Background
The Swiss Paraplegic Center (SPC) in Nottwil is a long-standing customer of Voicepoint. Before switching from Dragon Medical Direct (DMD) to Dragon Medical One (DMO) in February 2025, around 40 doctors were using DMD. Another 10 to 12 doctors were working with Winscribe, which was completely replaced in the course of the switch to DMO. Today, all medical staff work with Dragon Medical One.
The main reason for switching to DMO was the expiry of support for DMD – the SPZ in Nottwil therefore had to look for an alternative solution. Data protection played a decisive role in this. With a cloud infrastructure located exclusively in Switzerland, Voicepoint clearly scored points over other providers. In addition to data security, the consistently trusting cooperation with Voicepoint was also a decisive factor in continuing to work together.
Key facts
- Number of licenses: 101
- Solutions & services used: DMO, Voicepoint Argon® Lex, Voicepoint Argon® Identity Rec
- Operating system: Windows
- Number of authors: 101
- Input devices: Philips SpeechMike 3500
Introduction and experiences
The transition went smoothly for most users at the SPZ, as DMO was designed as an update to DMD and its handling hardly changed. This allowed doctors who had previously used Dragon Medical Direct to continue working seamlessly without extensive training and significant loss of time. Furthermore, additional costs were saved because the existing dictation devices – Philips SpeechMikes – are compatible with DMO.
The transition was particularly challenging for those members of the medical profession who had previously used Winscribe: «There was noticeable skepticism at the beginning, especially among doctors whose native language is not German. However, with the right internal training, everything went very well and the doctors concerned are now also satisfied with the new solution,» – says Rinaldo Capuano, ICT Business Partner Medical.
Rinaldo Capuano
Schweizer Paraplegiker-Zentrum (SPZ) Nottwil
The Swiss Paraplegic Center in Nottwil also introduced Voicepoint Argon® Identity for user management. The Voicepoint support team was always on hand to provide assistance – especially when it came to the short-term activation of home office connections, the support team was able to act quickly and provide the necessary support: «I am very satisfied with Voicepoint’s support, even though we haven’t needed it very often so far – it has always responded very well when needed,» says Rinaldo Capuano, ICT Business Partner Medical.
The difference in everyday life
A noticeable improvement was observed in the availability of dictations. After the introduction, there were no more interruptions in the provision of patient information, which quickly saved several days.
Voicepoint Argon® Identity also helped improve the work process: on the one hand, users are now automatically synchronized in a 4-hour cycle, which saves a lot of time; on the other hand, synchronization can be performed manually, allowing users to be added directly to the system. This has led to a massive reduction in waiting times.
Additionally, DMO has helped improve the efficiency and quality of our work. Dr. Christian Reza Onghay, the head of the Department of Orthopedics at the Center for Pain Medicine (CPM), said: «The quality is truly convincing. In particular, the text blocks are a huge advantage for me, as I use them a lot and they allow me to significantly speed up my work processes.»
Dr. Christian Reza Onghay
Schweizer Paraplegiker-Zentrum (SPZ) Nottwil
Conclusion and recommendation
The switch to Dragon Medical One brought numerous advantages for the Swiss Paraplegic Center in Nottwil: On the one hand, instead of four different dictation devices – two of which are no longer available – the Philips SpeechMike can now be used uniformly. On the other hand, the IT department can now focus exclusively on managing the driver and is not required to operate its own servers.
«The biggest benefit of direct speech recognition for us is that medical documentation is available immediately in real time, ensuring a smooth flow of information. For me, that’s almost more important than the time saved!» enthuses Rinaldo Capuano, ICT Business Partner Medical.
From the conversation with Mr. Capuano and Dr. Christian Reza Onghay, it is clear that they would definitely recommend the solution to other hospitals, clinics, and practices. Dr. Christian Reza Onghay primarily emphasizes the importance of this in outpatient care, stating: «Especially in outpatient care, where things have to happen very quickly and you have to hand everyone a letter quickly, DMO is a huge advantage.»