More Than 60,000 Clinicians Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical to Streamline Their Clinical Documentation Process

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, is today announcing that its Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions division has achieved another milestone in the rapidly evolving speech recognition for healthcare market by crossing the 60,000 license threshold with its Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® Medical solution. Feedback from the more than 60,000 Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical users has reinforced the value of speech-enabling the clinical documentation process at any stage – pre-electronic medical record (EMR) integration, simultaneously with EMR evaluation and deployment, or post-EMR adoption. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical makes EMRs easier to use by significantly reducing the number of mouse clicks and typing required by clinicians to document care. With Dragon Medical, doctors can describe the narrative sections of the patient encounter through free-form dictation directly into leading EMR systems, quickly navigate patient charts using spoken commands, and reduce or eliminate the ongoing cost of manual transcription. "The combination of narrative dictation coupled with Epic-provided template technology produces a better, more complete, structured patient record. We decided to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical in our emergency department to enhance the detail of our patient reports without burdening providers with time-consuming data-entry via the keyboard,” said Mikki Clancy, Vice President and CIO of Premier Health Partners. "The results have been astonishing. The quality of reports has improved, adoption in the emergency department surpassed our 90 percent goal and achieved 100 percent, and our report turnaround time is nearly immediate, ridding the need for transcription services. In 2007 alone, we’ve saved $1.4 million in reduced transcription costs.” Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical is the most widely used and successful general purpose speech recognition solution in the history of the healthcare industry. Benefits include: Increased Overall Adoption Rates of Clinical Information Systems - By providing clinicians with a highly productive narrative documentation solution (vs. point-and-click or type), Dragon Medical significantly accelerates the adoption and ROI of clinical information systems, including EMRs. Reduced Transcription Costs – Dragon Medical can reduce ongoing transcription costs up to 100 percent within the first few months of deployment. Improved Report Turnaround Time - With Dragon Medical, complete patient charts can be produced within minutes of the actual encounter, streamlining reimbursement and patient care. Improved Quality of Patient Documentation – Dragon Medical enables clinicians to document the patient encounter in their own words resulting in more complete, accurate and descriptive clinical information. Increased Reimbursement – By enabling clinicians to quickly and fully document the narrative sections of the patient encounter, providers can maximize their reimbursement levels. Supports All EMR Deployment Phases - Dragon Medical has proved to be valuable as an add-on at all phases of the clinical documentation process - pre-EMR, simultaneously with EMR roll-out and post-EMR deployment. "Healthcare provider organizations of all sizes and specialties are realizing the tremendous benefit of speech enabling their EMRs with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical. Dragon Medical helps healthcare provider organizations realize the full benefits of their significant EMR investments by simultaneously reducing transcription costs, increasing clinician adoption and satisfaction, and improving the quality of clinical documentation,” said Peter Durlach, senior vice president, healthcare marketing and product strategy for Nuance. "As speech recognition adoption continues to grow at an astonishing rate across the healthcare industry, the value message is expanding beyond transcription cost savings and real-time medical reports to improved provider productivity, patient safety and clinician satisfaction.” Leading EMR and Health Care Information Technology vendors that now directly support the use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical to control their products include Allscripts, Eclipsys, Epic Systems, NextGen, Practice Partners and ChartLogic. For a full list of speech compliant EMR vendors or to see a demonstration of Dictaphone’s speech solutions visit Nuance’s Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions booth #5846 at HIMSS 08, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, February 24-28 in Orlando, FL. More information on Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical can be found online at http://www.nuance.com/dictaphone/naturallyspeaking/. Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions Division Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions is a division of Nuance Communications, a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions. Dictaphone provides the most comprehensive family of speech-driven clinical documentation and communications solutions. Dictaphone® solutions orchestrate and optimize clinical workflow, reduce transcription expense, raise standards of care via more thorough documentation, deliver results rapidly to meet patient safety guidelines, and heighten clinician satisfaction by making EMR systems easy to use. Dictaphone’s solutions accelerate the adoption of clinical information systems, so provider organizations can maximize the return from their IT investments. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com/dictaphone/. Nuance Communications, Inc. Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com. Nuance, the Nuance logo, Dragon, and NaturallySpeaking are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. 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