Everything you need to know about privacy-first medical dictation

Yes - and not in the way most dictation tools claim compliance. Most cloud-based dictation tools are "HIPAA-compliant" only because they sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and encrypt data in transit. Your voice data still travels to their servers, gets processed by their infrastructure, and may be stored or used for model training. VoicePrivate Healthcare takes a fundamentally different approach: all speech processing happens on your device using a local AI model. Your voice never leaves your device. There is no server to breach, no third-party processor to trust, and no BAA required for the dictation software itself - because no Protected Health Information is ever transmitted.

No. A BAA is required under HIPAA when a covered entity shares PHI with a business associate - a third party that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits PHI on behalf of the covered entity. Since VoicePrivate Healthcare processes all data locally on your device and never receives, transmits, or stores any PHI, it does not meet the definition of a business associate. This eliminates an entire layer of compliance paperwork and vendor risk from your dictation workflow. Your IT and compliance teams will appreciate this - one fewer vendor in your BAA chain means one fewer breach notification obligation.

When you trigger VoicePrivate Healthcare, your device's microphone captures your speech and feeds it directly to an AI model running locally on your device. The model converts your speech to text in real time. The resulting text is inserted into whatever application you're using - your EHR, a Word document, an email - as if you typed it. At no point is an audio file created, saved, or transmitted. The voice data exists only in your Mac's RAM during processing and is discarded immediately after transcription. Nothing is logged, cached, or stored.

No. We do not store any audio data, transcription text, or PHI on our servers. The only data we hold is your email address for license management. All transcription data exists solely on your local device. There is nothing to subpoena from us. Your dictation data is protected by the same physical and digital security measures you already apply to your Mac.

Yes, and it simplifies the process significantly. When conducting a HIPAA security risk assessment, you need to evaluate every system that touches PHI. Because VoicePrivate Healthcare processes data entirely on-device with no network transmission, the attack surface is limited to the physical security of the Mac itself - which is already within your existing security perimeter. There are no additional network vulnerabilities, no cloud endpoints to assess, and no vendor security posture to evaluate. Many compliance officers find that on-device tools like VoicePrivate Healthcare actually reduce the scope and complexity of their risk assessments.

VoicePrivate Healthcare's on-device architecture satisfies the data protection requirements of all 50 states, including states with stricter-than-federal requirements like California (CMIA, CCPA/CPRA), New York (SHIELD Act), Illinois (BIPA), Texas (TDPSA), and Washington (My Health My Data Act). Because no data is transmitted to any external server, there is no interstate data transfer to regulate, no third-party data processor to comply with state-specific requirements, and no breach notification scenario involving your dictation tool.

VoicePrivate Healthcare uses an Advanced AI engine running locally on your device. The engine achieves professional-grade accuracy across general and specialized vocabulary. For medical terminology - drug names, ICD-10 codes, anatomical terms, procedure names - accuracy is strong out of the box and improves with clear dictation habits. Most healthcare professionals report accuracy rates comparable to or better than Apple's built-in dictation, with the critical advantage that nothing is sent to the cloud. For highly specialized terminology unique to your practice, speaking clearly and at a natural pace produces the best results.

The AI engine's training data includes medical literature, clinical documentation, and healthcare-related audio, which means it handles common medical terminology well across specialties - including cardiology, orthopedics, dermatology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and more. It recognizes drug names (including brand and generic), anatomical terminology, diagnostic codes, and procedural language. For very niche terms or uncommon abbreviations specific to your practice, you may occasionally need to correct the transcription, but the model handles the vast majority of clinical language accurately.

Absolutely. VoicePrivate Healthcare works as a system-wide input method on macOS, which means you can dictate into any text field in any application. If you use an EHR template with structured fields (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan), you click into each field and dictate the content for that section. For free-text fields, you can dictate full H&Ps, progress notes, discharge summaries, referral letters, or any other clinical documentation. You can use voice commands like "period," "comma," "new paragraph," and "new line" to format as you go.

VoicePrivate — Healthcare Edition uses a single, optimized AI engine pre-tuned for medical terminology. No manual model selection is needed — the engine is automatically configured for maximum clinical accuracy. It runs on Apple Silicon with Metal GPU acceleration, and on Windows with optimized CPU inference. The 74,000+ term medical dictionary works alongside the AI engine for best results.

VoicePrivate Healthcare runs on any Mac with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, or later). The AI engine is optimized for Apple's Neural Engine, which means transcription is fast and doesn't significantly impact your Mac's performance while you work. We recommend at least 8GB of RAM for smooth operation alongside your EHR and other clinical applications. Intel Macs are supported with CPU-based inference. Performance is slower compared to Apple Silicon but fully functional.

Yes - completely. Since the AI model runs locally on your device, no internet connection is required at any point during dictation. This is essential for healthcare professionals working in secure facilities with restricted network access, rural clinics with unreliable internet, during EHR downtime events, or simply when you want the assurance that your dictation works regardless of network conditions. The only time an internet connection is needed is during initial download and software updates.

VoicePrivate Healthcare works with every EHR system that runs on macOS or is accessible via a web browser on your device. This includes Epic, Cerner (Oracle Health), athenahealth, NextGen, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, Practice Fusion, SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, Greenway Health, AdvancedMD, and any other EHR you access on your device. Because VoicePrivate operates as a system-wide input method, it inserts text wherever your cursor is - no plugins, extensions, or EHR-specific integrations required. If you can click into a text field and type, you can dictate into it.

Under 5 minutes. Download VoicePrivate Healthcare, install it (standard Mac drag-to-Applications), and launch it. On first run, the AI model downloads once (approximately 1.5GB). After that, everything runs locally. Set your preferred keyboard shortcut, and you're ready to dictate. No account creation, no login, no cloud configuration, no IT department involvement needed. Many physicians set it up between patients.

Yes. Each macOS user account on a shared workstation can have its own VoicePrivate Healthcare configuration. Since the software runs entirely locally, there is no cross-contamination of dictation data between users. Each provider's dictation session is completely independent and nothing persists after the transcription is complete. For hot-desking environments common in hospitals, each provider simply logs into their macOS account and VoicePrivate Healthcare is ready with their settings.

Yes. VoicePrivate Healthcare can run alongside your telehealth platform (Zoom, Doxy.me, Microsoft Teams, etc.) and capture your dictation separately from the video call. You would typically dictate notes after or between sessions rather than during a live patient call, but the software operates independently of any telehealth application. And because everything stays on-device, your telehealth documentation stays on-device without adding another vendor to your BAA chain.

A medical scribe - whether in-person or virtual - is another human with access to your patient's PHI. That's another BAA, another training requirement, another potential point of data exposure. Medical scribes cost $25,000-$50,000+ annually per provider. VoicePrivate Healthcare offers affordable subscription plans — a fraction of scribe costs — with no scheduling complexity, and no additional compliance burden. You maintain full control over your documentation, can dictate anytime (including after hours), and never worry about scribe availability, turnover, or quality variance.

VoicePrivate Healthcare offers a free trial with up to 5,000 words. Paid plans start at affordable monthly and annual plans with no per-provider fees and no usage limits. Team pricing is available for healthcare organizations. Contact us for details on multi-provider deployments.

Yes. The free tier is fully functional for basic dictation - no credit card required, no account creation, no time limit. You can evaluate VoicePrivate Healthcare in your actual clinical workflow before deciding to upgrade. Many providers use the free tier for weeks before purchasing, and some find it sufficient for their needs without upgrading at all.

Yes. For practices with 10+ providers, contact us for volume pricing. We also support procurement through standard healthcare technology purchasing channels and can provide vendor questionnaires, security assessments, and compliance documentation.

We support standard healthcare technology procurement. We can provide: vendor security questionnaires, security assessments, compliance documentation (though we process zero PHI on our servers), and volume licensing agreements. Contact us for procurement inquiries. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all paid plans.