Phonetic Searching is an optional feature used in Conflict of Interest searching that assists in finding incidents that do not match your search values letter for letter. Phonetic searching essentially reduces each word to a phonetic syllable or groups of syllables in both your search values and the information in the files. Phonetic syllables are then compared in order to find "sounds like" matches.

An advantage of using phonetic searching is that more occurrences of your search values will be found--thus possibly finding critical occurrences that you may not have thought of when entering search values. Disadvantages of using phonetic searching are substantially longer search times and more "false" occurrences.

The text "Phonetic Search Text" will be printed as a heading next to the search value on the Conflict of Interest Report if phonetic searching was performed.

Note: Phonetic searching is not performed for the search value if a wildcard or range is specified.