THE medical imaging department at Leighton has introduced a very innovative system which we feel will improve proceedings in the whole department, especially with cancer patients, including those with prostate cancer.

It has introduced a fully integrated speech recognition engine with the new IT Radiology Information System (RIS).

This speech/magic voice recognition system will increase efficiency and productivity, reduce administration costs, improve quality and customer care and reduce the amount of routine typing.

Reports will be added automatically to patients’ electronic records and optimise workflow and faster report creation.

This system will also allow the radiologists to work from home if necessary as it is server based.

The unfortunate drawback is that every member of staff operating with this equipment must have a ‘Speech Magic licence’ for voice recognition and the cost of each licence is £1,500.

I have proposed a meeting with our MP Antoinette Sandbach to see if one licence would suffice with those staff members’ names who would be operating the equipment.

However, I feel it is too important to miss having this innovation up and running to ensure not only the hospital will benefit but also the most valuable commodity, the patient, and therefore we have committed £10,000 to ensure some licences can be purchased sooner rather than later, and the system does what it says on the tin.

The group is reliant on its own fundraising activities, enabling us to make such a donation and also to keep up our programme of PSA testing for early detection prostate cancer, so would appreciate any financial assistance to ensure this ‘dent’ in our finances can be perhaps be helped back.

We can then continue our quest to try and reduce the present high mortality from this awful disease which affects so many men here in the UK.

Gary Steele MBE
Chairman Leighton Hospital Prostate Cancer Support Group