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A busy dermatology clinic produces many short notes with precise detail: "4 millimeter pink pearly papule, left nasal ala, shave biopsy, rule out basal cell carcinoma". Typing that between rooms is slow. General dictation is quick but writes "dysplastic nevis" and "bullous pemfigoid", and it has never heard of calcipotriene. The Healthcare dictionary in VoicePrivate has 909 dermatology terms, plus the drugs, pathology and surgical words a dermatology note borrows.
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What dermatologists dictate
Full skin exam
Areas examined, each lesion with location, size, morphology and dermoscopy findings, and which were biopsied or treated.
Procedure notes
Shave biopsy, punch biopsy, excision with margins and closure, cryotherapy of actinic keratosis with number of lesions, intralesional triamcinolone.
Mohs surgery reports
Tumor and site, number of stages, final defect size, repair type such as a flap or full-thickness skin graft, and pathology on each stage.
Medical dermatology
Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis follow ups with body surface area, itch score and biologic or topical plan; acne with isotretinoin monitoring; hair loss and rosacea.
Dermatology words general dictation gets wrong
These corrections come from the dermatology list in the Healthcare dictionary:
- "dysplastic nevis" to dysplastic nevus
- "bullous pemfigoid" to bullous pemphigoid
- "eosinofilic folliculitis" to eosinophilic folliculitis
- "neurofibrome" to neurofibroma and "lieomyoma" to leiomyoma
- "furunculosus" to furunculosis
- "hydrocortizone" to hydrocortisone
- "Dariers sign" to Darier sign and "Auspitz phenomenon" to Auspitz sign
- "full thickness graft" to full-thickness skin graft
Drug names are also matched by sound, so "catechonazole" becomes ketoconazole. A biologic split into pieces, such as "a dalimumab", is joined back to adalimumab.
What choosing Dermatology does
On Mac, open Settings and set the Medical specialty to Dermatology. Recognition is then primed with psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, actinic keratosis, seborrheic, dermoscopy, Mohs, cryotherapy, biopsy, onycholysis, telangiectasia, urticaria, rosacea, vitiligo and alopecia, and with clobetasol, triamcinolone, tacrolimus, calcipotriene, tretinoin, isotretinoin, doxycycline, ketoconazole, adalimumab and dupilumab. A long misheard word that is a near miss of one of those terms is matched to it first. Windows has no picker and uses the full medical dictionary.
Example: a skin check with two biopsies
- Exam. Click into the exam field, press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Full skin exam of scalp, face, trunk and extremities. Left nasal ala, 4 millimeter pink pearly papule with arborizing vessels on dermoscopy. Right upper back, 7 millimeter irregularly pigmented macule with an atypical network." Press the hotkey again.
- Procedures: press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Shave biopsy left nasal ala, rule out basal cell carcinoma. Punch biopsy 4 millimeter right upper back, rule out melanoma versus dysplastic nevus, closed with one simple interrupted suture." Press the hotkey again.
- Additional treatment: press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Actinic keratosis times 6 on the dorsal hands treated with cryotherapy, two freeze thaw cycles." Press the hotkey again.
- Plan: press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Psoriasis stable, body surface area 3 percent on calcipotriene and clobetasol on weekends. Will call with pathology. Return in 3 months." Press the hotkey again.
Into ModMed, Epic and other EHRs
VoicePrivate pastes through the clipboard and then puts back what you had copied, so nothing is installed inside the EHR. It works in free text fields of ModMed EMA, Nextech, Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth and eClinicalWorks. ModMed and Nextech fill many fields by tapping, and dictation fits the parts that are free text: the HPI, lesion descriptions, procedure details and the plan. If the EHR runs in Citrix or another remote desktop, that session must allow clipboard redirection from your computer. The EHR dictation guide walks through each system.
On-device facts
VoicePrivate transcribes on the Mac or Windows PC it is installed on. Audio never leaves that computer, and nothing is sent to a cloud service. With Auto-save transcriptions on, which is the default, each dictation is also kept in the app's Library on that computer. Turn it off in Settings if you want the EHR to hold the only copy.
Price
Healthcare Edition is $297 a year or $34.99 a month per clinician. There is no free trial. Individual monthly and annual plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment. Dermatology groups of 2 to 20 clinicians can buy team seats.
Dermatology dictation FAQ
Does it handle lesion sizes and locations?
Yes. Say sizes as you would write them, such as "4 millimeter", and anatomic sites in plain words. Read the pasted text before signing, as with any dictation.
Can I dictate Mohs reports?
Yes. Stages, defect size and repair are dictated as narrative text into the report field.
Does it know biologics and topical steroids?
Yes. Biologics, topical steroids, retinoids and antifungals are in the Healthcare dictionary, with corrections for common mishearings.
Does text appear while I talk?
No. Press the hotkey to start and again to stop. The finished text is pasted a moment later.
Is there a free trial?
No. Individual monthly and annual plans are charged at checkout with a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment. Team plans and renewals are not covered.
Dermatology work connects to pathology dictation for dermatopathology reads, oncology dictation for melanoma care and surgical dictation for excisions. If you are weighing cost, see what medical dictation software costs.