Adapting a Computerized Medical Dictation System to Prepare Academic Papers in Radiology

Everyday radiologists use dictation software to compose clinical reports of imaging findings. The dictation software is tailored for medical use and to the speech pattern of each radiologist. Over the past 10 years we have used dictation software to compose academic manuscripts, correspondence letters, and texts of educational exhibits. The advantages of using voice dictation is faster composition of manuscripts. However, use of such software requires preparation. The purpose of this article is to review the steps of adapting a clinical dictation software for dictating academic manuscripts and detail the advantages and limitations of this technique.