In this issue:

Announcements
Converser for Healthcare
Seattle Office Goes Virtual
Success Story
Tech Tools & Tips
Contact Us

Announcements

Converser for Healthcare
Communicate with
Spanish-Speaking Patients... NOW!!

Zephyr-TEC is pleased to announce we have become the first reseller of the groundbreaking translation software, Converser for Healthcare. Winner of this year's "Leon Lerman Best of Show" award at SpeechTEK West, Converser is the creation of Berkeley, California based Spoken Translation. Converser aims to help those with limited English-speaking ability communicate with English-speaking caregivers accurately, in real-time, without an interpreter.

Converser reliably translates two-way conversations between English-speaking healthcare professionals and Spanish-speaking patients. Because Converser doesn't rely on pre-programmed phrases like electronic dictionaries and other products on the market, it allows for broader, more conversational translations.

And you can be sure you're saying what you mean to say, because the translations are verifiable. Converser’s technology provides a translation of the translation, so you can verify accuracy for yourself. If a word has been translated with the wrong meaning, Converser provides a list of other meanings for quick correction.

How It Works

1. Enter the text to be translated. Text can be entered in four ways:

• Standard Keyboard
• Touchscreen
• Handwriting Recognition
• Spoken Dictation— Dragon NaturallySpeaking (primarily for healthcare workers)

Users can select and freely mix their preferred input methods. To save time, in addition to the input methods above, you can also click or touch on pre-verified phrases—Translation Shortcuts.

2. Translate . . . and verify the translation!

Converser lets you verify that your words have been correctly translated by displaying translations of the translations. If you find translation errors, you can correct them using easy-to-understand Meaning Cues. For example, you can specify desired word meanings using standard synonyms.

3. Accept your translation and let others hear and see it.

Click the system’s OK button to transmit the translation to others. When the translation is sent - synthesized, translated speech in the person's native language is heard.

4. Respond in the other language.

Spanish speakers use a Spanish user interface which includes Spanish Translation Shortcuts.  English speakers use an English user interface with English Translation Shortcuts.

5. Save the conversation in a bilingual transcript!

Converser technology can also deliver translated and verified text to instant messaging, email, and chat applications.

What This Means for Patients:

When patients are empowered to communicate in their own words, they can describe their symptoms, provide information, and ask questions. Connection with their caregivers is facilitated when they know they’re being understood.

Patients no longer have to wait – sometimes hours – for a qualified interpreter or bilingual speaker. Their treatment is accelerated, and their peace-of-mind increased.

What This Means for Healthcare Providers:

Healthcare providers and their organizations benefit in many ways from Converser’s translation services:

Affordability and maximization of Language Access budget:
The cost of Converser software is far less than compensation rates for professional interpreters, whether they are working in person, by phone, or via video conferencing. In fact, it can be as little as a few pennies per translation incident. So Converser helps organizations stretch their budgets. And expensive trained interpreters can be reserved for the most critical cases.

Faster and more direct patient care:
Converser provides an accessible, reliable translation system 24/7. So healthcare workers can tend to limited-English patients more quickly, potentially reducing the severity of their issues. Faster care also helps minimize the stress and pain of lengthy waiting periods. And a simple and friendly communication tool fosters lasting goodwill.

Informed consent and minimization of liability:
Converser’s bilingual transcripts facilitate record-keeping while enhancing direct communication. By contrast, human interpreters normally do not provide precise and verified hard-copy or digital records of a dialog. Using Converser, healthcare workers can make sure that patients fully understand diagnoses or prescriptions. And because patients can describe their own symptoms in their own language, healthcare workers can confidently move on to make diagnoses, avoiding unnecessary and expensive testing.

While Converser is not intended to fully replace human interpreters, with human hearts and minds, it will reduce interpreting costs, and will be invaluable when accessibility to interpreters is limited.

Webinar: Converser! for Healthcare

Join Us for Live Webinars - Right from Your Browser

See for yourself how Converser can help English-speaking caregivers communicate with their Spanish-speaking patients. Get answers to your critical translation questions.  Learn how Converser can:

• Cost under $5 per interpreting incident
• Reduce patient waiting times
• Free up interpreters to concentrate on the most critical cases
• Raise "Informed Consent" to a higher standard

REGISTER TODAY!

Tuesday, November 27     11 AM PST    
Thursday, December 13      1 PM PST

Go to: https://elearnspeechtraining.webex.com
In the Search for field, enter: Converser
Choose: Registration for the Webinar you'd like to attend

Follow the prompts, and register for the session. If you have any questions about registering for the Informational Webinar sessions, please don't hesitate to call us, and we can help you get set up!

1-877-493-7497

Seattle Office Goes Virtual
New Contact Information

Times change, and Zephyr-TEC changes with the times. Today most Zephyr-TEC clients elect to take live, online training, rather than travel to a specific location. We conduct almost all of our demonstrations, training and support online, via advanced desktop sharing technology.  To that end, we have switched our Seattle physical office to a Virtual Office.

While we’ve done away with the brick and mortar, the Zephyr-TEC employees you’ve come to trust will continue to provide you with the excellent service and expertise for which we’ve become famous.

We still provide onsite training at your location so don’t hesitate to ask us to come to you!

Please take a moment to update your address book or contact software. Our new contact information for the Seattle area is:

Call: 206-523-3586
Fax: 206-523-3587
Web: www.zephyr-tec.com
Email: washington@zephyr-tec.com

Success Story
Bilingual Rehabilitation Counselor Increases Productivity with Dragon!

Mary Barros-Bailey is a counselor and specialist in vocational rehabilitation.  Her company, Intermountain Vocational Services, counsels injured workers and other Spanish and Portuguese speaking populations with special needs in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Mary started using Dragon NaturallySpeaking after she was diagnosed with bilateral ulnar nerve strains.  She's been using NaturallySpeaking for about seven years.  Here, in her own words, Mary shares her experiences with Dragon.

I'm in private practice as a bilingual rehabilitation counselor, vocational expert, and life care planner.  I'm also a doctoral student.  I use Naturally Speaking in conjunction with EndNote to store information that allows for fast and easy access of tons of resources I need for both professional and academic purposes.

For example, if I'm looking for information on a topic and do a literature search, I can bring some of the information into EndNote.  NaturallySpeaking allows for me to enter a considerable amount of information, particularly into the "Notes" field, that would otherwise be typed in and could constitute hours of additional work.  Therefore, as I read the article, or other source, I speak in the summary into the record.  It serves the dual purpose of allowing me to better learn the information contained in the article while simultaneously having it stored into an EndNote library record for later access.  And, it makes me way, way, way more efficient in what I do professionally and academically.

If you would like to share your own NaturallySpeaking experiences for future newsletters, please e-mail your story to: pfilson@zephyr-tec.com

Tech Tools & Tips
Dragon’s Wizard: More Useful Than Harry!

After work, you pick up your laptop and head off for the nearest cybercafe.  Once you've settled in with your macchiato, you don your headset to begin dictating only to find your recognition is horrible!  What's happened?

When you make changes to things like the environment you're working in or the headset you're using, you'll probably sound differently to Dragon and your recognition will suffer.  Often you can fix this with Dragon’s resourceful wizard-the Audio Setup Wizard.

The Audio Setup Wizard is a tool that helps you test and configure your sound system settings.  The wizard should take less than minute to complete.

To open the Audio Setup Wizard:

• On the Tools menu of the DragonBar click Accuracy Center.
• When the Accuracy Center opens, click or say "Check your audio settings."
• Follow the instructions on the Audio Setup Wizard screen.

You should run the Audio Setup Wizard if you:

• Change your microphone or sound system
• Find that your speech recognition accuracy has deteriorated
• Dictate in a different environment
• Want to change how loudly you speak

Some users run the Audio Setup Wizard every time they start Dragon.  Remember... configuring your sound system settings properly and using your microphone correctly are crucial for good speech recognition accuracy.