As new innovations continue to change the ways we work, radiology has a lot to gain from adopting new technology with confidence. But the biggest potential impact comes from deeply integrated solutions—not discrete, siloed tools that only make workflows more complex.

Previously, we’ve shared our insights on the challenges facing radiology, from workloads and backlogs to the perpetual pressure to reduce costs and find efficiencies. Today, those priorities remain critically important and the challenges faced in diagnostics only seem to intensify. Workflow gains are offset by the rise in chronic diseases and continued staff shortages – and the only way to meaningfully transform radiology is by extending the benefits of new workflows as widely as possible.

With Augnito, we’ve seen the most significant impact from AI-powered speech recognition that’s integrated with the systems radiologists and teleradiology providers already use every day.

The benefits of AI speech recognition in radiology

In the past few years, AI has been widely adopted across multiple industries and for a variety of tasks. These include data handling, generating content, and automating the routine tasks that take time away from more skilled work where the human touch is essential.

Healthcare is no different. Adopting a technology like speech recognition using AI has the potential to deliver considerable benefits, not just to individual users but entire Trusts and, ultimately, patients. These include:

• More accurate reporting
• Increased efficiency and faster workflows
• Managed security and compliance with cloud hosted solutions
• A reduced risk of errors
• More agility and the ability to report from anywhere.

However, while healthcare can unlock the same benefits as enterprises, the barriers to adoption are substantially different.

Making AI more accessible for radiology

In May 2024, The Royal College of Radiologists highlighted several major barriers to the adoption of AI. These included workforce shortfalls, outdated IT infrastructure, and educating radiologists to use new AI tools effectively. The report also emphasised the need for robust governance frameworks to bring control to the way new technologies are implemented, adopted and maintained.

Unlike other sectors, radiology’s adoption of AI is potentially hamstrung by the financial realities and organisational efficiencies of how healthcare works today.

In part, this can be addressed by making AI-powered solutions more accessible and adaptable. Augnito, for example, integrates sophisticated AI into a refreshingly straightforward and easy to use frontend. Radiologists can start with Augnito on any device with little or no training and, since Augnito is hosted in the cloud, there’s no need to be limited by an existing IT infrastructure.

Simultaneously, the time-savings achieved by Augnito lead to direct cost savings – on average, switching to speech recognition for reports (as opposed to slow manual transcription) creates an efficiency gain of around 5%. This could save £100,000s across an entire Trust, resources that can be repurposed into addressing the more fundamental barriers to transformation like legacy IT.

Integrating AI speech recognition with RIS/PACS

Another way we’re making AI more accessible in radiology is through our longstanding partnerships with leading Picture Archiving & Communication System (PACS) and Radiology Information System (RIS) providers.

Augnito has been integrated by Hexarad into its radiology reporting platform, empowering radiologists with a faster, more flexible way of reporting, reflecting Hexarad’s forward-thinking approach and position as Radiology Technology Innovator of the Year. In practice, Hexarad’s improvements to radiology workflows are positively impacting patients. An implementation in North West Anglia created time savings of up to 80 minutes per patient and Hexarad enables 30% more MSK scans per hour with its streamlined workflow including Augnito.

Similarly, Augnito is integrated with Intelerad’s PACS reporting, bringing voice recognition options into the reporting process. Intelerad’s InSight PACS is an established leader in the space, recognised Best in KLAS for the UK and Ireland PACS category in 2024.

At this year’s UK Imaging and Oncology (UKIO) congress 2024 in Liverpool, representatives from Intelerad and Hexarad presented discussions on trends, best practice, and the future of radiology. They were joined by other high-profile Scribetech partners with Augnito embedded into their solutions, including:

• Aptvision Ltd, with their e-referral portal, delivering better patient outcomes, reducing workloads for medical staff
• CIMAR UK Ltd, who recently joined forces with NHS England to deliver the AI Development Platform Pilot at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust that will enable the deployment of AI in medical imaging across the NHS
• Fujifilm Healthcare UK, who have integrated Augnito into their Universal Reporting module and presented this at UKIO along with new ultrasound imaging innovations and live demonstrations on its DeepInsight AI technology
• Magentus, with a new Managing Director at their UK helm and a team supporting more than 25 million imaging events each year across 700+ locations with its Cris Radiology Information System
• OpenRad Services UK Ltd – Biotronics 3D, showcasing its cloud-based, Augnito speech enabled remote reporting platform that includes the functionalities of a PACS, RIS and diagnostic 3D visualisation as distinct subscription packages with secure access from anywhere and from any device.

The integration of Augnito Voice Services into these partners’ platforms reflects the continued growth of Augnito AI powered speech recognition across radiology. While Scribetech has been an approved NHS solutions provider for over two decades, it brought Augnito to the UK market as a disruptive technology with a view to democratise the use of speech recognition across the continuum of care through Augnito’s value advantage – a better and more cost effective way for healthcare professionals to leverage the cloud and AI, to easily transform their patient data workflows. Now, 30 months later, Scribetech supports more than 2,000 UK radiologists who have switched to Augnito – through the company’s partnerships and direct channels. This year’s UKIO theme and message ‘Vision and Values: Putting People First’ resonates with the positive effect and impact that Augnito has had and is having on radiologists, and on patient imaging and diagnostics.

Learn more about Augnito

Interested in becoming an Augnito Spectra reseller, or an Augnito Voice Services integration partner? Contact us. See how Augnito makes cloud-based AI benefits more accessible to radiologists. Request a demo.

[London, 6 June 2024] – With deep, hassle-free, integration, Augnito is enabling continued transformation in radiology and supporting key solutions that will be showcased at UKIO 2024.

Taking place from 10th-12th June 2024 in Liverpool, the UK Imaging and Oncology (UKIO) congress is where leaders from across radiology come together to share best practice, discuss trends, undertake professional development, and learn about the latest state-of-the-art equipment and technology. The 2024 event will focus on the theme of ‘Vision and Values: Putting People First’.

Thanks to robust partnerships and extensive integration with leading platforms, Augnito speech recognition from Scribetech will be present at the event for the fourth year running.

“Nothing is more important to us than elevating fields across healthcare, and radiology is a particular focus,” stated Shiraz Austin, Managing Director at Scribetech (UK) Ltd and Co-Founder of Augnito. “Augnito Spectra, our own highly convenient frontend across desktop and mobile, is part of this approach, but integration is equally important. Technology providers understand the potential of speech recognition as an accessible way for healthcare to leverage the potential of AI. Our partnerships with award-winning providers using Augnito Voice Services to speech enable their platforms is key to how, together, we can bring the benefits of speech recognition to more radiologists.”

One of the solutions carrying Augnito Voice Services embedded inside is Intelerad’s InSight PACS,  adopted by over 250 NHS and private healthcare providers across the UK and Ireland. In February 2024, InSight PACS was recognised as a 2024 Best in KLAS: Global Software Report award winner. Crucially, this award was based on feedback from the solution’s users – the people who rely on radiology reporting technology every day.

Austin stated: “Clinical system developers and cloud imaging solution providers appreciate Augnito for its API and SDK allowing them to seamlessly add Voice Services to their offering. We’ve taken one-of-a-kind speech recognition, developed in partnership with clinicians, and made it easy to integrate into any existing diagnostics and radiology reporting platform. But what drives us is the response from radiologists. People have reported significant time savings, faster reports, and increased accuracy – all these benefits lead to smoother patient journeys and better outcomes. That’s what matters.”

Augnito is also integrated into Hexarad: Radiology Technology Innovator of the Year in the M&A Today Global Awards 2024. Hexarad was also awarded the Silver HSJ Partnership Award for Diagnostics Project of the Year for its partnership with the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. This project led to estimated time savings of up to 80 minutes per patient. Meanwhile, teleradiologists reporting on behalf of the trust received images within 25 minutes compared to 45 minutes using the previous system.

Representatives from these leading imaging solutions award winners will be attending UKIO 2024, (Hexarad), and exhibiting (Intelerad) alongside other high profile Scribetech partners using Augnito to speech-enable their systems. Exhibitors include Aptvision Ltd – with their e-referral portal, delivering better patient outcomes and reducing workloads for medical staff, CIMAR UK Ltd – who has recently joined forces with NHS England to deliver the AI Development Platform Pilot at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust that will then enable the deployment of AI in medical imaging across the NHS, Fujifilm Healthcare UK – has integrated Augnito into its Universal Reporting module and will be showing this at UKIO, as well as new ultrasound imaging innovations and live demonstrations on its DeepInsight AI technology, Magentus – with a new Managing Director at their UK helm and a team supporting more than 25 million imaging events each year across 700+ locations with its Cris Radiology Information System, and OpenRad Services UK Ltd – showcasing its cloud-based Augnito speech-enabled remote reporting platform that includes the functionalities of a PACS, RIS and diagnostic 3D visualisation as distinct subscription packages with secure access from anywhere and from any device.

This significant presence at UKIO reflects the continued growth of Augnito AI powered speech recognition across radiology.

Scribetech is also a member of AXREM, the UK trade association for suppliers of imaging and healthcare equipment. This gives the company insight into the current and emerging needs of radiologists and imaging professionals and helps ensure that its voice-driven AI powered and cloud based solution, Augnito, remains relevant, impactful and evolving in pace with demand.

“This will be the fourth year running, since launching Augnito technology, that it is being shown at UKIO through our partners,” added Austin. “And while Scribetech has been an approved NHS solutions provider for over two decades, we brought Augnito to the UK market as a disruptive technology because our vision was to democratise the use of speech recognition across the continuum of care. We knew Augnito provided the value advantage – a better and more cost effective way for healthcare professionals to leverage the cloud and AI, to easily transform their patient data workflows. Now, 30 months later, we’re supporting more than 2,000 UK radiologists who have switched to Augnito – through our partnerships – and many others directly. We couldn’t agree more with this year’s UKIO theme and message ‘Vision and Values: Putting People First’. The positive effect that the impact Augnito is having on radiologists, and on patient imaging and diagnostics reporting speaks for itself. ”

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact [email protected]

Notes to editors
All company names and product names listed in this press release are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About Scribetech (UK) Ltd and Augnito
Scribetech (UK) Ltd is a clinical solutions innovator and official distributor of Augnito products in the UK and Ireland. The company co-developed Augnito with its sister company Augnito India Private Ltd fusing 20 years of highly accurate and secure transcription and digital dictation services to the NHS, speech-to-text, and clinical coding solutions for the healthcare sector, and its own Deep Neural Network speech recognition engine with advanced voice AI technology. Augnito provides a secure, cloud-based, voice-driven AI clinical speech recognition product suite, offering fast, easy ways to capture live clinical data on any device with 99% accuracy, support for multiple medical specialities, and no need for voice profile training. Augnito brings cost effective, seamless speech recognition to daily workflows and third-party clinical systems, quickly turning medical information into documentation that makes healthcare intelligence compliant and accessible where it is needed.

[London, 18 May 2023] – Augnito Voice Services™ will integrate with Intelerad’s InSight PACS reporting, equipping clients with accessible, advanced speech recognition technology that simplifies patient care.

This new integration partnership will provide Intelerad clients with increased voice recognition options, giving them access to a pioneering, cloud-based product that helps ensure clients are not limited to one voice recognition platform and the risks associated with that dependence.
Intelerad Cloud is a menu of expertly cloud-engineered solutions designed to optimise the benefits of Cloud technology and scalability potential without sacrificing the performance of onsite architecture. Proudly vendor-neutral, Intelerad, is integrating its products with multiple technologies which fit with its cloud-based strategy, Augnito being the most recent. These can assist with the Cloud First strategy by utilising the Cloud for disaster recovery, image exchange and long-term archiving, and this latest addition is another way Intelerad is providing the latest cloud innovations and future resilience required by its clients.

Augnito can be used with a speech microphone or even through an app on a smartphone, making it faster and easier for radiologists and clinicians to diagnose critical conditions where every second counts, leading to better outcomes for patients.

Shiraz Austin, Managing Director at Scribetech (UK) Ltd and Co-Founder of Augnito stated, “Intelerad is a best-in-class provider of medical imaging software with a mission statement that dovetails very well into our own – where technology is developed to impact healthcare in a positive way and where making more time for patient care is paramount. Our partnership agreement solidifies the solution strategies of both organisations, and we’re excited that our secure, cloud-based, voice-powered AI speech recognition technology, Augnito, will play an important role in achieving this. Through the use of Augnito technology, Intelerad can empower radiologists to deliver reporting when and where it’s needed to keep the patient journey and clinical workflows moving.”

Intelerad is exploring integrating Augnito into other products in its portfolio, Arron Edwards, Managing Director of Intelerad, commented, “Intelerad is excited to be able to add the class-leading, cloud-based speech engine from Augnito into our fully featured rich reporting solution, which is built into InSight PACS. Our UK engineering team have worked hand-in-hand with the Augnito engineering team at Scribetech, leading to an incredibly successful integration which will ensure that we can continue to offer a best-in-class solution for our clients.”

ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Clare Dawe, Marketing Manager, Insignia Medical Systems powered by Intelerad
01256 247 010
[email protected]

ABOUT INTELERAD
Intelerad is one of the leading providers of medical imaging software and services for the healthcare industry. Headquartered in Raleigh, NC and Montreal, Quebec, Intelerad has over 900 employees located in offices across six countries. Nearly 2,500 healthcare organizations around the world rely on Intelerad products to manage patient data, helping them reduce time and workload while improving patient outcomes. Intelerad’s award-winning enterprise imaging solutions have been recognized globally by KLAS, with Intelerad’s Ambra Health ranked #1 in Image Exchange for eight consecutive years. To learn more, visit intelerad.com.

Intelerad welcomes contact from PRs and journalists for quotes, expert opinions or bespoke content for particular press articles. Please contact Clare Dawe in the first instance at [email protected]

ABOUT SCRIBETECH AND THE AUGNITO SOLUTION
Augnito is a secure, cloud-based, AI-driven clinical speech recognition product suite. It offers fast, easy ways to capture live clinical data on any device with 99.3% accuracy, support for multiple medical specialties, and no need for voice profile training. Augnito brings seamless speech recognition to daily workflows and third-party clinical systems, turning medical information into clinical documentation and making healthcare intelligence securely accessible wherever it’s needed. Augnito was co-developed by Scribetech, a clinical voice solutions innovator, fusing 20 years of transcription and digital dictation services to the NHS, speech-to-text, and clinical coding solutions for the healthcare sector, and its own speech recognition engine with advanced voice AI technology. Follow us on Linked-In.

 

Technology has a vital role to play as the radiology profession continues to recover from the impact of the pandemic, workforce shortages, backlogs and changing ways of working. The cloud will be key in maximising productivity gains as radiologists and NHS Trusts look for more efficient ways of working.

For years, it’s been clear that radiology is a department in need of change. Long before the pandemic, the profession was notoriously understaffed, creating a steadily growing studies backlog, year after year. Meanwhile, it was becoming increasingly clear that legacy imaging systems, with their on-premise, hard to access data, would soon become untenable.

The events of 2020 changed life, work and healthcare on a global scale. Suddenly, the idea of radiologists working remotely, and in some cases from home, became a reality. Trends that were already in motion accelerated – and the backlogs grew even further out of control.

The spark of much needed modernisation was lit – and acceleration to digital transformation became a reality.

Modernising diagnostics throughout the NHS

In November 2021, the UK Government announced significant funding to modernise and digitise diagnostics. This was in addition to a Spending Review promise of £2.3 billion to transform diagnostic services across England.

The stated goal of this funding was clear: to increase efficiency by saving staff time, making data sharing easier, and speeding up patient treatment as a result.

In radiology specifically, this funding was pledged to be focused on sharing scans across settings, improving how scans are requested, and enabling radiologists to report on scans remotely.

How can these diverse targets be met in a way that helps government funding and taxpayer money go further? What kind of new technology can become the bedrock of transformation for radiology? Furthermore, how can this technology become a seamless part of the workflow, not just for radiologists, but also in how medical departments and disciplines interact?

Removing old processes and obstacles is only part of the answer. Using a solution that offers portability, connectivity and flexibility towards how radiologists now need to work in the post pandemic digital era provides a more holistic approach.

Improving the core workflow of radiologists

A key barrier to radiologist productivity is unwieldy and out of date software that makes reporting on images more obtuse and time consuming than it needs to be. Replacing such with an AI-driven speech recognition (SR) and voice transcription system is a powerful way to make day-to-day reporting more efficient, by:

• Enabling radiologists to easily dictate reports with extreme accurate results and little to no editing required
• Delivering an intuitive, easy to use interface for transcription
• Automating repetitive tasks through macros and auto-texts

As a simple replacement for manual transcription services, a voice-AI SR like Augnito creates considerable time savings for radiologists. As a result, they’re able to keep pace with a sizable workload – and reduce the backlogs created by the pandemic and working from home.

Taking speech recognition benefits everywhere

Crucially, Augnito was built in partnership with radiologists and around the clear, urgent need to make reporting more flexible, scalable and secure. The pandemic demonstrated that work from home was possible. But remote access is also a way for radiologists to work however and whenever they need to.

Augnito is a 100% cloud-hosted solution, available anywhere, bringing highly accurate speech recognition to smartphones, tablets and browser-based applications. With Augnito, radiologists can work securely from home – or anywhere else – while avoiding the need for complex and cumbersome locally installed applications, which often tie up IT resources.

At the same time, a cloud speech recognition solution helps Trusts use their funding effectively and achieve their digital transformation goals sooner and with greater ease. There’s no need for costly, complex changes to infrastructure, or ongoing maintenance and updates. A hosted solution is ready to use immediately, then backed by ongoing centralised management.

Speech recognition has helped radiologists work more efficiently for years. Now, cloud-hosted speech recognition empowers radiologists to work not just faster and more accurately, but with unlimited flexibility and peace of mind around security and compliance, including, GDPR and PID regulations. All while making change simple and risk-free for Trusts and healthcare providers, with a solution that can be securely provisioned in-line with a secure IT strategy.

Going beyond the radiology department

Radiologists themselves are at the core of how imaging and reporting is changing. But they also have an important role to play as part of a wider diagnostic process where information flows from GPs to radiologists and back again.

With this in mind, the connectivity and availability of radiology data is a fundamental requirement for digital transformation to be impactful – providing the holistic approach we touched on earlier.

Augnito can also be deeply integrated with other clinical and reporting technologies, using the Augnito API and SDK intergration tools.

Through integration, our industry leading SR engine can become an integral part of the entire healthcare clinical reporting path:

• Enabling GPs to report directly into their patient admin system in primary care
• Sending referral letters through to other specialised physicians/clinicians
• Working hand-in-hand with EMR/EPRs
• Returning patients and reports back to GPs and any follow-up community or mental health support

In many cases, we already have relationships with the leading providers to make Augnito integration faster and more straightforward. Similarly, we’ve built strong relationships across teleradiology, bolstering the ability to deliver SR to outsourced radiologists also helping to clear NHS backlogs.

In this way, Augnito isn’t just supporting radiologists individually – we are beginning to transform the entire field, as well as reaching out to the many other specialist professionals across healthcare.

A solution for every aspect of radiology reporting

Augnito is tailored to the challenges the profession is facing – and the big opportunities for change and improvement.

Accuracy is at the centre of what makes Augnito different. But it’s the quality of our solution and the sum of its many parts that makes it such a good fit for radiology’s continued transformation.

Augnito helps radiologists process their reporting more efficiently. It puts time savings in their hands, wherever they work – be it from hospitals or home. Augnito works out-of-the box with a range of intuitive apps and interfaces. It can also be deeply integrated with other clinical systems, extending the impact of its speech recognition benefits and empowering Trusts to save even more time and money. All from the same secure, cloud-based technology.