Medical Dictation Software
Medical dictation software is a clinical speech-to-text tool that converts a clinician’s spoken words into documentation directly inside the EHR.
VoiceboxMD is medical dictation software for the full clinical workforce: physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, therapists, dentists, mental health professionals and other healthcare providers. Speak, and the desktop app types your words into the EHR field you are in, on Mac or Windows.
Every plan also includes an ambient AI scribe that drafts the note from the visit. A BAA is included on every plan, starting at $49/month.
The front desk carries a load of its own: the phones. Lydoh, the phone assistant from VoiceboxMD, is an AI receptionist for doctors' offices that answers patient calls and takes appointment requests, so your staff can stay with the patients in front of them.
VoiceboxMD at a glance
Medical speech to text that types into your EHR
Click into a note field, press the dictation hotkey (or the record button on a Philips SpeechMike) and speak. VoiceboxMD turns your voice into text and places it at the cursor in whichever EHR the practice uses, including Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, Practice Fusion, eClinicalWorks, Kareo, MEDITECH and any system that accepts typed text. There is no EHR integration to install: the app works on the field you choose and never reads what is in your chart.
Documentation takes a large share of the clinical day. In a time and motion study of 57 physicians in four specialties, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Sinsky et al., 2016), physicians spent nearly two hours on EHR and desk work for every hour of direct clinical face time, plus 1 to 2 hours each night after work. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reviewed how this burden is measured in its 2024 technical brief, Measuring Documentation Burden in Healthcare.
- Live dictation into any EHR field from the desktop app
- Spoken punctuation and formatting commands
- Macros and dictation templates for text you repeat
- Dictation in English (medical model) and in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Hindi
Medical dictation software and AI charting
With AI charting, the visit writes the first draft of the note.
AI chartingDictation for doctors, nurse practitioners and the full clinical team
Physicians and surgeons
MDs and DOs in primary care, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, radiology, psychiatry and other specialties. Dictate H&Ps, progress notes, operative reports and consult letters into any EHR.
Advanced practice providers
Nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants/associates (PAs), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs) and clinical nurse specialists (CNSs). The same plans and BAA as physicians.
Mental health and therapy
Psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners (PMHNPs), clinical psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors. Long narrative notes, mental status exams, treatment plans and progress notes.
Allied health, dental, and beyond
Physical, occupational and speech-language therapists, dietitians, chiropractors, dentists and hygienists, optometrists, pharmacists, podiatrists, audiologists and veterinarians. Add the terms your discipline uses to your custom vocabulary.
Nurse practitioners: see the AI scribe for nurse practitioners. Therapists and counselors: see the AI scribe for therapists.
Medical voice recognition software, not generic voice typing
Generic voice recognition stumbles on the words clinicians use most: drug names, anatomy, abbreviations, instrument names. VoiceboxMD uses a medical speech recognition model, and boosts the terms you add to your custom vocabulary, so your practice’s drug names, procedures and referral names are recognized.
Macros and dictation templates cover the text you repeat: a normal exam, a standard plan, a procedure note. Pick them from the list on the desktop, or in the web and phone apps say “insert <name> template”. On every plan, the ambient scribe can also draft a SOAP, H&P or custom-template note from the whole visit.
A finished note in the VoiceboxMD desktop app. Place the whole note in your EHR field with one key, or one section at a time.
Medical dictation software by specialty
Internal Medicine
Internal medicine dictation software from VoiceboxMD handles layered reasoning, multiple chronic conditions, medication reconciliation and evidence-weighed plans, for physicians and advanced practice providers. The medical speech model recognizes prescription names, lab terminology and chronic-disease vocabulary.
Family Medicine
Family medicine dictation software from VoiceboxMD covers the widest range of presentations in medicine, for physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, across pediatric, adult and geriatric visits. Macros and dictation templates handle the normal exams and plans you repeat.
Psychiatry
Psychiatry dictation software from VoiceboxMD lets psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists and licensed therapists speak the note rather than type it, including psychotropic medication names and the long narrative sections psychiatric notes need.
Radiology
Radiology dictation software from VoiceboxMD takes anatomical descriptors, contrast terminology and structured-reporting language across X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound, typed into the RIS or EHR field you are in. Dictation templates hold the recurring sections of normal studies.
OB-GYN
Ob-Gyn dictation software from VoiceboxMD covers obstetric terminology, gestational dating, gynecologic surgery and preventive care, for OB-GYN physicians, certified nurse midwives and women’s health nurse practitioners.
Surgery
Surgery dictation software from VoiceboxMD is used for operative reports and procedure notes by surgeons, surgical physician assistants and CRNAs. Add the instrument, suture and implant names you use to your custom vocabulary, and keep each procedure’s standard text as a dictation template.
Specialty settings in the app
- Primary Care / Internal / Family Medicine
- Behavioral Health / Therapy
- Psychiatry
- Cardiology
- Pulmonology
- Orthopedics
- Surgery
- Dental
- Chiropractic
- Dermatology
- Emergency Medicine
- Endocrinology
- ENT
- Gastroenterology
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- OB/GYN
- Oncology
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatrics
- Prosthetics and orthotics
- Radiology
- Urology
- Veterinary
- Other (not listed)
Dictation works in any specialty. Choosing your specialty adds a starter vocabulary and capitalizes its common acronyms; your own custom vocabulary goes on top.
VoiceboxMD vs Dragon Medical: side-by-side
Dragon Medical is the long-standing incumbent in medical speech recognition, now cloud-based and usually bought through enterprise procurement. VoiceboxMD offers medical speech to text without an integration project, priced for an independent practice or a solo clinician.
| Capability | VoiceboxMD | Dragon Medical |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $49/month, monthly billing, cancel anytime | Not published by Microsoft; sold through Microsoft and resellers |
| Native macOS support | Yes, macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel | Discontinued for Mac in 2018 |
| Mobile dictation | iPhone and Android apps; the phone can also act as the desktop’s microphone | Mobile app (Dragon Copilot) |
| AI Medical Scribe | Included on every plan, from $49/mo | Included in Dragon Copilot; sold to organizations |
| Available to all clinicians | Physicians, NPs, PAs, RNs, therapists, dentists, more | Typically hospital-deployed |
Dragon details are from Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot product page and Dragon Copilot licensing guidance, checked 2026-10-05.
Comparing options? The full Dragon Medical alternative comparison covers pricing, BAA costs, and migration. For audio-file workflows, see medical transcription software. If you would rather the note wrote itself from the visit, see ambient clinical documentation.
A medical dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android
The desktop app runs on Windows and macOS 12 or later, including Apple Silicon Macs, and is the one that types into your EHR. The iPhone and Android app dictates and records visits on its own, and can act as a wireless microphone for the desktop. A visit recorded on the phone appears on the desktop, ready to place in the chart. The web app runs in a browser. Full compatibility details are here.
HIPAA and data handling
A Business Associate Agreement is included on every plan at no extra charge, and it covers every clinician type. Recorded audio is deleted automatically 7 days after it is recorded, and each deletion is logged. No patient information is sent to website or app analytics. VoiceboxMD never signs or files a note: it types only into the field you chose.
Medical dictation software FAQ
What is medical dictation software?
Medical dictation software is a clinical speech-to-text tool: it turns a clinician's spoken words into typed text and places that text in the EHR field the cursor is in. It is used by physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, therapists, dentists and other clinicians who would rather speak a note than type it. VoiceboxMD works with Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, Practice Fusion, eClinicalWorks and any EHR that accepts typed text.
What is medical speech to text, and how is it different from ordinary voice recognition?
Medical speech to text uses a speech recognition model tuned for clinical language, so drug names, anatomy and abbreviations come out right more often than with general voice typing. VoiceboxMD uses a medical English speech model for live dictation and the ambient scribe, and boosts the terms you add to your custom vocabulary, such as your practice's drug names, procedures and colleagues' names.
Who can use VoiceboxMD?
The full clinical workforce: MDs and DOs, NPs, PAs, CRNAs, CNMs, registered nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists, LCSWs, MFTs, LPCs, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, dentists, dental hygienists, chiropractors, optometrists, pharmacists, podiatrists and veterinarians. Pricing, the BAA and features are the same for every role.
How is medical dictation different from an AI medical scribe?
Medical dictation types exactly what you say, word for word, into the active text field. An AI medical scribe records the whole patient visit and drafts a structured note, such as SOAP or H&P, for you to review. VoiceboxMD includes both on every plan from $49 a month, so you can choose per visit. ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions come with the Power plan at $79 a month.
Is there a medical dictation app for my phone?
Yes. VoiceboxMD has iPhone and Android apps for dictation and the ambient scribe. The phone can also act as a wireless microphone for the desktop app, so words you speak into the phone are typed at the cursor on your computer. On the phone itself, notes are copied or shared; placing text into an EHR field is done by the desktop app.
Is VoiceboxMD HIPAA compliant?
A Business Associate Agreement is included on every plan at no additional cost. Recorded audio is deleted automatically 7 days after it is recorded, with each deletion logged, and no patient information is sent to website or app analytics.
How accurate is the medical vocabulary?
VoiceboxMD uses a speech recognition model built for medical English, and you can add up to 15 personal terms and your practice can add up to 40 shared terms that the recognizer listens for. Your specialty setting adds a starter vocabulary and capitalizes common acronyms. Accuracy still depends on your microphone and the room, so review what is typed before you sign.
Can I migrate from Dragon Medical?
Yes. There is no voice profile to train: sign in and start dictating. Re-create your Dragon auto-texts as VoiceboxMD macros or dictation templates. VoiceboxMD runs natively on Mac, which Dragon Medical no longer does, and is billed monthly.
What are the system requirements?
The desktop app runs on Windows and on macOS 12 or later, including Apple Silicon Macs. The mobile app runs on iPhone and iPad (iOS 13 or later) and Android, and the web app runs in a browser. You need an internet connection and a microphone; the Philips SpeechMike record button works as push-to-talk on the desktop. On a Mac, the app needs the Accessibility permission to type into other apps.
Can I use it for emails and Word documents too?
Yes. The desktop app types into whatever text field has focus on Mac or Windows, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Google Docs and other applications, so you can dictate letters and emails with the same tool.
What does it cost and can I cancel anytime?
Essential is $49 a month and includes live dictation and the ambient AI scribe. Power is $79 and adds ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions and the letters around the visit. Premium is $99 and adds a writing style learned from your edits. The trial is 7 days on monthly billing and 14 on annual; a card is collected but not charged until the trial ends. There are no setup fees and no contracts.
Cancel any time. BAA included.
Try VoiceboxMD on your own charts, in your own EHR: 7 days free on monthly billing, 14 on annual.
Start free trial