When making a decision in choosing automated medical dictation software, many clinicians and/or office managers often wonder what to do.
Well, the simplest decision is choosing between medical dictation technology. While there are perhaps 2 or 3, no other software comes close to Dragon Medical Software powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking technology. So, that's the easy decision. A much more difficult decision may be choosing between the locally installed Dragon Medical Practice Edition v4 product versus using the cloud based Dragon Medical One.
Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 (referred to as DMPE4) is locally installed speech recognition software. There is a also subscription based cloud service called Dragon Medical One (referred to as DMO) available.
Differences between DMPE4 and DMO
Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 (DMPE4)
- No monthly fees.
- Locally installed software.
- The software is yours forever.
- Handles complex integrations and automation requests.
- No Internet connection required except for initial software registration.
Dragon Medical One (DMO)
- Cloud based software
- Lightning fast transcription
- No limit on the number of computers it may be installed on.
- Behind the scenes addition to your vocabulary ( i.e. new drug names).
- No need for backup of any customized data (such as Physician names and new Drugs) since it's in the cloud.
- Your customized voice profile follows you wherever you go. Your office, Hospital, home, remote office, etc.. When you log into DMO, all of your customized data is always with you.
DMPE4 vs DMO
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DMO is easier. Your limited menu options also mean it's easier for your provider to navigate through, add words and insert auto-texts and generally use in any application. This is especially important when you have multiple providers cutting down hours of learning time and technical support needs.
- DMO can be faster. Since your actual speech recognition processing is done in the cloud by an army of computers and therefore dictation is lightning fast. You will not be slowed down if your local computer has many programs open.
- DMO is portable. Say you use the software for a few months. In these few months, you may have added Physician names, clinic names, new drugs or your own acronyms. With DMO, your customization is in the cloud and follows you wherever you go. If using DMPE4, you must be sure to either export / import custom words, or use something called a "Network Profile". With DMO, this is not an issue to concern yourself with.
- Dragon Medical Practice Edition is less expensive. There is no doubt a one time purchase of approximately $1500-$2000 will be less expensive in the long run. You can go many years with this investment and not need to upgrade. Please note, you can install and activate your product up to 4 times. Depending on how many computers you intend to use the product on, you will be limited by this another purchase may be necessary if you can't uninstall your retired equipment.
- Dragon Medical Practice Edition may be more expensive. There is no doubt that a subscription service in the long run seems to be more expensive. At a cost of just under $1500 per year, it is an expense. However, clinicians tend to go through computers and offices. Some of the issues with changing computers and purchasing a computer may cost you an additional $1000 to ensure your system can run Dragon successfully. Also, there is the cost of getting a new workstation to work like the old one. A new installation will take 30 minutes to an hour. Exporting and importing custom words and phrases will also take a few minutes. Then, tweaking your DMPE product to work as good as it did on the last workstation is also time. Time is money. Someone is paying for these technicians and of course, more of your time is necessary. When you put it all together. Also, you don't know what type of computer you are going to have. When using Dragon Medical One, your computer resources are minimized allowing you to install on almost any computer with no degrading performance. All of your custom words and phrases are always available to you regardless of where you are working.
Summary of Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4 vs Dragon Medical One
For many years, Clinicians have used DMPE with great success and therefore, DMPE4 is a great option. However, in the world we live in today, things have become more complex. Logging into hospital networks, using remote desktops, having multiple exam rooms and possibly other locations and therefore one may be a better fit for you than the other.
More information on Dragon Medical One and Dragon Medical Practice Edition is available by by clicking on the respective links.
Trials are available for both systems. Please contact us directly for a trial.
