05/01/2007

Speech recognition

Philips seeks standardised medical terminology

Last year the European Commission, DG Health and Consumer Protection, observed that the health sector still lags behind other industries in introducing systematic safety processes and recommended the introduction of the electronic medical record (EMR).

The prototype for a voice recognition system, intended to link with the EMR and help reduce medical errors resulting from wrong medication, improper treatment, or incorrect or delayed test results, has been developed by the Netherlands firm Philips, working with Health Language Inc.
Named Interop 6.1, the system identifies findings, diagnoses, drugs, allergies and other relevant information in dictated reports and formats them for upload to the EMR. ‘The solution further generates codes that support the classification of medical conditions and the structuring of clinical data, such as the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes and the Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) codes,’ Philips explains. ‘Healthcare communities need to standardise existing systems and augment them with new, integrated solutions, focused on the patient,’ said Marcel Wassink, managing director for Philips Speech Recognition Systems. ‘The ability to exchange data accurately, effectively and consistently is key to eliminating cross-organisational boundaries and ensure the uniform and secure availability of critical information.’