VOICE-ACTIVATED COMPUTERIZED PATIENT HISTORY-TAKING SYSTEM

THE PHASE I PROJECT GOAL IS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP AN AUTOMATED PATIENT INFORMATION AND HISTORY-TAKING-SYSTEM UTILIZING SPEECH INPUT AND OUTPUT. SUCH AN AUTOMATED SYSTEMCOULD STREAMLINE PATIENT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, ALLOWING FOR MORE COMPLETE INFORMATION WITH LESS PHYSICIAN TIME. IN ADDITION, RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT SOME INDIVIDUALS FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE RELATING CERTAIN TYPES OF INFORMATION TO A MACHINE RATHER THAN TO A HUMAN. VOICE INPUT WOULD MAKE SUCHA SYSTEM MORE USER FRIENDLY. THE MAIN INNOVATION IN THIS PROJECT IS THE SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT NATURE OF THE TECHNOLOGY. THE R&D EFFORT FOR PHASE I WILL BEGIN BY REVIEWING EXISTING AUTOMATED SYSTEMS, SELECTING OR REDESIGNING THE TEXT AND HISTORY-TAKING SCOPE. NEXT, SPEECH SYSTEMS, INC. (SSI) WILLDESIGN AND IMPLEMENT THE INTERVIEWING SPEECH INPUT/OUTPUT INTERFACE AND LANGUAGE MODEL, AND PERFORM A CYCLE OF TESTING AND IMPROVEMENT OF SYSTEM PERFORMANCE. FINALLY, SSI WILL DEMONSTRATE A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM AT THE END OF THE PROJECT AND WILL MAKE A VIDEOTAPE OF THE SYSTEM. SSI ANTICIPATES THAT THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL RESULT IN A DEMONSTRABLE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM. IN PHASE II, IT IS PLANNED TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM'S PERFORMANCE AND TO WIDEN ITS SCOPE.