Abstract
While occupational stress and fatigue have been well described throughout medicine, the radiology community is particularly susceptible due to declining reimbursements, heightened demands for service deliverables, and increasing exam volume and complexity. The resulting occupational stress can be variable in nature and dependent upon a number of intrinsic and extrinsic stressors. Intrinsic stressors largely account for inter-radiologist stress variability and relate to unique attributes of the radiologist such as personality, emotional state, education/training, and experience. Extrinsic stressors may account for intra-radiologist stress variability and include cumulative workload and task complexity. The creation of personalized stress profiles creates a mechanism for accounting for both inter- and intra-radiologist stress variability, which is essential in creating customizable stress intervention strategies. One viable option for real-time occupational stress measurement is voice stress analysis, which can be directly implemented through existing speech recognition technology and has been proven to be effective in stress measurement and analysis outside of medicine. This technology operates by detecting stress in the acoustic properties of speech through a number of different variables including duration, glottis source factors, pitch distribution, spectral structure, and intensity. The correlation of these speech derived stress measures with outcomes data can be used to determine the user-specific inflection point at which stress becomes detrimental to clinical performance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Halsted MJ, Froehlee M: Design, implementation, and assessment of a radiology workflow management system. AJR 191:321–327, 2008
White KS: Speech recognition implementation in radiology. Pediatr Radiol 35:841–846, 2005
Koivikko MP, Kauppinen T, Ahovuo J: Improvement of report workflow and productivity using speech recognition—a follow up study. J Digit Imaging 21:378–382, 2008
Reiner BI, Siegel EL, Knight N: Radiology reporting: past, present, and future: the radiologist perspective. J Am Coll Radiol 5:313–319, 2007
Reiner B, Kruspinski EA: The insidious problem of fatigue in medical imaging practice. J Digit Imaging 1:3–6, 2012
Leape LL: Errors in medicine. JAMA 272:1851–1857, 1994
Kohn LT, Corrigan J, Donaldson MS: To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. National Academy, Washington DC, 2000. Contributor: Institute of Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Quality of Health Care in America
Reiner B, Kruspinski EA: Innovation strategies for combating occupational stress and fatigue in medical imaging. J Digit Imaging 25:445–448, 2012
Helmreich RL: On error management: lessons from aviation. BMJ 32:781–785, 2000
Institute of Medicine: Crossing the Quality Chasm: a New Health System for the 21st Century. National Academy, Washington DC, 2001
Reiner BI, Siegel EL, Siddiqui K: Evolution of the digital revolution: a radiologist perspective. J Digit Imaging 16:324–330, 2003
Krupinski EA, Reiner B: Real-time occupational stress and fatigue measurement in medical imaging practice. J Digit Imaging 25:319–324, 2012
Vertinsky T, Forster B: Prevalence of eye strain among radiologists: influence of viewing variables on symptoms. AJR 184:681–686, 2005
Krupinski EA: Medical image perception issues for PACS deployment. Semin Roentgenol 38:231–243, 2003
Krupinski EA, Berbaum KS, Caldwell RT, et al: Long radiology workdays reduce detection and accommodation accuracy. J Am Coll Radiol 7:698–704, 2010
Hollien H, Scwartz R: Speaker identification utilizing noncontemporary speech. Journal of Forensic Sciences 46:63–67, 2001
Kuenzel H: On the problem of speaker identification by victims and witnesses. Forensic Linguistics 1:45–51, 1994
Stevens KN: Sources of inter and intra-speaker variability in the acoustic properties of speech sounds. Proceedings of the 7th International Cons. Phonetics Sciences, Montreal, 1971, pp 206–232
Cummings K, Clements M: Analysis of global waveforms across stress styles. Proceedings of the IEEE, ICASSP 2847:369–372, 1990
Hollien H, Saletto JA, Miller SK: Psychological stress in voice: a new approach. Sturdia Phonetica Posnaniensa 4:5–17, 1993
Williams CE, Stevens KN: Emotions and speech: some acoustical correlates. Journal of the Associated Society of America 2:1238–1250, 1972
http://www.voicestress.org/voicestress (Florida Study). Pdf
Brockway BF, Plummer OB, Lowe BM: The effects of two types of nursing reassurance upon patient vocal stress levels as measured by a new tool, the PSE. Nurs Res 25:440–446, 1976
Van der Car DH, Greaner J, Hibler N, et al: A description and analysis of the operation and validity of the psychological stress evaluator. J Forensic Sci 25:174–188, 1980
Williams CE, Stevens KN: Emotions and speech: some acoustic correlates. J Acoustic Soc Am 52:1238–1250, 1972
Streeter LA, Macdonald NH, Apple W, et al: Acoustic and perceptual indicators of emotional stress. J Acoustic Soc Am 73:1354–1360, 1983
Rostolland D: Acoustic features of shouted voice part 1. Acustica 50:118–125, 1982
Lieberman P, Michaels S: Some aspects of fundamental frequency and envelope amplitude as related to the emotional content of speech. J Acoustic Soc Am 7:922–927, 1962
Hopkins CS, Ratley RJ, Benincasa DS, et al: Evaluation of voice stress analysis technology. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2005, pp 1–10
Zhou G, Hansen JHL, Kaiser JF: Nonlinear feature based classification of speech under stress. IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing 9:201–216, 2001
Baber C, Mellor B, Graham R, et al: Workload and the use of automated speech recognition: the effects of time and resource demands. Speech Commun 20:37–54, 1996
Chen Y: Cepstral domain talker stress compensation for robust speech recognition. IEEE Trans Acoust, Speech, Signal Processing 36:433–439, 1988
Murray IR, Baber C, South A: Toward a definition and working model of stress and its effects on speech. Speech Commun 20:3–12, 1996
Whitmore J, Fisher S: Speech during sustained operations. Speech Commun 20:55–70, 1996
Kuroda I, Fujiwara O, Okamura N, et al: Method for determining pilot stress through analysis of voice communication. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 47:528–533, 1976
Anderson TR, Moore TJ, McKinley RL: Issues in the development and use of speech recognition database for military cockpit environments. Proc of Speech Tech’85, Media Dimensions, 1985, pp. 172–176
Reiner B, Kruspinski EA: Demystifying occupational stress and fatigue through the creation of an adaptive end-user profiling system. J Digit Imaging 2:201–205, 2012
Reiner B: One size (doesn’t) fit all. J Am Coll Radiol 4:567–570, 2008
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reiner, B.I. Expanding the Functionality of Speech Recognition in Radiology: Creating a Real-Time Methodology for Measurement and Analysis of Occupational Stress and Fatigue. J Digit Imaging 26, 5–9 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-012-9540-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-012-9540-0