Embarking on a journey through the intricate landscape of Rehabilitation Medicine, Dr. Ulla Gerich-McGregor stands as a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. Holding a wealth of experience and expertise, her professional career includes pivotal roles as a Consultant at the Persistent Pain Service Metro South, Brisbane and as the Clinical Director of Rehabilitation Services in the Richmond Health District, NSW.
In 2013, Dr. Gerich-McGregor took a significant step in her career by establishing her private practice, Rehab Balance. Here, her focus extends across a spectrum of specialised areas, including persistent/chronic pain management, musculoskeletal and orthopaedic rehabilitation, traumatic brain injury and spasticity treatment. Due to the complex nature of work, some cases may find themselves in court, underscoring the paramount need for thorough and meticulously documented records.
Dr Gerich-Mcgregor sees approximately five patients on a consulting day, often seeing 10-15 patients every week.
Being the sole owner of a practice presents a myriad of responsibilities, and administration often chews through precious time.
Before the departure of her trusted secretary, the administration workflow was a well-oiled machine, but it wasn’t efficient.
During consults which extended to an hour or more, Dr. Gerich-Mcgregor would take handwritten notes. Once the patient had left the room, or at the end of the consulting day, the process continued. She would dictate her comprehensive letters; complex insurance letters are sometimes 2-5 pages and could take up to an hour to dictate. The secretary, adept at understanding Dr. Gerich-McGregor’s preferences, transcribed and undertook initial editing. The process ended after the letter was reviewed and edited by Dr Gerich-McGregor, a 20-40 minute task in itself. The whole process for one patient took around 2.5 hours.
Ironically, Dr. Gerich-McGregor’s secretary suffered from a wrist injury, increasing further the administrative burden. To solve this, Dr Gerich-McGregor paid $500-$1000 each month to have her dictations transcribed, often to a poor quality. This cost was on top of the dictation tool and her secretary’s salary.
After her secretary retired, Dr Gerich-McGregor had to complete this whole process on her own. Completing this process for every patient is a meticulous, time consuming task that often forced Dr. Gerich-McGregor to work until midnight.
In late 2023, Dr. Gerich-McGregor was suggested by a friend to try Lyrebird Health. Willing to give it a go, she requested an introductory session on the website. Through the two week trial period, Dr. Gerich-McGregor was pleasantly impressed with the ability of Lyrebird Health.
After using Lyrebird, Dr. Gerich-McGregor’s workflow was reduced significantly.
The simple workflow of beginning a consultation, receiving consent and allowing Lyrebird to listen in the background of her consultations allowed her to concentrate on the patient in the room. After the consult concludes, she stops the recording and Lyrebird provides her with a synthesised summary note in a personalised format, in less than 10 seconds. From that note, she can then ask Lyrebird, in one click, to provide her with a comprehensive letter as she requires. From here she completes some basic editing and formatting, before sending the document to the recipient. The process is shortened from a couple of hours to less than an hour and a couple of clicks of her mouse.
Dr. Gerich-McGregor was really impressed with the dictation feature of Lyrebird Health.
“I think the dictation part of Lyrebird is the highest accuracy I have seen in any of them, even picking up medications, understanding and spelling them correctly. I’m really surprised”
Initially uncertain about its effectiveness, Dr. Gerich-McGregor has had no issues with Lyrebird Health for online consultations.
“I had the telehealth with Lyrebird just running in the background, and it picked it up perfectly, so there’s no problem at all with Lyrebird and telehealth.”
Initially concerned about patient responses to using Lyrebird in consultations, Dr. Gerich-McGregor, following Lyrebird's provision of a QR code for privacy information, discovered that all her patients were not only willing but happy to be recorded, a practice in line with NSW law. Lyrebird Health consistently prompts her to request consent at the start of each consultation.
“I ask the patient for consent every time, and the patients are actually really interested, asking questions like "Oh, how does that work?", "What do you do with it?", "That’s amazing" & "Is it listening now?". I have not had one person being worried about privacy or security”
Reflecting on her experience with Lyrebird Health, Dr. Gerich-McGregor expresses her sentiments with enthusiasm:
“I was surprised how user friendly it is, and I was also really most impressed with the introduction demo session and your support and service.”
For Dr. Gerich-McGregor, Lyrebird Health has not only alleviated the burden of paperwork but has become an indispensable part of her daily workflow. Lyrebird has allowed Dr. Gerich-McGregor to save “at least an hour per patient”. An hour per patient for Dr. Gerich-McGregor translates to approximately 12 hours of administrative time saved each week. Over the course of a conservative working year, this equates to an impressive 25 full days of regained productivity, or simply more time to spend with her family. The time saved has allowed Dr. Gerich-McGregor to avoid working until midnight.
Dr. Gerich-McGregor concludes by leaving a friendly reminder to her colleagues:
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s not difficult. It’s an amazing help… make the time and take the opportunity of the introduction demo sessions. I think it’s really important.”
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