Glossary
Dragon Medical One
Dragon Medical One, abbreviated DMO, is Nuance's speech recognition product for clinicians who dictate notes into health records. Microsoft now combines it with DAX Copilot in a product called Dragon Copilot.
Updated October 16, 20265 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called DMO.
Dragon Medical One (DMO) is a speech recognition product from Nuance, made for clinicians who dictate medical notes. A clinician speaks, and the software turns the speech into text that goes into the clinical record. It is the medical counterpart of the desktop program Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
It works inside the health record, not beside it
Dragon Medical One is built to write into the record a clinician already uses. A health system's Epic guidance says Dragon Medical One is the tool for dictating into a patient's chart on a desktop or tablet in Hyperspace 1. The same guidance notes that Epic's Haiku and Canto mobile apps support Nuance Dragon dictation directly into progress notes started in the app 2. The point is placement: the text lands in the note, so the clinician does not copy it over from another app.
Microsoft now sells it under Dragon Copilot
Microsoft has merged its clinical products into one line. Microsoft describes Dragon Copilot as combining and extending Dragon Medical One and DAX Copilot 3. A search for DMO can therefore lead to Dragon Copilot pages, and the two names refer to the same family of products. Check the current licensing on Microsoft's pages, because the terms for each customer depend on the contract.
What one study measured
A 2025 study used Dragon Medical One as its commercial comparison 4. In that study's pilot, DMO had a mean word error rate of 1.34 percent once linguistic errors were excluded 5. Word error rate counts the substitutions, deletions and insertions in a transcript, divided by the number of words spoken. The study was a small pilot, so treat its figure as one data point, not a general accuracy rating for DMO in every clinic.
Why it matters for clinicians and buyers
Clinicians dictate many notes each day, so accuracy and the place the text ends up both matter. Medical dictation also involves protected health information, which brings privacy and contract questions into the buying decision. Our guide to medical dictation covers the workflow, and our guide to HIPAA compliant dictation covers the privacy rules. Our guide to AI medical scribes compares dictation with tools that write notes from a conversation.
For buyers, check three things: whether the product runs in your record system, who signs the agreement that covers patient data, and which current product line you are buying. The names have changed, so a quote may use the older Dragon Medical One name or the newer Dragon Copilot name.
Related terms
Nuance Communications is the company that made DMO. Dragon Professional Anywhere is a separate subscription edition for general use. Word error rate is explained in more detail in word error rate, and a medical record is described in electronic health record. A clinician reading this may also want our overview of dictation software, which covers products for professional use.
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Dictation Software: How to Choose the Right AppThe topic this term belongs to
- AI dictationAI dictation is dictation in which a language model edits the recognized text after speech recognition, removing filler words, fixing punctuation and sometimes rewording a sentence. It can change your meaning, so check the result before you send it.
- Bring your own key (BYOK)Bring your own key (BYOK) is a setup in which you supply your own API key for an AI or speech provider. The app then sends requests through your account with that provider, so your agreement with the provider governs the data.
- Cloud dictationCloud dictation sends your recorded speech to a remote server, which recognizes it and returns the text. It usually needs an internet connection, and your audio leaves your device, so check the provider's policy before you dictate sensitive material.
- Custom vocabularyA custom vocabulary is a list of words, names and phrases that you add to dictation software so it recognizes and spells them as you intend. It matters most for names, jargon and product terms the recognizer has not learned.
- Dictation softwareDictation software is a program that recognizes your speech and types the words where your cursor is, as you say them. It comes built into many phones and computers and is also sold as separate apps.
- Dragon NaturallySpeakingDragon NaturallySpeaking, usually called Dragon, is a speech recognition program for dictating text on a computer. Dragon Systems released it in 1997, and Nuance has sold it in several editions since.
- Dragon Professional AnywhereDragon Professional Anywhere is a subscription edition of Dragon that Nuance sells for professional and enterprise users. It is often shortened to Dragon Anywhere, a name that also belongs to Nuance's mobile app, so check which product a listing means.
- Free tierA free tier is the no-cost version of a dictation app, with limits such as a weekly word cap, fewer modes or no AI processing. Read those limits before you rely on it, because a free plan can run out in the middle of your work.
- Nuance CommunicationsNuance Communications was a speech technology company best known for the Dragon family of speech recognition products. Microsoft announced that it had completed its acquisition of Nuance on March 4, 2022.
- Perpetual licenseA perpetual license is a software license you pay for once. It lets you keep using that version without renewing. Updates, support and new major versions are often separate, time-limited or paid extra.
- PowerScribePowerScribe is a family of radiology reporting products in which a radiologist dictates an imaging report by voice. It began as a Nuance dictation application, and Microsoft completed its purchase of Nuance in 2022, so Microsoft now sells the line.
- Voice profileA voice profile is the set of files that dictation software keeps for one user, with settings such as the microphone they use and their custom words. It is not the same as speaker recognition, which identifies who is speaking.
Pages that use this term
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking: What It Is and Where It StandsGuide
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking Versions, Editions and PriceGuide
- Is Dictation HIPAA Compliant? What Makes It SafeGuide
- Professional Dictation Software for Specialist FieldsGuide
- Does eClinicalWorks have built-in dictation?Question
- Does Epic have built-in dictation?Question
- Does Microsoft own Dragon NaturallySpeaking?Question
- How much does Dragon Medical One cost?Question
- Is AI dictation better than Dragon NaturallySpeaking?Question
- What dictation software do NHS GPs and UK clinics use?Question
- What is medical dictation?Question
- What is the best medical dictation software for Mac?Question
- What is the best medical dictation software for Windows?Question
- What is the difference between Dragon Medical One and Dragon NaturallySpeaking?Question
- Which dictation apps and software are HIPAA compliant?Question
- Dragon NaturallySpeakingGlossary
- Nuance CommunicationsGlossary
- PowerScribeGlossary