Two Irish IT professionals whose company is credited with achieving cost reductions and efficiency improvements in Britain’s NHS are to open an Irish office to target healthcare organisations here.

Henry Gallagher originally of Kildorrery, County Cork and James O’Sullivan from Killenard in County Laois are directors of G2 Speech which has devised the first medical-specific speech recognition system which when linked to its digital dictation products allows medical staff to have their notes written up in minutes as opposed to weeks with conventional methods.

Henry Gallagher, Managing Director of the UK and Ireland operation said the potential benefits in cost and patient care were great: ‘In the UK before G2 Speech, consultants typically had to wait many days for notes to be written up and sometimes the transcription service had been outsourced to other countries factoring in greater inaccuracies. Now, consultants can see a draft of their notes within seconds. They can also see that very minimal correction is needed thanks to a speech recognition system primed for their voice and medical terminology. The results are faster and better patient care as well as cost benefits. The reaction has been fantastic. There is no reason why we can’t achieve similar improvements in patient care and cost savings here in Ireland’.

G2 Speech is already being installed at two sites in the republic and more are likely to follow. The company believes that if the system is rolled out across the republic then the cost savings would be significant and patient benefits substantial.