re: Speech Wreck

Renee Priest — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:00:17 GMT

I guess I have a very different viewpoint on this issue than the author.

For the last 10 years MTs, many very well known throughout the industry, have worked with and for speech recognition developers. I know some of them and have worked with them. It is not really hard to find the details of their efforts over the years, they have been published in industry and nonindustry journals and websites; served as topics for industry-oriented educational seminars and webinars.

Years ago, when I first started posting online at the scimed news group, Barb Grow (and a rather infamous post that she made while beta testing a speech recognition product in its infancy, using her own medical records as test dummies, detailed how she acquired a "purple penis," if I remember the post correctly) stands out in my mind as being one of the more publicly vocal (and influential) MTs in support of how useful to MTs the technology could be if utilized properly. Both AHDI and MTIA (despite the lack of faith many have in those 2 organizations) have long worked to influence developers of this technology ... and, to their credit, often doing so in the face of very vocal unhappiness from their members who, quite simply, felt it was a fad that would fade away.

I understand the rock and a hard place many MTs find themselves in during this time of economic upheaval, but I think it bears pointing out that the dropping pay rate has been an issue MTs have discussed online and offline for as long as I have been in the business ... it is not a new issue, nor is it one that the development of speech recognition technology created. There will always be clients and employers who will exploit that as long as the MTs, themselves, allow it to continue.

Nae

Is Speech Rec Wrecked?

The XY Files in an MT World — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:26:16 GMT

In response to my fellow HIM Insider blogger Jeanne Johnston's post entitled " Speech Wreck ," I'd like