In today's healthcare environment, documentation is of the utmost importance. Medical professionals are burdened with hours of record-keeping and administrative work that can often distract from their core role: patient care. One avenue to explore for minimizing this burden is AI generated transcription services, especially for voice-recorded medical notes, interviews, and consultations.
BastionGPT is used by hundreds of medical professionals daily to process transcriptions and will have its built-in audio transcription feature in future versions. In the meantime, the market offers a wide range of transcription options, some specifically tailored for medical professionals. But how do you choose one that's right for you? This article provides a rundown of some of the most popular medical transcription services that we have hands-on experience with, focusing on cost, quality, and HIPAA compliance. If you have others that we should try, or have any feedback on those that we have reviewed, please reach out to us. The author is not sponsored by, nor has received compensation from any of these companies for writing our opinions. We are a partner with Microsoft but have not been compensated for writing our review of any of their services.
Considerations for Choosing a Service
1. HIPAA Compliance: Ensure the service you choose complies with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards to protect patient information.
2. Quality: Higher quality services might reduce the need for editing, thereby saving time in the long run.
3. Cost: Weigh the features offered against the monthly or one-time costs to decide what's best for your organization's budget.
4. Integration: How well does the service integrate with your existing workflow and software systems?
5. Scalability: Can the service handle increasing demands as your practice grows?
Major Players
Microsoft Word Transcription: This is free with an existing license of Microsoft Word. However, it performed the poorest of the the solutions we tested. However, it does now support the ability to label different voices automatically, which you can then assign names to.
Microsoft Teams Premium: This requires purchase of a Microsoft subscription that includes Microsoft Teams. If you would like to take advantage of AI summarization, you will need to purchase the Microsoft Teams Premium option, which currently retails for $7 per user per month.
Nuance Dragon Professional: This is a long established AI transcription service that provides great transcription, but it can often miss certain medical terminology. However, for a one time cost of $699, we don’t expect the performance of their higher prices options. A free demo is available.
Whisper: This is a publicly available AI transcription model. There are a number of different Apps that provide access to Whisper. The versions that run its AI entirely on your computer and not in the cloud can be HIPAA compliant. The versions that run in the cloud is often not HIPAA compliant. At this time, we do not see an app that we trust enough to recommend. However, if you are technically proficient, or know someone who is, this can be installed on your computer. There are a number of HIPAA compliant cloud versions announced, but as of this writing, we are not aware of any that are on the market.
Nabla Copilot: This is a new player to the healthcare AI transcription game. Their services start at $2,300/month. This solution has some promise, and they do claim HIPAA compliance. However, I strongly encourage a thorough review in this case for HIPAA compliance, as some compliance items might not pass muster for specific healthcare organizations. They have a free service tier, but that doesn’t include HIPAA compliance.
Deepscribe: This is also a relatively small and young service, but also has some great potential. We will be watching this service closely to see how it performs against some of the giants such as Microsoft Nuance in this space. We do not have official numbers on pricing, but have seen reports of approximate costs coming in at $800/month/user.
Nuance DAX Express: This is the best of the best. Microsoft has made a huge investment in this technology, and it shows. However, this also fetches the highest price tag, with pricing reported at approximately $1,800/month/physician.
*Updated 3/3/2024* BastionGPT: Due to high user requests, we are piloting BastionGPT transcription at no cost currently. This uses some of the same technology as the Microsoft Nuance DAX Express for healthcare-grade transcription and compliance, but at a fraction of the cost. Transcriptions are limited to 75 minutes each. Costs will be eventually charged on a per-minute basis later in 2024 once the service officially releases. To test this out today, register for a free 7-day trial of BastionGPT, and click the "Transcription" option in the upper right corner.
Conclusion
Transcription services can significantly reduce the administrative burden on medical professionals. When choosing a service, it's crucial to consider factors like HIPAA compliance, quality, cost, and how well the service fits into your existing workflow. Choose wisely, and you'll find that the right transcription service can become an invaluable part of your healthcare practice.
.png)
.png)
