Welcome to the Speech Recognition Country
More than 200 healthcare IT providers integrate Philips SpeechMagic into their applications, including global leaders such as SIEMENS, GE Healthcare, AGFA, Carestream Health and Philips Medical Systems. It is the first time that Philips has invited its partners to Germany, following the company's increasing activities in that market.
‘Germany is one of the most speech recognition-friendly countries in the world,’ said Holger Ladewig, CEO of Kuhlmann-Informations-Systeme GmbH (KIS). The company, which last year was acquired by Philips, is a leading supplier of medical reporting solutions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 36 out of 38 German university hospitals, 500 general hospitals and 500 medical practices are using KIS solutions for faster and more efficient report creation, according to Ladewig.
Marcel Wassink, CEO of Philips Speech Recognition Systems announced in Berlin, that the company will use the added capacity, available from the KIS acquisition, to provide new professional services to its integration partners and to meet the exploding demand for its speech technology. ‘We are currently growing at a rate of 35% annually,’ Marcel Wassink pointed out. ‘In Germany, 80% of radiologists who are using a radiology information system are working with our speech technology.’
The more than 150 experts who attended the Berlin event came from all over Europe, the USA, Canada, and even Chile and Australia. Highlights were the many end user presentations from hospitals that provided insight into how large-scale speech recognition deployments can change the way healthcare is delivered.
Rob Thornton, commercial director for Philips Speech Recognition Systems, pointed out that currently speech recognition is advancing from creating text to capturing information. ‘In close co-operation with our partners, we will help solve the issues related to information capturing through helping realise more efficient, accurate and convenient workflows,’ he said.
Thornton noted that over the last few years, the character of the annual partner event has turned from discussing the benefits of speech recognition to presenting results and lessons learned. ‘Speech recognition has entered the mainstream,’ he concluded.
Claire Betis, marketing manager for Canada-based Crescendo Systems summarised her impression of the event in her blog on www.speechrecognition.wordpress.com. She wrote: ‘The professional speech recognition community is definitely here to stay, making noise and growing. In Berlin this year, Philips and partners clearly reinforced their commitment
to the healthcare sector in the
long term.’
30.10.2007
