Nuance Extends Power and Experience of Mobile, Voice-Enabled Documentation and Search to the Healthcare Industry; Unveils Dragon Medical Mobile Apps for Smartphones

Nuance Communications, Inc., (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced it will showcase an advanced suite of Dragon Medical Mobile technologies and solutions at HIMSS. Building upon the recent success of its Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search consumer apps for the iPhone, which are powered by world-renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, Nuance will extend its mobile speech technologies to the healthcare industry. By applying its award-winning speech recognition and capture capabilities to smartphones, Nuance can help physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers, such as therapists, efficiently access clinical information and document patient encounters using their mobile devices. Nuance will preview several innovative voice-powered Dragon Medical Mobile technologies and solutions at HIMSS this week; availability is expected throughout this year, beginning in the spring of 2010.

Today there is rapidly accelerating demand from clinicians for mobile solutions that can help them more easily document, retrieve and communicate patient information at the point-of-care. In fact, according to market-research firm Manhattan Research LLC of New York, by 2011 about 81 percent of U.S. physicians will be using smartphones. The urgency for such solutions is further heightened by industry and federal government mandates to expediently migrate medical information into Electronic Health Records (EHRs). To help clinicians take full advantage of advances in mobile computing, Nuance has developed a variety of mobile technologies that are designed specifically for clinicians to improve productivity and satisfaction with documentation workflow, information access and communication via the smartphone.

At HIMSS this week, Nuance will showcase the following voice-enabled mobile solutions for smartphones:

• Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation – Nuance will demonstrate a healthcare version of its popular and first-of-its-kind Dragon Dictation app, which is based on Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition technology. The app allows clinicians to dictate patient notes, emails and text messages instead of typing them on a mobile device. With Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation clinicians can dictate and capture information via a smartphone in real-time without having to return to the desktop, or rely on the keyboard or touch screen. And because Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation is a server-based app, all of the speech recognition is performed in the cloud using advanced real-time streaming capabilities.
• Dragon Medical Mobile Search – Nuance will show a healthcare version of its Dragon Search app, providing an intuitive voice-powered solution that gives clinicians a smarter way to search for medical information. Utilizing the same server-based speech recognition technology as the Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation app, the Search app will allow clinicians to simply speak a request to conduct fast and easy searches on various medical websites. A unique display carousel will show search results simultaneously from a variety of popular websites, such as MedScape, MedLine, Epocrates and Google. The app will also help identify correct coding information to ensure that clinical services are appropriately billed and accurately documented. Dragon Medical Mobile Search will be the first Dragon Medical Mobile App made available by April 30^th.
• Dragon Medical Mobile Recorder – Nuance will preview a voice-capture app that will allow clinicians to conduct on-the-go dictation on a smartphone. Once recorded, the clinicians’ voice file is forwarded through Nuance’s background speech recognition technology and onto transcription where a high-quality draft document is created and then sent back to the clinician for review and sign-off. The Dragon Medical Recorder app is designed for healthcare organizations that leverage either of Nuance’s enterprise-wide speech-enabled dictation and transcription solutions, eScription or the Dictaphone Enterprise Speech System.
• Dragon Medical Mobile SDK– Nuance will preview its Dragon Medical Mobile SDK (software developer kit) that will be offered to third-party healthcare information technology companies and partners. This SDK will allow developers, including EHR vendors, to build solutions that can incorporate Nuance’s Dragon Medical Mobile capabilities. Eclipsys is the first healthcare information technology company to embed Dragon Medical Mobile SDK within its mobile application suite to enable speech-driven navigation and clinical documentation. This differentiating feature is part of a third-generation mobile version of Eclipsys’ industry-leading Sunrise Clinical Manager™ EHR system for the iPhone that the company will preview at HIMSS10 (Eclipsys Booth #5833).

"Innovation in point-of-care solutions is occurring at a very fast pace, driven in large part by the incredible computing power available from smartphone platforms like the iPhone,” said Surj Ramlogan, Eclipsys vice president, Software Development. "A key element of Eclipsys’ market strategy is to leverage game-changing technologies to deliver our new mobile solution suite. Integrating Nuance’s Dragon Medical Mobile platform speech recognition capabilities into our iPhone platform took only a matter of weeks and it is a prime example of our commitment to innovation and differentiation in the marketplace.”

"Nuance has helped revolutionize the mobile experience by providing people with simple, intuitive and easy-to-use voice-powered capabilities on their smartphones and other devices. With the innovative solutions we’re showcasing this week, Nuance is helping bring the power of mobile speech to the healthcare community, and make clinical documentation and information access more efficient for the clinician,” said Peter Durlach, senior vice president, marketing and product strategy, Nuance Healthcare. "Whether quickly documenting a patient encounter while rounding, searching the Internet for medical information, or sending a quick spoken text message about a patient’s condition to a colleague, Nuance’s Dragon Medical Mobile solutions will speed up and simplify the process.”

While at HIMSS, visit Nuance at booth #7633 to see previews of the Dragon Medical Mobile technologies as well as the entire healthcare portfolio.

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 5,000 healthcare provider organization customers worldwide, Nuance has the experience and solutions that meet the individual needs of any size healthcare provider organization.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance 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, Dragon and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release, relating to future plans or future events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the Nuance products, the relationship with the customer or partner and the continued development of Nuance products. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation. Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.