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Good morning, We are in the process of transitioning our providers from a network version of dragon to the new cloud version. Currently we are using the Nuance Power Mic II which is pretty expensive. Has anyone else invested in other microphones that still work well but cost less?
Posted : October 6, 2017 1:27 am
We started with the Philips Speechmike Pro and it was a source of many problems. The main issue it that the Speechmike has a separate software that need to run for it to function properly. Unfortunately this software would crash making the microphone useless. Once we stated using the power mic we noticed a massive improvement in the accuracy of the dictation as well as the stability since Power Mic uses dragon its self as the controlling software. Sorry I cant suggest a cheaper Mic to look at but at least you know one to avoid.
Posted : October 6, 2017 1:46 am
good to know Drew, I have also thought about going this route but haven't. You can try downloading the mic app on the provider's smart phone but I believe that is a monthly charge and will eventually add up to what a power mic or a low grade laptop costs anyway. mmodal doesn't charge for their mic app but you also cannot use your existing nuance mics with their software. At least that was how it was when I looked into them a couple years ago.
Posted : October 6, 2017 2:31 am
I was interested in the cloud version of dragon as well until they had their ransomware attack. Their cloud services were down for weeks after the attack.
Posted : October 6, 2017 3:34 am
We are a Dragon Medical Edition 2 clinic. We have Philips Speech Mic Pro microphones. I will admit it is a small pain to have to install the Philip Speech Mic software/driver separately, but to be honest I had figured all brand of Mics required it. Good to know the Power Mic option eliminates a step. I have not seen many problems with the Philips software crashing so that has not been an issue for us.
About 2 months ago one of our surgeons wanted to try M-Modal so I installed it for him. He is using it with the same Philips Speech Mic Pro mic that he had been using with Dragon Medical Edition 2. The mic works fine as long as you use the M-Modal Speech Box (similar to the DragonPad). M-Modal with the Philips Speech Mic would not work directly in a Centricity form without causing issues. This particular surgeon always used the DragonPad so his work flow with M-Modal Speech Box was the same for him.
The surgeon believes M-Modal is more accurate than Dragon was for him. I am wondering if the Power Mic would help by the same degree both Dragon and M-Modal.....might be worth purchasing a Power Mic and doing some testing.... Thanks for the info.
Mike
Posted : October 9, 2017 7:11 am
Ugh, that brings up bad memories for me with the Phillips Speech Mike era. I will say this, that hardware is solid! You just can't break them. But the software required for them to work was absolutely horrible. The Nuance Microphones are very expensive and not as rugged. I have had to replace 4 of them out of 20 purchased. What we did in our clinic is use the goose neck Microphones from Buddy Products. They are about $200 but that's cheaper than the Nuance microphones. We use a keyboard shortcut for on/off functionality (or just say "Microphone off"). Our doctors prefer not holding the microphones to reduce RSI potential.
Is M-Modal cloud based or are they going to be cloud based someday?
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee neurological Clinic
Posted : October 10, 2017 2:54 am
Hi Mike,
I think m*modal (Fluency) is not cloud based - remember reading a blurb about how their customers would not be affected from what happened to nuance...but with almost everything going the cloud route, they probably will at least have that as an option (if they don't already).
We will be evaluating m*modal Fluency in near future. Have a very hastily put together proof of concept - installed on term server and dictating through a smartphone via their free app. I was floored when it worked right out of the box. I wouldn't suggest this as the primary method for voice input since there are many variables at play but it was pretty cool that it worked.
Will probably do a bake off b/n Dragon and Fluency...
Posted : October 23, 2017 4:53 am
