Dictate / For doctors
Medical dictation on Mac, offline
Speak a referral letter or a clinic note instead of typing it after hours. The speech is transcribed on your own Mac, so patient details are never uploaded to anyone's server.
7 days free, then $49 once, lifetime license, no subscription · Apple Silicon Mac · macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Patient notes never leave the room
A dictated note names a patient, a diagnosis and a plan. With a cloud dictation tool, that audio goes to a vendor's servers to be transcribed. With Dictate, it doesn't go anywhere. The speech model runs on your Mac's Neural Engine; audio is held in memory, transcribed when you release the key, and discarded. It is never written to disk.
Because nothing is uploaded, it works the same with the network off: in a consulting room with poor Wi-Fi, on a locked-down hospital network, or at home on the laptop. The privacy page lists every connection the app makes, none of them while you dictate.
Teach it the drug names it mishears
A general speech model knows everyday language well and pharmacology less well. Dictate doesn't pretend otherwise. Instead it gives you substitutions: when it writes the wrong word for a drug or condition you use every week, add the pair once, and every dictation after comes out right. Hesitations such as "um" are removed on your Mac as you go.
Read every note before you sign it. Dictate can mishear a number, a dose or a negation like any dictation tool, and a substitution corrects a word, not a clinical fact.
In the system you already use
There is no integration to set up. Put the cursor in the note field of your record system, a referral letter in Word, or an email, then hold your key and speak. When you let go, the text is pasted there. Browser-based systems work too, as long as the field accepts a paste. The text also stays on your clipboard, like anything you copy, so clear it if you share the Mac.
Working in more than one language? Dictate detects which of its 21 European languages you speak, from one dictation to the next.
What it doesn't do
- It is not a certified medical device and makes no clinical claims. You are responsible for what goes into the record.
- No medical vocabulary built in; substitutions are how you add your terms.
- No integration with any health record system, and no structured templates or voice commands.
- No transcription of recorded consultations; it transcribes you while you hold the key.
- No compliance certification. Your organisation decides whether it fits its rules.
Using Apple's built-in dictation now? Compare Apple Dictation vs Dictate, or read what on-device dictation means.
Questions
Is there offline medical dictation for Mac?
Yes. Dictate transcribes speech on your Mac with no internet connection, so a patient note is never uploaded to be transcribed. It is a general dictation app, not a medical product: it has no built-in medical vocabulary and is not a certified medical device.
Is Dictate a certified medical device?
No. Dictate is a general-purpose dictation app. It makes no clinical claims, is not certified under any medical device regulation, and you are responsible for checking every note it produces before it enters a record.
How does it handle drug names?
You teach it with substitutions. When the model mishears a drug or condition, add what it hears and what it should type, and it is fixed in every dictation after. Check doses and numbers yourself; a substitution corrects a word, not a fact.
Does it work with our electronic health record?
It works in any field that accepts a paste, including browser-based record systems. Dictate pastes at your cursor; it has no integration with any record system and doesn't read or write patient data itself.
Is patient data sent anywhere?
Not by dictation. Audio is transcribed on your Mac and discarded, and the text goes only to your cursor. Whether Dictate fits your organisation's rules is for your data protection officer to decide.
Try it on tomorrow's letters
Apple Silicon Mac · macOS 14 Sonoma or later