Strictly Speaking, Voice Recognition Technology Works

Flying cars. Teleportation. A cure for the common cold. Voice recognition.
The future always seems to never arrive. But get ready to start checking that last one off your list.

I've been following efforts to get voice recognition going since, well, Captain Kirk spoke to the Starship Enterprise's computer back in the original Star Trek TV series in the 1960s.

Now, there's a hospital in Chicago that would recognize everyone on that bridge from Kirk to Mr. Sulu and even Ensign Chekov.

At Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, a 410-bed hospital south of Wrigley Field, the future has arrived. Eighteen months into a full rollout of voice recognition–powered technology, physicians and other staff have replaced their paper notes with 25,000 voice- and keyboard-generated notes per month.

Equally powered-up is Adem Arslani, MS, RN, director of information systems and clinical informatics at Advocate Illinois Masonic. He had plenty to say (naturally) when we spoke last week.