For decades, medical voice dictation and scribe services have boosted productivity in high-resource settings. Yet, they remain virtually absent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where healthcare systems face physician shortages and heavier patient loads, but rely on outdated, paper-based workflows. Digital transformation efforts in these settings often overlook a critical barrier: the limited computer proficiency of overworked clinicians. While voice input is typically considered a suitable alternative that alleviates the additional cognitive burden from keyboard-based data entry, studies in high-resource settings report mixed findings on its efficiency. This study evaluates whether those findings hold in LMIC contexts. We assessed typing and dictation speeds among over 1,000 clinicians and health workers across 60+ hospitals in 15+ LMICs. Results reveal a median keyboard speed of just 21.4 words per minute (wpm), compared to dictation speeds of 4–5x faster on average (median 93 wpm). This significant speed improvement underscores the potential of speech recognition to reduce documentation burdens, improve workflow efficiency, and transform clinician experiences, evoking feelings of regret at the time lost to inefficient systems, and reinforcing the urgency of integrating voice solutions into LMIC digital health strategies.

First author is an employee at the company that developed the speech recognition algorithm used for automated transcription of non-native accents used in this paper. Funding for the study was also provided by the company. To manage this potential conflict, the author has been transparent about the funding source and has ensured that the research was conducted independently of any external influence. Study design, analysis, and results were reviewed and critiqued by several independent senior authors.

This study was funded by Intron Health

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This study was reviewed and approved by the Nigerian National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC), Approval Number NHREC/01/01/2007-17/03/2022

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors