New Study Shows Nuance’s Dragon Medical Accelerates Transition to Electronic Medical Records

Speech recognition is one more tool that can ease the acceptance and use of electronic medical records. If you read this blog often enough, there are quite a few posts here relative to their products and acquisitions. Dragon does work with software vendors to provide an integrated solution not only with electronic medical records, but has also expanded into other areas such as radiology. The related reading below has links relative to other products from Nuance. BD

Press Release:

69 Percent of Physicians Say Speech Recognition Makes EHRs Faster and Easier to Use; Nuance & EHR Vendors Launch Dragon Medical EHR Certification Program

“Not only can Dragon Medical pay for itself in three months, but it also integrates with products by Epic®, Allscripts®, Cerner®, GE®, McKesson®, NextGen®, eClinicalWorks® and Eclipsys®. Over 15% of all clinicians have already adopted Dragon Medical in the last four years alone.”

HIMSS 2009, Chicago, April 6, 2009 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, today announced results from a new study that shows how Nuance’s Dragon Medical^®software, the healthcare industry’s most widely used real-time speech recognition software, can significantly accelerate the transition to, and utilization of electronic health records (EHRs).

As EHRs have risen to the forefront of the healthcare information technology (HIT) agenda at the physician, provider organization, government and consumer levels, Dragon Medical software is increasingly recognized as an essential component to successful EHR rollout. According to a survey completed by 1,255 physicians who have adopted Nuance’s Dragon Medical software:

· 83 percent said that it improved the quality of their electronic patient notes;

· 81 percent said that it significantly reduced transcription spending; and,

· 69 percent said it made their EHR faster and easier to use.

Despite strong endorsements for EHRs, their adoption is lagging. Today, less than two percent of U.S. hospitals have fully switched to EHRs, according to a study from the New England Journal of Medicine that was released on March 25, 2009, and a third of the 3,000 hospitals surveyed cited reluctance among doctors to change work habits as a leading hurdle. To facilitate EHR migration further, Nuance is collaborating with leading EHR vendors, such as Allscripts, to launch the Dragon Medical EHR Certification Program. While Dragon Medical software already works “out-of-the-box” with more than 150 EHR systems, the Certification Program is designed to optimize clinician use of EHRs by introducing a new standard of speech recognition interoperability.

“Our physician clients have embraced Dragon Medical as the primary and best means of speech-enabling their electronic health records, because Dragon Medical helps them to quickly and easily create high-quality, real-time patient documentation,” said Glen Tullman, chief executive officer of Allscripts. “Speech is a key component of the electronic healthcare revolution, and Nuance’s certification program will ensure that physicians have a reliable list of electronic health records that will optimize their use of this vital clinical capability.”

As part of the Dragon Medical EHR Certification Program, EHR vendors complete a Nuance-managed evaluation during which they work with Nuance engineers to further optimize The Dragon Medical software’s interoperability with their EHR. By adding this additional layer of interoperability, physicians and healthcare organizations can confidently make their EHR migration, knowing speech recognition is not only possible, but has been pre-tested and optimized for utmost clinician efficiency.

Dragon Medical and the EHR, Accelerating the Transition

“The biggest challenge facing the roll-out of electronic medical records contemplated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is achieving meaningful use without adding to physicians’ documentation burden. This can be accomplished by closely coordinating voice entry with structured notes, rather than treating voice and structured entry as an ‘either-or’ proposition,” said Wes Rishel, vice president and analyst in Gartner’s healthcare provider research practice.

As the Health and Human Services Department works to define “meaningful use” of an EHR, Nuance believes that Dragon Medical software can help physicians and organizations move toward complying with what will ultimately be considered “meaningful” EHR use, by ensuring that clinicians actually utilize the EHR and that the physician narrative is not lost during the documentation process. As proven by the more than 100,000 physicians already using Dragon Medical software to dictate the narrative component of their patient visits, speech-driven clinical documentation is available in real-time, notes are more complete and patient care is improved.

“Today, more than 20 percent of all physicians in North America use speech solutions from Nuance to generate over 800 million electronic medical records a year,” said Peter Durlach, senior vice president of marketing and product strategy, Nuance Healthcare. “Dragon Medical is increasingly recognized as an essential component to EHR rollout as healthcare provider organizations work to implement, and effectively utilize EHR systems to comply with the federal government’s five-year adoption goal, as well as earn their fair share of incentive payments from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”

Dragon Medical software is proven to make clinicians up to 25 percent more efficient with an EHR when compared to using a non voice-enabled system. And, as supported by a May 2007 report issued by KLAS, 76 percent of clinicians using “desktop” speech recognition – to directly control an EHR system - report faster medical report turn-around time, better service to patients, sharply reduced costs and increased productivity. Benefits for healthcare organizations that provide physicians with a speech-enabled EHR include:

· Reduced Transcription Costs - By enabling clinicians to dictate directly into the EHR system with real-time speech recognition, healthcare provider organizations can eliminate significant operating costs associated with traditional manual transcription.

· Faster Medical Report Creation - Using speech, physicians can create patient documents at the point of care, resulting in faster turn-around times and more accurate, thorough patient records.

· More Detailed Documentation - According to physicians, the narrative is the most important part of a patient note. A medical record that combines point-and-click EHR templates with dictated physician narrative promotes ongoing higher quality care.

· Increased Overall User Productivity and Satisfaction - By using speech recognition to navigate and dictate directly into the EHR system, clinicians can eliminate hours of typing, clicking and scrolling, allowing them to spend more time providing high quality patient care and increasing their satisfaction with the entire documentation process

For more information on the Dragon Medical EHR Certification Program or Dragon Medical software visit http://www.nuance.com/CertifiedEHRs

Nuance’s Healthcare Business

Nuance’s healthcare portfolio of proven, speech-enabled clinical documentation and communication solutions enable healthcare provider organizations to improve financial performance, enhance patient care, and increase patient safety. With more than 3,000 healthcare customers worldwide, Nuance has the experience and solutions that meet the individual needs of any size healthcare provider organization.

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