Admin: Substitution Types

nVoq dictation includes support for literal substitutions as well as "regular expression" substitutions. Regular expressions (Regex) search for patterns in a transcription and standardize how text is returned, for example, to format dates, telephone numbers, or monetary amounts. 

Literal Substitutions

A literal substitution replaces a literal sequence of text characters (or "string") with another literal text character string.

Example: A literal substitution to replace "Denver health" with "Denver Health Medical Center"Click on this image to see it larger.

•  Literal substitutions are full word matches. This allows the word  "cat’" to be substituted with "FELINE" while preventing the word "catalog" from being substituted with "FELINEalog".
• A literal substitution is applied exactly as it appears in the Spoken Form and Written Form fields.
  • The spoken form is the word or phrase as it IS CURRENTLY RETURNED by the dictation engine. This is not case sensitive.
  • The written form is how you WANT IT TO RETURN in your transcript. This IS case sensitive.
• Use literal substitutions to replace words in a transcript with an abbreviation, an acronym, a capitalized version of the word, a carriage return, an entire sentence, or to correct words in a dictation that consistently return incorrectly.

Examples of Literal Substitutions

Example: A substitution to replace "mobile voice" with "nVoq Mobile Voice™"

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
mobile voice

Written Form: 
nVoq Mobile Voice™

Before Substitution: 
I just started using mobile voice

After Substitution: 
I just started using nVoq Mobile Voice™

Example: A substitution to replace "payment" with "pymt"

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
payment 

Written Form: 
pymt

Before Substitution: 
Customer called to ask when payment is due

After Substitution: 
Customer called to ask when pymt is due

Example: A substitution to replace "Denver health" with "Denver Health Medical Center"

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
Denver health

Written Form: 
Denver Health

Before Substitution: 
Patient was referred to Denver health for treatment

After Substitution: 
Patient was referred to Denver Health for treatment

Example: A substitution to correct when a dictation of "two thousand eleven" is misrecognized as "2000 Lavon" 

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
2000 Lavon

Written Form: 
2011

Before Substitution: 
This occurred in May 2000 Lavon

After Substitution: 
This occurred in May 2011

Example: A substitution to replace "next line" with a carriage return key press.

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
next line

Written Form: 
{ENTER}

Before Substitution: 
Customer submitted payment next line payment approved

After Substitution: 
Customer submitted payment
Payment approved

Example: A substitution to replace "insert prognosis statement" with the actual prognosis statement.

Type:
Literal

Spoken Form:
insert prognosis statement

Written Form: 
All medications reviewed during IDG meeting. Patient continues to be hospice appropriate with a life expectancy of 6 month or less if terminal illness runs its normal course.

Before Substitution: 
Patient is DNR period insert prognosis statement

After Substitution: 
Patient is DNR. All medications reviewed during IDG meeting. Patient continues to be hospice appropriate with a life expectancy of 6 month or less if terminal illness runs its normal course.

Regex Substitutions

A Regex substitution defines text matching a particular sequence of characters (or "string") and replaces it with a Regex "backreference", a literal text string, or both. 

Example: A substitution to change the formatting on phone numbers to add parenthesis and dash in the appropriate placesClick on this image to see it larger.

• Regex substitutions are NOT full word matches unless the expressions are explicitly defined with boundary markers.
• A Regex is a search pattern that is used to identify character patterns in a transcript and modify how they are returned, such as how telephone numbers or dates display. 
  • The spoken form of a regular expression substitution is a search pattern which, by default, is case insensitive.
    (Additional rules must be specified for the spoken form to be case sensitive.)
  • The written form could be literal text or Regex backreferences.
• Regex substitutions are implemented with the java.util.regex.Pattern class.
  • The JavaDoc for this class can be accessed at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html. See the section titled Summary of regular-expression constructs.
• nVoq Administrator performs minimal error checking for Regex syntax.
  • It is strongly recommended that you test your substitutions extensively to ensure they perform the expected substitution.

Examples of Regex Substitutions

Example:  A Regex substitution to convert the phrase "next line" to a single carriage return

Spoken Form:
(\A|\n|[.:?!]|[ ])((next|necks) line)[ ](k)

Written Form:
$1
K

Before Substitution: 
Customer submitted payment next line payment approved

After Substitution: 
Customer submitted payment
Payment approved

Example: A substitution to change the formatting on phone numbers to add parenthesis and dash in the appropriate places

Type: 
Regex

Spoken Form:
(\d{3})(\d{3})(\d{4})

Written Form:   
($1) $2-$3

Before Substitution: 
1232312332

After Substitution: 
(123) 231-2332

Example: A substitution to correct numbers spoken as "one to zero" and replaces it with "120"

Type: 
Regex

Spoken Form:  
(d)stoszeros

Written Form:   
$120

Before Substitution: 
Number of days is one to zero

After Substitution: 
Number of days is 120

Example: A substitution to correct the years 2012 - 2014 returning incorrectly, such as "200012" instead of "2012"

Type: 
Regex

Spoken Form:  
20001(2|3|4)b

Written Form:   
201$1

Before Substitution: 
200012  200013  200014

After Substitution: 
2012  2013  2014

Regex Plus Substitutions

A Regex Plus substitution uses JavaScript to reference variables.

Example: This substitution removes the previously spoken dictation within the same dictation back to the most recent punctuation mark when a person dictates "scratch that"Click on this image to see it larger.

• Regex Plus substitutions are NOT full word matches unless the expressions are explicitly defined with boundary markers.
• This type of substitution uses a Regex search pattern for the spoken form. When a match is found, the JavaScript programmatically determines the text to substitute.
  • The spoken form of a Regex Plus substitution is a regular expression.
  • The written form is a JavaScript.
• Regex Plus substitutions may not work as expected in Direct Text mode. See Substitution Behavior with STABLETEXT for more information.
• In the context of Regex Plus substitutions, browser elements and functions (e.g., window.* variables) and web page elements (e.g., document.* variables) are undefined. In other words, you cannot use a Regex Plus substitution to launch a web page.
• The JavaScript written form can reference the variables defined below.

Supported Variables for Real-time and Batch Processing

Variable: nvoq.fullText

Definition: The entire transcript.

JavaScript Type: String

Variable: nvoq.profile

Definition: The profile used to generate the transcript

JavaScript Type: String

Variable: match.group(N)

Definition: The contents of the Nth capturing group in the Regex (if any)

JavaScript Type: String

Variable:  match.start(N)

Definition: The start index into the Nth capturing group in the Regex (if any)

JavaScript Type: Number 

Variable: match.end(N)

Definition: The end index into the Nth capturing group in the Regex (if any)

JavaScript Type: Number

Variable: match.groupCount()

Definition: The number of capturing groups declared in the Regex 

JavaScript Type: Number

Examples of Regex Plus Substitutions

 Example: A Regex Plus substitution to replace "dot", "full stop", "PD", "pleaded",  etc. with a period ( . ) instead of those words.

Spoken Form:
(( dot| PD| pleaded| PD it| PD and| PD an(?!d)| PD on| full stop)($|\n)([a-z]|[0-9]*))

Written Form:
"\. " + match.group(3) + match.group(4).toUpperCase()

Before Substitution: 
Patient was seen at the clinic today full stop

After Substitution:
Patient was seen at the clinic today.

Example - Insert a Tab: This substitution inserts a tab without leading or trailing spaces when the user says "tab key" within the dictation.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:  
(\s?tab key\s?)

Written Form:   
"\t"

Before Substitution: 
Medications tab key the patient is on the following medications...

After Substitution: 
Medications       the patient is on the following medications...

Example - Transcribe Current Date: This substitution includes a user-defined function to replace the phrase "current date" with today's date in MM/DD/YYYY format. It can be used in real-time clients and with API batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:  
current date|Current date

Written Form: 
cur_date();

function cur_date(){

 var today = new Date();

 today = today.getUTCMonth() + 1 + "/" + today.getUTCDate() + "/" + today.getUTCFullYear();

 return today;

}

Before Substitution: 
On current date she says she...

After Substitution: 
On 1/12/2021 she says she...

Example - Delete Last Sentence Spoken: This substitution removes the previously spoken dictation within the same dictation back to the most recent punctuation mark.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:  
\A[\s\S]*[Ss]cratch that[\s\S]*\z

Written Form: 
var counter = 0;
var func = function (text) {
log("func" + counter++);

After Substitution: 
Risks and benefits: I went over the risks and benefits with the patient

Example - Prepend Voice Client Username to Transcript: This substitution prepends the speaker's username to the transcript when the transcript includes the phrase "end of dictation". It uses the nvoq.profile and nvoq.fullText variables. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
(?s).*end of dictation.*

Written Form:   
nvoq.profile + ":\n" + nvoq.fullText;

Before Substitution: 
Suggest follow up in six weeks. End of dictation

After Substitution: 
[email protected]:

Suggest follow up in six weeks. End of dictation

Example - Append Text to Transcript: This substitution looks for mention of an older model iPhone and appends the entire transcript with an upgrade offer. It uses the nvoq.fullText variable. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with API batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
(?s).*iPhone ?5.*

Written Form:   
nvoq.fullText + "\n***We are currently offering a \$50 discount on new iPhones.***\n";

Before Substitution: 
How often are you having the problem with your iPhone 5?

After Substitution: 
How often are you having this problem with your iPhone 5? ***We are currently offering a $50 discount on new iPhones.***

Example - Prepend Text to Transcript:  This substitution is invoked when a transcript includes an age phrase. It prepends the transcript with instructions when the age is less than 3 years or given in months. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:  
.*(d{1,3}[- ])((year|month)s?[- ]?)old.*

Written Form:   
sub();
 function sub() {
 var x;
 var y;
 x = match.group(2).charAt(0);
 y = match.group(1);
 if (x =="m") {
   return "***Schedule vaccines***\n" + nvoq.fullText;
   }
 else if (y <=3) {
   return "***Schedule vaccines***\n" + nvoq.fullText;
   }
 else {
   nvoq.fullText;
   }

Before Substitution: 
Patient is a healthy 36 month old male...

After Substitution: 
**Schedule vaccines**

Patient is a healthy 36 month old male...

Example - Time-sensitive Append Text to Transcript: This substitution compares the current date to a deadline. If the deadline has not passed, it appends a time-sensitive message. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
(?s).*sold.*subscription.*

Written Form:   
sub();

Before Substitution: 
Sold 6 month subscription. 

After Substitution:  
Sold 6 month subscription. 

 ***Member Drive on now: CONGRATS on your SALE!***

Example - Change Case: This substitution looks for a 4-20 character word followed by "exam:". It uses the match.group(1) variable and the JavaScript String toUpperCase() method to capitalize the match, and then adds a carriage return after the colon. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with API batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:  
(?m)([a-zA-Z]{4,20} exam: )

Written Form:   
sub();

Before Substitution: 
physical exam colon the patient is a pleasant...

After Substitution:  
PHYSICAL EXAM:

The patient is a pleasant...

Example - Case Sensitive: This substitution looks for a word that matches the case in the spoken form and returns the result defined in the written form. This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
((?-i)ICE)

Written Form:   
ICE Unit

Before Substitution: 
The patient was treated at the ICE period

After Substitution:  
The patient was treated at the ICE Unit.

Example - Display Character Count: This example displays the cumulative character count at the end of each line. A line is defined by the phrase "new line" or "new paragraph". This substitution can be used in real-time clients and with API batch processing.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
((n)|(z))

Written Form:   
match.start(1) + match.group(1);

Before Substitution: 
Mary had a little lamb new line whose fleece was white as snow new line new paragraph and everywhere that Mary went new line he lamb was sure to go new line

After Substitution:  
Mary had a little lamb23
whose fleece was white as snow55

56

And everywhere that Mary went87
the lamb was sure to go112

Example - Create a Lettered List: This example allows a dictator to say "letter next" in order to dictate a lettered list that automatically adds a carriage return before each list item. Each new list item is also capitalized.

Type: 
Regex Plus

Spoken Form:
((letter next)(\.*)(\s*)([\S\s]*))

Written Form:   
var mainText = match.group(5);

var sections = mainText.split(/letter next\.?/i);

var newText = "";

var letters = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"];

for(var i = 0; i < sections.length; i++) {

                var ordinal = i < letters.length ? letters[i] : i+1;

                var sectionText = capitalize(trimLeadingWhitespace(sections[i]));

                newText += "\n" + ordinal + ". " + sectionText;

}

function capitalize(str) {

    return str.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + str.slice(1);

}

function trimLeadingWhitespace(str) {

                return str.replace(/^\s+/, "");

}

Before Substitution: 
Admission diagnosis colon letter next cerebrovascular accident with left arm weakness letter next hyperlipidemia

After Substitution:  
Admission diagnosis:

A. Cerebrovascular accident with left arm weakness

B. Hyperlipidemia