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bripakes

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Posts posted by bripakes

  1. I have entered a few bug reports, but there have been no updates to Express Dictate for Mac since January 2012. Is the product still actively being developed? If so, could you provide an expected release date?

    issues with Express Dictate:

    - error indicates file exists when it does not. Clearing "send" folder resolves error.

    - can't create new dictation (using hot key) until a dictation has been completely sent

    - if Dictate is not frontmost app, and hot key to create new is pressed, Dictate does NOT move to front

    - Hesitation before recording starts

    - Custom dictation data not persistent (case# and pid are wiped out each time a new dictation is created)

    - F17, F18, F19 not assignable as hot keys

    - New Dictation OK button needs "enter", not "return"

  2. MAC User,

     

    Dictate and Scribe are both fairly Mac friendly apps. The next version will be Universal. It will also save preferences per user (not one for all users). While I don't care for the "DCT" file format (can't read natively on Mac), it works as long as you use Dictate and Scribe. There are more friendly options (like WAV), but they don't use the XML tags and we would hate to loose them!

     

    Technical support has been, well, interesting... We are in Connecticut; they are in Australia. We paid for phone support. I have called over a dozen times to tech support and NEVER received a human; always an answering machine. However, using the number provided and then choosing sales, I got a live person 50 percent of the time. At one point I reached Allison. She has been tremendously helpful. She follows up, she gets answers, but she doesn't answer the tech support line (at least not from my experience)! :)

     

    Other than the tech support gripe, my only other issue with NCH is the cycle of development. It seems there are a lot of apps they create and they can't work on all of them all the time. So each app gets focused on and then updates stop for a period of time. NCH may have just 1 or 2 Mac developers (they are not Microsoft or Adobe). But they ARE making progress, and Dictate and Scribe are currently getting the spotlight.

     

    Since it is a free download, I would encourage you to do some testing and compile a list of issues. Then submit them to NCH (if you need help, let me know!). The time to address issues is right now!!

     

    Brian :)

  3. MAC User,

     

    Can you provide a little more info on how you plan to deploy Dictate and Scribe?

     

    We have about 40 dictation stations and 10 transcription stations... About 200 dictations daily... There are a number of pros and cons, but most are relative to the way you configure the applications. For example, we are have issues trying to replicate the foot pedal on the keyboard (if the pedal dies, users have an alternative input source). We are trying to use F16-F19, but mapping those keys produces strange results! We have asked NCH to purchase an Apple keyboard to do testing...

     

    Brian :)

  4. My name is Brian and I work at Yale. We have had some integration issues and the people at NCH have been very responsive. What started as a request for fixes has turned into something more... We have received weekly updates (and betas of Dictate and Scribe) so we can follow the NCH development process. While I can't speak about what is new or changed, I can tell you about our setup at Yale and some of the issues we have faced.

     

    We are in a clinical setting and have Faculty and Residents dictating cases (about 40 stations; 200 dictations daily). All computers are Mac based. Most are intel-Macs running 10.5.x; the rest are PPC running 10.4.11. Microphones are the "Buddy" USB variety. Foot pedals are the VPC models that NCH recommends. We also have barcode scanners to help enter case information.

     

    Issues with the dictation stations are few, but important to fix. 1) the left/right foot pedals also activate the center pedal (we are looking at alternatives; users for now are very careful) 2) Express Dictate gets "reset" and old and new dictations get mixed up (if the app crashes twice, the OS offers to create a new prefs file. This also resets Dictate's internal counter and causes issues. We have asked people to click "Close" instead of "Try Again" if the dialog appears)

     

    The dictations are sent to a file server, processed, and then made available in a shared area for our Transcriptionists. We have about 10 stations. The transcriptionists "Load and Delete" one or more cases and then transcribe them into our clinical system. Again, all are Macs (some intel, some PPC, most 10.5.x, some 10.4.11). We have had a number of issues with switching from "Lanier" to Express Scribe. 1)During the last few seconds of the dictation, the user is unable to enter text (we ask people to say "this is the end of the dictation" to remedy this) 2)Dictations can't be sent back to the server 3)Changing speed of dictation creates a "robotic" (hard to listen to) voice 4)As above, foot pedals are difficult to use.

     

    We have sent NCH a list of issues and they are working to resolve them. Some of the issues listed above have been addressed in the betas we have used. It is possible that ALL our issues will be addressed (except the foot pedals) by the time the software is released... time will tell. But it is very clear that NCH is working hard to get Dictate and Scribe updated and we are excited to use the new versions!

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