Canadian Paramedic User Requirements for Speech Recognition Aided Documentation

Developing technology may assist paramedics in the competing tasks of providing life-saving care and accurately documenting that care. The objective of this study was to identify and classify paramedic user requirements for speech recognition (SR)-aided documentation.

This was a two-phase mixed-methods study. Phase one involved a web-based questionnaire distributed to paramedics across Canada. Phase two consisted of opt-in one-on-one interviews to gain further insight into the survey results. Descriptive and associative statistics were used to identify which features respondents deemed most important, which were classified into five categories based on questionnaire results. Thematic content analysis of the qualitative data was used to understand the quantitative rankings.

A total of 323 respondents completed the questionnaire. Overall, 86% of respondents (n=277) had a positive perception of SR. Respondents rated the following 10 features as most important: Patient Interaction, Compliance, Support, Durability, Training, Accuracy, Continuous Improvement, Training Support, Dictation, and Editing. Themes from 14 interviews described the role of technology in the future of paramedicine, adoption enablers and barriers, and SR benefits. Joint displays were used to gain further insight into the quantitative ratings, including the possibility that the presence or absence of these features could affect adoption.

These prioritized features highlight the unique practice context of paramedicine. While this was a Canadian study, the results may be applicable to other similar paramedicine practice systems.

This work provides a robust list and classification of SR user requirements for Canadian Paramedics.