The Use of Automated Speech Recognition in Electronic Health Records in Rural Health Care Systems

• Main Author: Gargett, Ross
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2016
• Subjects: Automated Speech Recognition; Electronic Health Record; HITECH Act; Health Information Technology; Human Computer Interaction; Artificial Intelligence and Robotics; Computational Linguistics; Other Computer Sciences
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/340

Since the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act was enacted, healthcare providers are required to achieve “Meaningful Use.” CPOE (Clinical Provider Order Entry), is one such requirement. Many providers prefer to dictate their orders rather than typing them. Medical vocabulary is wrought with its own terminology and department-specific acronyms, and many ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) systems are not trained to interpret this language. The purpose of this thesis research was to investigate the use and effectiveness of ASR in the healthcare industry. Multiple hospitals and multiple clinicians agreed to be followed through their use of an ASR system to enter patient data into the record. As a result of this research, the effectiveness and use of the ASR was examined, and multiple issues with the use and accuracy of the system were uncovered.