Who Dolbey is best for
Dolbey and Company traces its history to 1914, when John Dolbey partnered with Thomas Edison to sell early dictation machines, and today develops dictation, speech recognition, transcription and computer-assisted coding software. For independent practices the relevant product is Fusion Narrate, launched in 2018 and powered by nVoq speech recognition, where the clinician dictates and text appears directly in the EHR. Hospitals and health information departments use its Fusion Text transcription platform and Fusion CAC coding software.
Best for
- Clinicians who already dictate and want accurate speech-to-text in their current EHR
- Practices using several EHRs or web apps, since Fusion Narrate works with 100+ applications
- Specialties such as cardiology, urology, behavioral health and radiology that dictate long reports
- Practices that want a 14-day trial and a published list price
Not ideal for
- Clinicians who want a note generated from the patient conversation without dictating, unless they adopt Fusion Narrate ACI
- Small practices looking for coding or transcription workflow tools, which are built for hospitals
- Buyers who want speech recognition bundled free inside their EHR
Dolbey pros and cons
Pros
- Published pricing for Fusion Narrate, with a free 14-day trial
- Cloud-based, and Dolbey says one license covers use across multiple EHRs and locations
- Voice shortcuts, Vision Click and AI Assist prompts reduce repetitive typing and clicking
- Dolbey says Fusion Narrate received the highest user score in the KLAS Speech Recognition: Front-End EMR segment from 2020 to 2022
- A 99.9% uptime guarantee, per Dolbey, and a smartphone can act as the dictation device
Cons
- One-time onboarding of $500 per user adds to first-year cost
- Dictation still requires the clinician to speak the note, unlike ambient AI scribes
- Fusion Narrate ACI is priced separately on a pay-as-you-go basis with no published rate
- Product names overlap across dolbey.com and dolbeyspeech.com, which can make it hard to tell which product you need
Dolbey pricing
As of 2026, Dolbey lists Fusion Narrate at $890 per user per year MSRP (about $74 per month equivalent) on a one-year subscription for any number of users. Onboarding is a one-time $500 per user and includes personalized training, shortcut building and an accuracy review by Dolbey staff. A free 14-day trial is available, and a limited-time offer on Dolbey's pricing page adds a free microphone and one free month per license when onboarding is purchased. Fusion Narrate ACI is pay-as-you-go by quote, and enterprise products such as Fusion CAC and Fusion Text are quote-only.
Key features
- Fusion Narrate: cloud front-end speech recognition for EHRs, LIS, RIS and other apps, with shortcuts, AI Assist and Text Extract
- Fusion Narrate ACI: ambient documentation that drafts a patient report from a recorded visit
- Fusion Narrate Dx: speech recognition for diagnostic imaging reports
- Fusion SpeechEMR: on-premise speech recognition that types into any free-text field
- Fusion Text: back-end speech editing and transcription platform
- Fusion CAC: computer-assisted ICD-10 and CPT coding with CDI alerts and auditing workflows for hospital and professional coding teams
HIPAA, security and integrations
Dolbey describes Fusion Narrate as HIPAA compliant and secure, and calls Fusion Narrate ACI a secure, HIPAA-compliant solution. It does not publish a SOC 2 report, HITRUST certification, hosting provider or business associate agreement terms on its speech site, so ask for these, and how long dictation audio is retained, before signing.
Fusion Narrate does not rely on EHR interfaces: it types recognized text into the active field, and Dolbey's application compatibility list names more than 100 programs, including Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Elation, AdvancedMD, Greenway and NextGen. Fusion SpeechEMR does the same on premises without specialized interfacing.
Dolbey alternatives
- Dragon Medical One — Microsoft's cloud medical dictation tool and a direct competitor to Fusion Narrate.
- Microsoft Dragon Copilot — combines Dragon dictation with ambient AI note generation.
- Augnito — cloud medical speech recognition and another alternative for dictating into the EHR.
- Suki — AI assistant that combines ambient notes with voice commands inside major EHRs.
- Freed — low-cost ambient AI scribe for clinicians who want to stop dictating altogether.
