James Mason, MD

Eastside Internal Medicine

Fairport, NY

Photography by Brenda Washington

A Dragon Naturally Speaking user for a little more than three weeks, Dr. James Mason of Eastside Internal Medicine has been very pleasantly surprised by the productivity improvements he has experienced.

"I expected [learning to use Dragon] was going to be awful and that it would slow me down," he admits, but in fact, after just a few days, he's now addicted. "We went a day without office computers and I hated it." (This is from a man who used to handwrite all his patient notes, rather than dictate them.)

Eastside Internal Medicine is transitioning to an electronic medical records (EMR) system, so all five physicians needed to become proficient with taking digital notes. Two were already using Dragon, says Dr. Mason, and the other three, including him, have now been trained and are using the software regularly.

"The first week was tough because I had to get used to dictating and the software at the same time," he says, but now, just three weeks later, he estimates he is 25% to 30% faster at writing up notes. "The templates really help," he says.

In addition, Dr. Mason finds his patient notes are more thorough because he has plenty of time to record his observations – Dragon is less time-consuming than handwriting. It's also very accurate when he's dictating notes, he says.

He hasn't yet started to use Dragon yet for email, but he anticipates he will soon. Right now, he says, "I use it for all my office notes because it does make a big difference."

Interview by Marcia Layton Turner, Layton & Co.