Dr. Leah is a gastroenterologist with 19 years of experience in Sydney. She writes around 50 letters weekly — a volume where efficiency matters without sacrificing quality.
Her career spans the transition from a secretary typing her letters and notes, to Dragon, and eventually Medow Smart Dictation.
For Dr. Leah, letters are clinical communication tools and vital medico-legal records that signal the level of care she provides to referrers.
While traditional dictation software (Dragon) improved upon manual typing, its limitations created a steady editing burden that complicated Dr. Leah’s daily workflow.
Traditional dictation software captured words literally. Any verbal errors or changes in direction remained in the draft, requiring manual correction that added up across 50 letters a week.
"The thing about Dragon is it’ll write what you say. So if you stuff something up or you say something twice, you’re going to be editing."
Name handling was another major friction point. Dr. Leah noted that software often struggled with unusual spellings, turning name verification into a manual chore.
“Dragon required a lot of manual correction for patient names, particularly with less common spellings or names it hadn’t encountered before. The moment a name was captured incorrectly, you were editing the letter manually.”
Medical terminology and drug names were also recurring issues where previous dictation software regularly failed.
"Drug names were one of the biggest frustrations. Dragon would regularly misinterpret medication terminology."
Without PMS integration, every letter required copy-pasting. Software updates frequently broke formatting, adding repetitive steps to standardise fonts and alignment.
"With Dragon, you had to copy and paste. At one point, the formatting came through beautifully. Then Gentu upgraded something. Suddenly, you had to copy and paste, fix the font, fix the font size, and justify every letter. Another three steps."
Friction with old tools was a problem worth solving because Letters often provide a new GP's first impression of Dr. Leah’s care. Speed only matters if the final output remains clear, accurate, and representative of her professional standards.
"Letters, I’ve always thought, are communication, they are very medicolegal but they are also a form of advertising."
"Sometimes if a patient goes to a new GP and your letters get sent across, or for whatever reason a new GP encounters one of your letters, and that is their first impression on the quality of your care."
That is the standard any dictation tool has to meet. Speed only matters if the final letter is still clear, accurate, and representative of her work.
Dr. Leah switched to Medow Smart Dictation as a direct replacement. She dictates as she always has, but the AI now handles the structure and cleanup, allowing her to focus on refining the clinical narrative.
Smart Dictation allows for natural speech. Dr. Leah can dictate at her own pace while the AI manages punctuation and grammar automatically, even if she pauses to review results.
"With Medow, you can rattle off the dictation like with a dictaphone. It’s going to capture everything like an experienced typist but without the typist cost and is ready in minutes."
The speed improvement is evident in both dictation and the workflow that follows. Dr. Leah found that Medow significantly reduced the time required for every letter type.
"When I did my Dragon letters, a standard review letter would take about two minutes. And a new patient would take four. With Medow, a review letter, if it’s really simple, could take thirty seconds. If it’s a bit more complicated, maybe a minute and a half. It’s about half the time."
With 19 years of practice, Dr. Leah knows exactly what belongs in a letter. Smart Dictation preserves this discipline by handling the formatting while she maintains control over the clinical tone.
"I've been doing dictation for so long. I am good at it. I am efficient. I want to tell my GP colleagues what they need to know whilst being respectful of their time when reading my letter."
For specialists skeptical of AI, Medow offers a balanced middle ground. The doctor still dictates the content, ensuring the letters stay personal and clinically clear while removing administrative friction.
For Dr. Leah, that balance matters. The letters stay concise, clinically clear, and reflective of how she actually thinks and practices.
The time savings span the whole workflow: faster dictation, minimal editing, and integrated PMS formatting. Dr. Leah’s benchmarking confirmed a ~50% reduction in total time.
For specialists hesitant to change, Dr. Leah emphasises that Smart Dictation does not replace the doctor's way of doing documentation; it simply removes the administrative burden. She still dictates exactly as she always has. The letters still sound like her. They are still concise, personal, and clinically clear — just with far less work afterwards.
"I am able to get more of my letters done during my clinic because it is so fast. There is less work to catch up with on the weekend. I have not carried over dictation into the following week since I started with Medow. I have more free time, which was always my goal."
Thinking about switching to a smarter, quicker dictation method?
Book a demo
