San Francisco-based Augmedix has progressed from a Google Glass-based clinical documentation startup to a publicly-traded, AI-enabled ambient automation platform that documents patient encounters and generates medical notes that can be transferred to an EHR. The company, founded in 2012, also provides pre- and post-visit documentation offerings to give providers a more complete digital picture of a patient's health journey. Ian Shakil, founder, director and chief strategy officer at Augmedix, spoke with MobiHealthNews to discuss the company's evolution and its anticipated release of a new product in 2023. MobiHealthNews: Can you tell me about Augmedix and how it works in the ambient documentation space? Ian Shakil: I started the company about 10 years ago with the mission to rehumanize the provider/patient interaction.

The last two years have been some of the most exciting and highly anticipated in Automatic Speech Recognition's (ASR's) long and rich history, as we saw multiple enterprise-level fully neural network-based ASR models go to market (e.g. The accelerated success of ASR deployments is due to many factors, including the growing ecosystem of freely available toolkits, more open source datasets, and a growing interest on the part of engineers and researchers in the ASR problem. This confluence of forces has produced an amazing momentum shift in commercial ASR. We truly are at the onset of big changes in the ASR field and of massive adoption of the technology. These developments are not only improving existing uses of the technology, such as Siri's and Alexa's accuracies, but they are also expanding the market ASR technology serves.

VIQ Solutions Inc. ("VIQ" or the "Company") (TSX Venture Exchange: VQS and OTC Markets: VQSLF), a global provider of secure, AI-driven, digital voice and video capture technology and transcription services, today announced it completed migrating 400 clients to NetScribe, its AI-enabled transcription platform, creating efficiencies and workflow optimization tailored to target markets. VIQ successfully completed migrating its three initial acquisitions to NetScribe, resulting in a dramatic increase in editor speed and efficiency. Within six weeks of transitioning from offline transcriptionist to online editor, 30% of the team edits at a rate 30%-60% faster than standard manual transcription and 40% are at par and moving to improved results. NetScribe, powered by aiAssist, is proven to reduce labor costs, generate meaningful savings, boost margins, and increase revenue. As the appetite for digitalization of multi-speaker recorded events surges, the industry is struggling to keep up with the sharp increase of evidence collected daily.

There is no denying that in the court of law, any mistake in communication can end up turning a case over its head. When there are inaccuracies with the recording of statements and audio files, it can be quite easy for a case to become more confusing than it should be. The worst part is that a case could end up punishing the wrong people. In an industry that often deals with life and death, it is no wonder why legal transcriptionists are highly valued. There are even advancements being made where AI is utilized to take over in courtroom transcription.

AI is one of the driving forces behind what The World Economic Forum called "The Fourth Industrial Revolution". Developments in this area are expected to help us further automate our workflows and simplify our daily tasks, making everything from our food production chains to management and even medical procedures, far more effective and agile. And, according to PwC, AI is expected to add up to 15.6 trillion dollars to the world economy by 2030. AI is getting smarter faster than ever, with established players, such as Google or Amazon developing and integrating AI into their products and operations, and a generation of startups from all around the globe, developing and offering AI-based tools. One of the main areas that AI is starting to be used in, is transcription services.

Although lately, speech recognition technology has improved considerably, it is yet no match to the human transcriptionist in achieving accuracy. Speech recognition software that are commercially available show an average error rate of about 12% while transcribing phone conversation. Read on to learn more. Automated transcription is a process where an audio and video file is converted into a written format using voice & speech recognition technology. Like most AI streams, artificial intelligence for transcription works in the same way, training specific software with high-quality datasets or examples.

Couple things stood out to me at NAB. The last couple years at NAB, VR was everywhere. The Dell booth had a VR simulator, Intel had a VR simulator, booths had Oculuses galore and you could walk away with an armful of cardboard glasses… this year, not so much. Sure, but it was hardly to be seen in booths. It felt like the year 3D died.

Despite the primary purpose of transcription (to convert sound files to readable documents), a transcriptionist's job involves much more than typing. In a 2015 interview posted to LinkedIn, Lenna K. Millar, director of Audio Transcription & Secretarial Services (ATS), outlined the complexities of her work. Proofreading, editing, and rapid knowledge acquisition are just some of the additional skills required for accurate and complete transcription, but there's more. "We tune in to what the speakers are saying. We use our discretion," she said.

There is a lot of hype around using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in care provider settings. Last week, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's (UPMC) partnered with Microsoft, an expert in AI tools, to launch the first project under the new Healthcare NExt initiative aimed at improving clinicians' workflow, signaling continued interest and investment in the healthcare AI space. The nonprofit, which operates 25 hospitals and 600 doctors' offices and outpatient facilities, is at the forefront of the healthcare AI wave. It invests in the companies that create AI capabilities and launches its own startups, in addition to implementing co-created technologies for its clinicians to use with their patients. Dr. Rasu Shrestha, UPMC chief innovation officer and executive vice president of UPMC Enterprises, the institution's commercialization arm, told Healthcare Dive that its AI technologies has resulted in "quite the transformation" as they have allowed for an increased ...

Baidu, the Chinese company operating a search engine, a mobile browser, and other web services, is announcing today the launch of SwiftScribe, a web app that's meant to help people transcribe audio recordings more quickly, using -- you guessed it! Baidu in the past few years has been honing its DeepSpeech software for speech recognition. Last year, the company introduced TalkType, an Android keyboard that, using DeepSpeech, puts speech input first and typing second, based on the idea that you can enter information more quickly when you say it than when you peck. Now Baidu is coming out with another app enhanced with DeepSpeech, one that could arguably find better footing in a professional setting. Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all been working on speech recognition right alongside Baidu, but none of those four has come up with something aimed at longer-form transcription.