While technology like clinical speech recognition has the potential to support vital transformation for mental health services, making any lasting change takes careful consideration. Funding is limited, mental health professionals are already stretched, and change can be an intimidating undertaking.
In our last post, we highlighted the significant benefits of natural speech recognition in a mental health setting. From reducing reporting time to freeing up mental health professionals (MHPs) to focus on patients, not note taking, speech-driven tools can positively impact the way people work − and the way patients receive care. But workflow benefits alone don’t determine the success of new technology.
As mental health teams begin their journey of digital transformation, they need to consider a wide range of factors including ease of implementation, adoption, security and, of course, cost.
Ease of implementation
The real cost of new technology is rarely the out-of-the-box price. The NHS Long Term Plan continues to influence technology across healthcare, but many Trusts and mental health professionals find themselves using a mix of modern solutions and older, often unwieldy platforms. As a result, IT infrastructure isn’t always ready to support a new solution, regardless of its potential benefits.
A cloud-hosted, AI-enhanced clinical speech recognition solution like Augnito completely removes this complexity, delivering intuitive speech-to-text with no need for a complex on-site implementation and no infrastructure change. And with purpose-built dictionaries for MHPs vs. a third party add-on, and no need for time-consuming voice-profile training, it’s ready to use at a moment’s notice.
All with flexible per-user licensing, a simple annual fee, and ongoing updates and support included.
Driving adoption of natural speech recognition
If a solution helps a single mental health professional save at least 30 minutes every day, that’s significant. If it’s adopted by an entire team, each experiencing the same kind of impact on their workflow, this could positively impact the patient journey for thousands of people every year. The quality of clinical records can also be improved by increasing use and adoption of the EPR/EMR, and allowing for more detail to be captured – we can speak three times faster than we can type.
An effective plan for adoption starts with ease of use. Flexibility and interoperability are key. Augnito is available wherever mental health professionals need it, whether that’s on Windows, MacOS, smartphones or tablets. Additionally, through Augnito’s comprehensive SDK and API tools, speech-to-text capabilities can also be easily integrated into existing reporting systems, alongside any data captured via Augnito. In this way, it’s easy to make clinical speech recognition part of an existing workflow − as opposed to expecting an already strained workforce to make radical changes to how they capture information and report.
At the same time, early adopters can help drive adoption across the wider team. Augnito is designed to enable MHPs to focus on their patients with more eye contact and more time to listen. Beyond improving the patient journey, speech recognition improves the lives of the people who care for patients every day. These first-hand benefits are vital to maximising adoption.
Embedded security and privacy
As is the case with the entire healthcare system, security and privacy are vital considerations in mental health. This is particularly complex when it comes to cloud-hosted software and the question of how and where data is shared.
Augnito is HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus compliant, with data encryption deeply embedded into its design process with regular audits and penetration tests to monitor security posture. All UK data is anonymised and processed in the UK, subject to the aforementioned security standards.
In fact, speech recognition has a significant privacy benefit over written documentation and reports. With all information captured digitally, MHPs can reduce the risk of misplaced documents and the manual handling errors that most commonly lead to a data breach.
Making a targeted investment in better workflows
In mental health, investment has to be targeted appropriately and in the right way. In the aftermath of the pandemic and amid a cost-of-living crisis, the scope, scale and nature of mental health complaints are all changing. The one constant is the hard work of MHPs − and it’s here that any investment in change must begin.
Augnito influences patient journeys and outcomes by enabling mental health professionals (MHPs) to work more accurately, flexibly, and effectively. It’s an investment that, while small on a per-user basis, could dramatically improve the outlook for mental health teams and patients − nationwide.
Learn more about Augnito
Augnito is already impacting the patient journey through a growing list of UK radiologists and medical consultants. Request a demo and try Augnito Spectra for 7 days to see how it can help you.
