we're going with it.

"On the job training with lectures"

A pathologist on reddit (yeah, I know, it is reddit... you can't take it too seriously) just described the Pathologist Assistant education as "on the job training with lectures".

Well... isn't all medical training that? Clinical rotations are OJT in a much more standardized form where you try to ensure that every student passing through has roughly the same guidelines and instruction. And sure, I guess if you wanted to be dismissive you could describe a grueling year of medical education as "lectures".

I suppose, if you wanted to paint with such broad strokes medical school, residency, and fellowships are also OJT with lectures. Nursing is OJT with lectures. Physicians assistants get OJT and lectures. I would hope that in regular life the pathologist who posted is not quite so dismissive of other's education.

Assistant obtained and conversations relevant to my interests

The new assistant started on Monday. He's learning all the ropes and seems keen. I'm fairly low maintenance so, I'm fine waiting until he's finished learning all the non-gyn processing and administrative tasks before making him learn any random preferences of mine (how the rack is oriented in the formalin tub matters!!!).

In other news, my husband and I were out watching soccer at a local wine bar and the lady next to me was discussing a friend of hers with diabetes. She checks up on him every other day and runs errands for him. Apparently he had developed a festering foot wound and for months the odor was nauseating. When she found out it had maggots she manufactured an issue with his prescription refills (working with the pharmacy and doctor's office) that forced him to go to the doctor's office for a follow up visit. Now, maggot therapy is a thing but that is under controlled circumstances and not wild maggots that have just shown up after being attracted to the necrosis. So the woman says how the man's doctor referred him to a wound care specialist and things are being treated currently.

It was a great conversation to be around and I joined in, because how often do I get to discuss maggots and necrotic toes in public serendipitously?

Having an assistant is great!

I really miss having one! All the little things that used to just get done aren't magically getting done! So the histotechs are doing some of them, I'm doing some of them, and the pathology manager is doing some of them. It'll be so nice when someone is hired again and trained.

I'm taking the gross photos myself, which I'm able to do and it isn't an onerous task. It is just an end of day thing that stands between me and going home. Whereas when there is an assistant it would all just happen while I was still grossing and it would have a picture before I even got it to describe. It was nice. The interviews continue on, but I think the last one will be next week sometime. I'll be out of town!