Dictadoc

Comparison

The Dragon Medical alternative that transcribes on your computer

This page compares Dictadoc with medical dictation in the cloud, on a subscription. Criterion by criterion: the licence, what becomes of your dictations, the connection, the computer you need. Every line of the Dictadoc column says what the software does.

  • Yearly licence
  • No monthly subscription
  • Transcribed on your computer
  • Works with no connection
  • Mac and Windows
Dictadoc for Mac Dictadoc for Windows

€19.99 a year, with no automatic renewal.

Why compare

Why people look elsewhere

  • The subscription runs until you stop it

    A subscription renews itself and is counted per user. If you dictate a few reports a week, the bill does not follow your use, and it carries on through the months when you dictated almost nothing.

  • You do not know where your patients' voices go

    When the transcription happens on a vendor's servers, the dictation leaves your computer. You can read what their contract promises, but you cannot check it yourself.

  • A connection that drops stops you

    Dictation transcribed remotely needs the link while you are speaking. In a basement, in a poorly covered wing or during an outage, there is nothing left but typing.

The table

Criterion by criterion

The left column describes cloud dictation on a subscription, and keeps to what is true of all of them. The right one describes Dictadoc, and it is the only one that states a fact you can check yourself.

Licence
Cloud dictation A subscription that renews, counted per user
Dictadoc A licence a year and per computer No automatic renewal
Your dictations
Cloud dictation The voice goes to the vendor's servers to be transcribed
Dictadoc Your computer transcribes it itself Nothing you dictate is sent over the internet
Connection
Cloud dictation The connection is needed while you dictate
Dictadoc Dictation works with no connection Once the software is installed and the licence activated
Hardware
Cloud dictation An ordinary computer is enough, the computing happens elsewhere
Dictadoc You need a recent computer The transcription speed depends on it
In your software
Cloud dictation The text comes back from the server, then goes where you were writing
Dictadoc A key starts the dictation and the text is written into the field that had the cursor
In a team
Cloud dictation Each user has an account and a share of the subscription
Dictadoc A licence per computer, or a server on your own network Dictadoc Server transcribes for every workstation
  • Transcribed on your computer
  • Dictation key
  • Text typed into the field
  • Dictadoc Server

The limits

What Dictadoc does not do

  • It does not connect to your patient software

    Dictadoc writes into the field where the cursor is. It does not read your patient database, fills in no form for you and has a connector for no software at all.

  • It is not driven by voice

    You dictate text, and the punctuation and line breaks. No voice command opens a record, clicks a button or moves around a piece of software.

  • It does not adapt to your voice

    The model is the same for everyone and does not train on your dictations. Nor does Dictadoc learn a word on its own: you add it to your vocabulary, from the settings or from a report.

Dictation example

A consultation dictated and transcribed on the spot

A cardiology consultation, dictated into the record after the examination.

What you say

Consultation report [full stop] fifty-eight year old woman [comma] referred for exertional breathlessness [full stop] [new paragraph] on examination [comma] no cardiac murmur [comma] no ankle swelling [full stop] saturation ninety-six per cent on air [full stop] [new paragraph] exercise test and echocardiogram requested [full stop] review with the results in six weeks [full stop]

What Dictadoc writes

Consultation report. Fifty-eight year old woman, referred for exertional breathlessness. On examination, no cardiac murmur, no ankle swelling. Saturation 96% on air. Exercise test and echocardiogram requested. Review with the results in six weeks.

The words in brackets are commands. Dictadoc replaces them with punctuation and line breaks.

With the "Numbers, units and dosages" setting turned on.

The settings list every command for your language.

Privacy

What you dictate stays on your computer

  • Transcribed on your computer

    Your computer transcribes your voice itself. Nothing you dictate is sent over the internet.

  • Erased on quit, if you want

    Choose to keep nothing, and reports and recordings are erased when you quit Dictadoc.

  • Encrypted on your disk

    The reports you keep stay in an encrypted database whose key is held by your system keychain.

Try both

Compare on your own reports

A few dictations are enough to know whether the transcription holds up on your hardware, your microphone and the way you dictate. No published figure answers that better than your own reports.

  1. Change nothing

    Keep the tool you use today. Dictadoc installs beside it and touches nothing that already works.

  2. Dictate the same texts twice

    Take three or four of this week's reports and dictate them into both. It is the only comparison that is about your voice and your vocabulary.

  3. Count what you correct

    What you gain is measured in corrections, not in advertised speed. Read both outputs side by side and count what you go back over.

Common questions

Before you switch

Does Dictadoc replace Dragon Medical?

That depends on what you want from it. For dictating a report and writing it into your software's field, yes. Voice commands that drive your workstation have no equivalent. A vocabulary built up over years does not carry over as it stands, but a list of words, one per line, can be imported into Dictadoc's.

Is the recognition as good?

We publish no recognition rate, and we measure nobody else's. Ours would depend on your microphone, your delivery and your specialty, so an average figure would tell you nothing about your own case. Dictating a few of your own reports will tell you more.

Can I transcribe recordings I already have?

Yes. Drop an audio file onto a report and Dictadoc transcribes it like a dictation. MP3, M4A and WAV, like the other formats your computer can read, go through one after another. It is a good way to try it on dictations you already know.

What happens at the end of the year?

The licence covers one year and does not renew itself. Nothing is taken from you unless you renew it, and your reports and recordings stay on your disk, in the application's encrypted store.

Do I need an online account to dictate?

No. The licence is activated once, and then the dictation happens entirely on your computer. You have no user account to create and no session to keep open while you work.

Read next

Your software, your computer

By specialty

Dictate your next report with Dictadoc

Install the app on Mac or Windows, buy a licence, then enter the key you receive by email in Dictadoc. The licence year starts on the day you activate it.

Download for Mac Download for Windows

€19.99 a year for one computer, with no automatic renewal. Buy a licence