Revolutionizing Radiological Analysis: The Future of French Language Automatic Speech Recognition in Healthcare

Diagnostics (Basel). 2024 Apr 25;14(9):895. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14090895.

Abstract

This study introduces a specialized Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, leveraging the Whisper Large-v2 model, specifically adapted for radiological applications in the French language. The methodology focused on adapting the model to accurately transcribe medical terminology and diverse accents within the French language context, achieving a notable Word Error Rate (WER) of 17.121%. This research involved extensive data collection and preprocessing, utilizing a wide range of French medical audio content. The results demonstrate the system's effectiveness in transcribing complex radiological data, underscoring its potential to enhance medical documentation efficiency in French-speaking clinical settings. The discussion extends to the broader implications of this technology in healthcare, including its potential integration with electronic health records (EHRs) and its utility in medical education. This study also explores future research directions, such as tailoring ASR systems to specific medical specialties and languages. Overall, this research contributes significantly to the field of medical ASR systems, presenting a robust tool for radiological transcription in the French language and paving the way for advanced technology-enhanced healthcare solutions.

Keywords: AI in healthcare; French language processing; automatic speech recognition (ASR); language-specific ASR systems; medical transcription; radiology; whisper large-v2 model.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.