Most medical professionals rely heavily on dictation to document patient encounters and correspond with referring physicians.  Dictation is generally preferred over hand writing notes because it is quicker, easier and often promotes more complete documentation.

Handheld Digital voice recorders are utilized in a multitude of ways in the Healthcare industry.   Traditional transcription services switched to digital recorders to facilitate electronic documentation (pc based) systems. The digital recorder makes it easy to transfer files directly to the pc for transcription and allows for saving and archiving of audio files. In addition digital recorders provide a high level of functionality compared to their predecessor analogue devices. 

Physicians can use digital recorders to dictate hundreds of files, flag files with special instructions, set categories for dictated files, take photographs of patient injury that is synchronized with dictation and much more. There are numerous benefits and the form factor (size) makes it truly effective for physicians that need to document information at the point of care.

Today there are numerous "Internet-based" transcription services that also utilize digital voice recorders.  Physicians dictate their notes into a digital voice recorder and either connect the recorder to a USB cable or remove the memory card and insert it into a card reader connected to a computer. The files are securely transferred via the internet and are   sent back over the Internet generally in a Microsoft Word Document format.  To adhere to government mandates for patient confidentiality under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) the process is conducted using encryption technology.

Other technologies are emerging as the healthcare industry tries to reduce the errors and inefficiencies associated with paper. The shift to electronic health records (electronic medical records, a computerized system) software offers great promise to reduce medical errors while decreasing the cost associated with chart pulls and traditional expenses. Successful systems are combining the benefits of EHR/EMR for example prescription assistance, laboratory Interface,  health maintenance reminders, etc with the ability to download recorded transcription directly into the patient chart for review or transcription.

Digital Voice Recorders (digital dictation) continues to be one of the leading technology solutions in the healthcare industry for documenting patient encounters. The success can be attributed to the technologies ability to accommodate workflow in conjunction with allowing providers to be completely mobile.  Other factors that lend to the popularity of digital voice recorders are cost, recorders cost substantially less than PC's Tablet PC', Pocket PC's, and the digital recorder is substantially easier to utilize.