U.K. Hospital Extends TalkingPoint Speech Recognition to Its Pathology Department

When a pathologist starts to examine a specimen, he or she performs an activity known as "grossing." Grossing, or to cut-up, is the process of examining and describing a specimen sample. The description includes the sample's appearance, the number of pieces and the size of each piece.

 Thanks to TalkingPoint technology, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon, U.K., has enabled pathologists to perform cut-up using speech recognition (SR) technology. The result has made workflow within the lab much more efficient. "Before implementing SR for BMS cut-up, a biomedical scientist (BMS) and assistant technical officer worked as a pair," explained Madeleine Stephens, BMS and senior project lead for cut-up at Derriford Hospital. "The BMS dissected the specimens and dictated the macroscopic description out loud. The assistant wrote the description on the back of the request form, typed it freehand into the computer or used a bar code system to generate standard template reports. Depending on the assistant’s speed, this could be quite slow."

 Now, for non-complex standard reports, the BMS can simply scan the specimen barcode and TalkingPoint will generate a pre-filled "rapid report" form. For non-standard complex reports, the BMS can free speak the macroscopic description and create reports based on pro-formas, free text and shortcuts.

 In addition to recording individual cut-ups, TalkingPoint can generate a lab workload report for the coming day. Instead of manually counting specimens, a BMS simply touches a button to generate a specimen list. Using the list, the BMS can create a schedule based on demand and laboratory capacity.

 SR has helped Derriford pathologists deal with both reduced personnel numbers and increasing workloads. Now, a BMS can work within the lab without an assistant. TalkingPoint integrates with a number of pathology reporting systems including Apex, Copath, LabTrack, MediTech, Technidata and Winpath. "The TalkingPoint implementation is one part of a complete process change here," said Dean Harmse, a consultant histopathologist at Derriford. "SR has been a vital cog in the wheel, complemented by process and procedural developments throughout the pathology department."