Top medical transcription software in 2024: a comprehensive guide

Medical professionals have a lot on their plate—from patient care to administrative duties.

The increasing administrative workload is a major cause of burnout among healthcare professionals.

In fact, a recent survey found that in 2021, 63% of physicians reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout—a 38% increase from 2020.

Luckily, more and more solutions are coming on the market to offer some well-deserved relief.

Medical transcription software improves how healthcare providers manage clinical documentation, making the process faster and more accurate.

It converts spoken words into SOAP notes, saving time and accurately capturing details. Some tools record audio for later transcription, while others automatically convert medical speech into editable documents, making it easier to keep up with clinical notes.

In this guide, we'll explore the leading medical transcription software, offering insights into their features, benefits, and how each tool can enhance your practice.

Quick summary: medical transcription software

Here's a quick breakdown of the leading medical transcription tools today:

What is medical transcription software?

Let's start with some definitions. Medical transcription software converts spoken medical dictations into written text, creating accurate and accessible clinical documentation. This software helps healthcare professionals like you maintain detailed patient records while reducing the time spent on manual note-taking.

There are two primary types of medical transcription software:

1. Dictation software: Records audio files of your spoken notes. While it captures what you say, the transcription process isn't automatic; you'll need to transcribe it manually later. This option is excellent if you need flexibility in how and when you transcribe your clinical notes.
2. Full transcription software: Automatically converts medical speech into text, generating editable documents in real time. This type of SOAP note software is valuable if you need to create notes quickly and accurately without additional steps.

Who needs this software?

If you're a healthcare professional—whether a doctor, nurse, or part of the administrative staff—medical transcription software is game changing.

Here are just a few pros of automating the transcription process:

• Saving time;
• Reducing the clinical documentation workload;
• Maintaining HIPAA compliance;
• Ensuring that patient records are accurate and up-to-date.

Top 5 medical transcription software

With so many solutions on the market, it can be tough to discern which one's right for you.

In the end, the right medical transcription software really depends on: your practice's requirements. Ask yourself if you're looking for:

• Ease-of use;
• Integration with current systems;
  
• Specialized features.
  

Let's explore how the following software solutions can reduce documentation time, so you can make an informed decision!

1. Freed

‍Freed is our very own solution, developed by our CEO for his wife, Dr. Meckler.

"Freed was built for (and with the help of) my wife after watching her chart at night for too many years. The only purpose of Freed is to make clinicians happier."—Erez Druk,  Dr. Meckler’s husband & Freed CEO

With her experience in mind, Erez set out to create a tool that responded directly to the challenges healthcare professionals face in managing clinical documentation.

We designed Freed to address these needs directly, with clinicians in mind.

Freed listens, transcribes and writes medical notes for you. Our generative AI uses medical speech recognition to capture your patient visits and write SOAP notes in seconds.

Record audio on any internet-connected device in any setting — whether in a hospital, clinic, or a patient's home — and keep your patient data secure and compliant. Freed accurately captures medical notes for any specialty visit up to 2 hours.

Freed adapts to your style, saves time, and enhances accuracy — giving you back the time you need to focus on what truly matters.

‎Pricing:

• Free trial (10 free visits).
• The base plan starts at $99/mo for unlimited visits.

Key features:

• Accurate notes in minutes: Capture real-time patient visits and generate accurate SOAP notes, patient instruction letters, and detailed summaries. Document your patient care at the press of a button — no training required.
• Effortless organization: After Freed transcribes your visit, it cleanly organizes your summary, assessments, plans, and patient instructions into clear sections. Your notes are captured accurately, adapted to your style, and customized to your preferences.
• Works with any electronic health record: Using the simple copy/paste feature, easily transfer notes directly into your existing EHR systems without hassle.
• Capture every voice: Freed excels at accurately capturing and recognizing different voices in a patient encounter, including patients, family members, and other providers.

Why choose Freed: Our team is dedicated to ensuring that clinicians have the best possible experience with Freed. We prioritize your satisfaction and are always responsive to your needs, making Freed an ideal choice for healthcare professionals who want a truly personalized and adaptable software solution.

Pros:

• Security and compliance: Freed AI adheres to stringent security protocols, offering two-factor authentication and compliance with HIPAA, HITECH, and SOC 2 Type I certification, handling patient data securely.
• Document in 15 languages: Hold conversations in any supported language and your final SOAP note will be generated in English.
• Smart AI that learns your style: Freed's AI will pick up on your writing and formatting styles as you adjust your past notes.

Cons:

• Freed does not offer a free basic plan. The free trial offers 10 free visits.

User review:

"My only regret is that I can only give 5 stars! Just completed my first two sessions with Freed.ai. I can see already that it will enable me to be a more effective helper as the quality of my notes will be significantly enhanced. The transcribed notes maintains the full richness of the sessions, and the site is INCREDBILY user friendly and intuitive." — Abraham Weiss, LMFT

2. Dragon Medical One

Dragon Medical One offers reliable and accurate transcription, making it a strong option for healthcare professionals looking for cloud-based medical transcription software. It allows you to dictate notes directly into your EHR, reducing the time spent on documentation and improving the accuracy of clinical notes.

Pricing:

• One-time implementation fee: $525.
• 1-year license: $99/mo.
• 2-year license: $89/mo.
• 3-year license: $79/mo.

Key features:

• Real-time dictation: Dictate directly into your electronic health record, capturing your notes.
• Medical speech recognition: Accurately converts spoken language into text, even in noisy environments.
• AutoText: Automates how the software adds commonly used information to your clinical notes.
• Smartphone mic: When combined with the Nuance PowerMic Mobile, any workstation or smartphone can act as a dictation station.
• Seamlessly integrates with popular EHR systems.

Why choose Dragon Medical One? Designed by Nuance, it's widely recognized for its accuracy and ease of use, making it a popular choice among healthcare professionals.

Pros:

• Use custom voice skills to automate tasks like moving through patient charts, placing orders, and signing notes.
• Mobile electronic health record access: Works with mobile and web EHR apps from any device via the cloud, including Epic Haiku and Canto, Cerner PowerChart Touch, and MEDITECH Expanse.
• HITRUST CSF-certified solution.

Cons:

• Dragon Medical One has a one-time implementation fee of $525, which can be expensive for smaller practices.
• Some users report that the software has issues with different accents or gets confused, requiring you to start the speech again.

G2 user review:

"Nuance Dragon Medical One, as of now, has some amazing features for medical transcription. The most relevant thing is that it is cloud-based, which allows more reach and is easy to use. Compared to similar products, it is performing very well. However, yes, it has also drawbacks, like it takes great effort and time for initial learning of any user's voice, which may be due to the lengthy interval that can be worked on."

3. M*Modal Fluency Direct

‎3M's M*Modal Fluency Direct's medical transcription software provides high accuracy and versatile integration with EHR systems, which can be particularly useful for practices that need flexibility across multiple devices. It's known for its fast and accurate transcription capabilities.

Pricing:

• Contact 3M for pricing information.

Key features:

• Customization: Use predefined macros, commands and templates for speech-driven form-filling.
• Scalability: Process speech in the cloud, on-premise servers or workstations.
• Security: Offers robust security measures to protect patient data.
• Advanced speech recognition software with computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) technology accurately transcribes complex medical terminology in real time.

Why choose M*Modal Fluency Direct? Advanced speech recognition allows you to dictate and manage your clinical documentation across multiple devices, making it a solid choice if you need software that works smoothly with your EHR.

Pros:

• Analyzes and monitors the clinical narrative, asking for clarification or additional information and providing suggestions.
• Device compatibility: The software is compatible with desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, offering flexibility in managing your documentation.
• EHR integration with over 250 systems.

Cons:

• Optimizing its features may require a learning curve. 3M offers adoption services to help with implementation.
• The software is the foundation of 3 M's suite of products. Virtual assistant and ambient clinical documentation solutions are available through 3M Fluency Align.
• Pricing may be expensive for smaller practices.

G2 user review:

"MModal does a very good job of transcribing voice to text. It is generally fast and accurate. Can input to many different software programs."

4. Amazon Transcribe Medical

‎Amazon Transcribe Medical is a cloud-based medical transcription software that provides real-time, accurate transcription of clinical conversations. It's an automatic speech recognition (ASR) service designed for medical use cases.

Pricing:

• Amazon Transcribe Medical operates on a pay-as-you-go model.
• The free tier offers 60 minutes per month for 12 months.
• The Amazon Transcribe API for streaming and batch transcriptions is billed monthly based on tiered pricing that varies by region.

Key features:

• Speech recognition: Automatic speech recognition optimized for medical terminology.
• HIPAA-eligible for patient data privacy and security.
• Scalable: Handles large volumes of data, making it suitable for practices of all sizes.

Why Amazon Transcribe Medical? If your practice handles large volumes of data, Amazon Transcribe Medical can scale to meet your needs.

Pros:

• High-accuracy real-time transcription.
• Scalable cloud transcription service: Pay only for what you transcribe, with no fixed costs or long-term licenses.
• Customizable vocabulary: Upload a plain text file list of terms or phrases to an Amazon S3 bucket to create a custom vocabulary for improved accuracy.

Cons:

• Pay-as-you-go pricing can add up with high usage.
• It only transcribes clinician-patient visits in these medical specialities:
• Cardiology.
• Neurology.
• Oncology.
• Primary Care including Family medicine, Internal medicine, OB-GYN and Pediatrics.
• Urology.

G2 user review:

"The best thing about the Amazon Transcribe service is that you can convert any medical speech audio into text easily. It is very easy to use & provides very accurate results. It will useful for voice-enabled service. This service is very costly in the context of pricing."

5. DeepScribe

‎DeepScribe's ambient AI platform automates clinical documentation. Its AI medical scribe listens during patient encounters, captures the conversation in real time and turns it into customizable chart notes.

Pricing:

• Contact DeepScribe for pricing.

Key features:

• Ambient recording and transcription: Automatically transcribes patient interactions into detailed clinical notes.
• Customizable templates for different specialties so you can adapt the software to fit your needs.
• Integrates with electronic health records.
• HIPAA-compliant with end-to-end AES-256 encryption technology.

Why choose DeepScribe? DeepScribe may be a good fit for practices looking for hands-free documentation.

Pros:

• You can create voice-activated macros that trigger when you speak a specific word or phrase.
• Create your own custom templates for DeepScribe to populate during patient exams.

Cons:

• Some users have noted that the platform lacks specialties such as behavioral or mental health and have experienced inconsistent or incorrect transcriptions.

Capterra user review:

"I forgot that the reason they call it 'machine learning' was that there is a learning curve especially the first 3 weeks. Very similar to having a new medical student or an intern—the deep scribe AI is something that gets better the more I use it and learn its functionality and tendencies."

Learn more about ambient clinical intelligence is helping to reduce clinician burnout.

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Top features of medical transcription software

When you're evaluating medical transcription software, look for these key features:

• Speech recognition software: Accurate transcription that understands complex medical terminology.
• Works with your EHR: Easily add notes to your EHR system to reduce manual entry.
• Customization: Ability to personalize software settings to your specialty and documentation needs.
• Compliance and security: Ensures data privacy and meets industry standards like HIPAA.
• Scalability: Grows with your practice, handling more users and larger data volumes.
• Cost-effectiveness: Offers a good balance of features and pricing.

Conclusion

Choosing the right medical transcription software can help you improve the efficiency and the quality of your medical documentation. No matter which one you choose, investing in the right software can make it easier to manage your documentation, freeing up your time for better things.

Ready to reclaim your time? Freed offers personalized, real-time transcription that adapts to your unique style, helping you create accurate clinical notes faster. Sign up today and see why over 10,000 clinicians (and their families) love Freed.