I have used the WSRToolkit to import medical charts and exams in MS Doc formats using, "Add From File." . I also took a medical vocabulary list of thousands of words, converted it to a doc file and imported it, using the toolkits, "Add From File."

 

I also tried to add a list of words, left formatted one word per line, to the Add to Dictionary section of the toolkit. This was not workable for me,  as I pasted hundreds of words, and the program wanted me to deal with and verify each entry, one at a time.

 

I've done the above, at home, on a 2.8 Imac with 2 gigs of ram,  dual booting to Vista. I'm using the iMacs built in mic but will try a better mic.  (I have a 3.2 quad 4 at work with 4 gigs of ram that is better suited for this but I have more time at home to experiment).

 

I have discovered that my EMR at work, ( http://www.writepad.com - www.writepad.com ) does not like Vista Voice in my charting section. Vista Voice will pop up with numbered choices ONLY in my EMR? DNS Medical Pro 9.5 works fine in this same application, and Vista Voice works in other applications. Not sure what that is all about but presently this prohibits my using Vista Voice in my EMR, which is my main goal.

 

 

 

Great to hear you are using WSR productively.

Issues:  You need to be in a quiet space for it to work.  Ambient noise is a significant issue.

I cannot over emphasize the importance of having a good microphone. A good microphone with excellent noise canceling ability will outperform almost any other microphone even in a quiet environment. However, in a noisy environment it is invaluable. We have six microphones (two wired, two wireless, and two handheld/desktop mounted) which will give you top-notch accuracy and noise canceling. These range in price from $90 (Samson Q7) to well over $400 (Sennheiser MD431II) depending on the model and style.

There are a few words that I use frequently that it refuses to learn, so I've learned to just type those (posterior = post your ear).

 

Have you used the, "Add new word" feature?

1. If you have the http://www.mymsspeech.com/microphones/prod_details.asp?prodID=228 - WSRToolkit just click on or say, "Add to Dictionary."

2. If you do not have the WSRToolkit, just say, "Open the speech dictionary" and then, "Add a new word."

 

For example, no matter how many times a I said and or corrected "a bad" as in a bad soundcard, it would interpret it as, "a bed." Adding, "a bad" to the Speech Dictionary allows that phrase to be recognized correctly every time now.

 

 

It locks up once in a while, but usually doesn't cause a loss of data. Overall, a good experience.

 

Locking up is not an experience we have had or heard of in our over two years of using Windows Speech Recognition in Vista. What exactly happens? You have to reboot the computer? Do you have a reasonably fast computer, a dual core with 3 GB of RAM minimum?

The Add From File description (right on the page) specifically says it is not meant for adding lists of words. Its purpose is to recognize a specific style of speaking based on the context of how you use words. It will update your speech model to reflect your style and usage and not add specific words.

 

I also tried to add a list of words, left formatted one word per line, to the Add to Dictionary section of the toolkit. This was not workable for me,  as I pasted hundreds of words, and the program wanted me to deal with and verify each entry, one at a time.

 

I've done the above, at home, on a 2.8 Imac with 2 gigs of ram,  dual booting to Vista. I'm using the iMacs built in mic but will try a better mic.  (I have a 3.2 quad 4 at work with 4 gigs of ram that is better suited for this but I have more time at home to experiment).

There is certainly nothing shabby about your system specifications. However, and accurate/noise canceling microphone will mean that the software will understand your words and commands with much higher frequency than a built-in microphone or commodity microphone purchased in a retail store.

 

[/quote]I have discovered that my EMR at work, ( http://www.writepad.com - www.writepad.com ) does not like Vista Voice in my charting section. Vista Voice will pop up with numbered choices ONLY in my EMR? DNS Medical Pro 9.5 works fine in this same application, and Vista Voice works in other applications. Not sure what that is all about but presently this prohibits my using Vista Voice in my EMR, which is my main goal.[/quote]

Right-click on the microphone icon on the Windows Speech Recognition Speech Bar. Choose Options, and make sure there is a checkmark next to, "Enable dictation everywhere."

Right-click on the microphone icon on the Windows Speech Recognition Speech Bar. Choose Options, and make sure there is a checkmark next to, "Enable dictation everywhere."

 

Thanks for the answers.  I hope I did not make things worse with my making a document out of thousands of individual medical words and then adding them as a file! I don't believe Vista Voice allows one to restart a profile like DNS does.

 

With respect to "Enable dictation everywhere," I do in fact have this enabled at all times but I still get the, "Altnerates Panel," virtually everytime I dictate in my chart note which is an .rtf format. Because of this, I cannot dictate into my EMR with Vista Voice.

When I turn off DNS and switch to Vista Voice, dictating the exact same words (or any words) results in the Alternates Panel showing up and giving me a choice of numbered answers. This does not occur in Notepad or Word, with Vista VR. Both of these applications work just fine and the dicataion below is perfect. I'm at a loss. I assume this Alternates Panel ONLY appears when recognition is failing?

 

Here is the exact text I am dictating: "The patient presents today with a follow up examination, with respect to a diagnosis of Cervical radiculitis."

The Alternates Panel pops up even with dicating only, "The patient presents."

 

I'm open for any ideas.

 

My EMR executable is writepad.exe.

 

Notepad? Don't you mean the Macro Editor of the Toolkit, which autosaves in appropriate directory, and proper extension .wsrmac), which in my case appears to be C:\Users\Chris\Documents\MacroBuilder

 

I assume I can call it whatever I want. What is this macro going to do? Delay the Alternative Choices in hopes of dictating into the note? Remember, my EMR is already open and running. I just want to add supplemental text to the existing note.

 

Thanks for your help Brad!

I agree, using the Macro Editor of the http://www.emicrophones.com/microphones/prod_details.asp?prodID=228 - WSRToolkit is easier for you or I. Brad as a skilled programmer uses Notepad for creation/editing.

 

 

I assume I can call it whatever I want. What is this macro going to do? Delay the Alternative Choices in hopes of dictating into the note? Remember, my EMR is already open and running. I just want to add supplemental text to the existing note.

The line with listenFor as in:

<listenFor>E M R dictate [...]</listenFor>

is called the trigger word(s) command. You can change E M R dictate to whatever you feel comfortable calling macro.

Marty

 

How do I know my macros are working?

 

Verbalizing, "EMR dictate," does nothing but open the Alternatives panel.

 

As you probably remember, there is a question whether my macros are working at all given the error in opening the WSRTookit and my installed path of C:\Users\Chris\Documents\MacroBuilder

 

file:///C:%5CUsers%5CBrad%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml - file:///C:%5CUsers%5CBrad%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_preview.wmf - file:///C:%5CUsers%5CBrad%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso - file:///C:%5CUsers%5CBrad%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx - file:///C:%5CUsers%5CBrad%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml">

 

I found the problem and it is with me. I assumed, erroneously that when I started your WSRToolkit that the macros would be loaded. Not the case. So now I start the Windows macros program separately from the run command.

 

Having said that, I am still at a loss for how to start your EMR dictate macro which I made in the Toolkit??

 

I know have all three below and the macros are in the last folder.

C:\Program Files\WSRMacros

C:\Users\Chris\Documents\MacroBuilder

C:\Users\Documents\Speech Macros

 

I have the toolkit open, my emr open and the windows macros program open.

When I dictate "E M R dictate this is a test" the Alternates Panel pops up.

The emr.WSRMac that I made in the toolkit sits in C:\Users\Documents\Speech Macros

 

Here is a jpg of my desktop with pertinent folders open and programs running.

 

http://www.digital-doc.com/speech.jpg - http://www.digital-doc.com/speech.jpg

Here is a jpg of my desktop that will appropriate folders open and running.   http://www.digital-doc.com/speech.jpg - http://www.digital-doc.com/speech.jpg

Good idea on the screen shot.  It looks like the WSRMacros program is showing as a window but not loading in the system tray.  Here's a snapshot of yours:



I'm certain there's something amiss with WSRMacros... but the question is 'what'.

One thing that comes to mind, the folders you described:



Brad

 

Let me know if you want to do a logmein session sometime, VPN, Hamachi etc.

I can call you or we can Skype. etc.

 

I'd like to get Vista Speech working with my EMR at work,  because that is where I would have an excuse to use it in a medical environment.

 

 

Now I am getting another error when I open the windows macros: "no signature was present in the subject."

 

This error appears to be related to the macro you made for me as when I remove the macro, no error. When I place it back, the error occurs.

 

Write now, in my EMR I can use DNS 9.5 Medical Pro with no problems and 98% accuracy.

I can say the same for Vista, using Word or Notepad but NOT my EMR where I need to use it.

 

Macros work in EMR now.  However text still a no go, unless I want to use the Alternate Panel in my EMR.

It appears my macros are still not working!

 

Wait a minute!

 

I just navigated to my C:\Program Files\WSRMacros\wsmacros.exe and changed the properties to open as adminstrator and your macro worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

FYI: I use Vista Ultimate on all 3 computers that had the same problem. Maybe others without this problem are not on ultimate?

 

Darn, now I am at home and my EMR is at work so I will have to wait till Monday to fix and try,  unless WVR works over a VPN.

 

I can confirm that the two sub-systems (both Handwriting and Windows Speech Recognition) do indeed use the same underlying store for supplemental vocabularies.

It's kind of funny, in fact... After finishing up the re-write of the Speech platform back in the late 90s in the speech team, I left that team, and landed in the Tablet PC team, where I led about half the platform development team for handwriting platform features (in addition to the very early implementations of Speech Recognition on Tablet PC).

The Handwriting team needed a system to enable the same types of features for a dictionary that we had developed for the Speech Recognizer but instead for the Handwriting Recognizer. So ... Instead of duplicating the speech dictionary code, or building something new, we just use the exact same store (for lexical entries). Not only was it easier to develop (because it was already done), it's a great end user sharing feature as well.

In addition, both correction experiences are tied together. For example, if you were to dictate something to the speech recognizer, and then select it for correction with the handwriting recognizer, you'll see the speech alternatives in the handwriting UI. Same is true in reverse. If you handwrite something and insert it into the document, you can select it with the pen and say "Correct that", and you'll see the handwriting alternatives in the speech correction UI.

Thank you for letting us know of your new take on the initial question.

 

 

Marty

 

For Speech, there are 2 things:

1.) Lexicon - This the list of words that can be used. Each word has an optional pronuncation. If a pronuncation isn't specified we'll use LTS (letter to sound) rules to "guess" a pronuncation.

2.) Language Model - This is the relative frequency of occurrence of words in the context of other words.

 

The DictionaryTool that Dr. Wilkerson mentioned is simply adding items to the lexicon (without specified pronuncations). He's calling that a vocabulary. That's a reasonable thing to call it, although, it's not what we call it in Vista for speech. We call it a dictionary, sort of like a dictionary that you'd pick up at a local bookstore. It has words, their spellings, and their pronuncations in it.

 

--rob

 

So the trick to optimizing WSR with Medical is:

1. Import a pertinent dictionary-Lexicon

2. Scan prior medical documents into WSR so the words can be seen in their overall frequency of occurrence within the context of other words. (words often related to other words).

 

If you want to remove words from you user lexicon, you can export the speech dictionary with the "Speech Dictionary.wsrMac" macro on http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wsrmacros - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wsrmacros .

 

--rob

 

0utstanding! Thanks so much! Guess I lost sight of the forest through the trees.

 

No longer an issue with Windows 7 WSR.