Radiology Industry Standardizes on End-to-End Workflow Management Solutions from Nuance

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its information technology (IT) solutions for streamlining healthcare documentation, communication and decision-making have demonstrated exceptional value and adoption in the radiology market. With the addition of Commissure and Vocada, two radiology IT leaders, Nuance’s Dictaphone Healthcare division has expanded its product portfolio to significantly improve workflow operations for the radiology industry. Dictaphone has made strategic development and acquisition decisions to fuel its delivery of integrated solutions that support a single, end-to-end, closed-loop management process for radiology. The full closed-loop radiology product portfolio includes: RadPort for Radiology - Decision support for appropriate exam ordering. PowerScribe for Radiology & RadWhere for Radiology - Speech-enabled reporting for highly accurate clinical documentation. Veriphy – Critical test result management (CTRM) for automated communication of high-priority diagnostic patient findings. RadCube for Radiology – A web-based business intelligence tool for advanced clinical data mining, analysis and classification to drive trend identification and forecasting for better radiology and business decisions. "As healthcare organizations prioritize the reduction of patient radiation exposure by ensuring high levels of appropriateness for all medical imaging exams, decision support solutions are becoming increasingly important,” said Christine Chang, healthcare industry analyst for DataMonitor. "In addition to directly improving quality of care, tools that support the radiology process from the onset and throughout to the analysis of a patient’s outcome will help to drive better processes, improved productivity and decrease overall healthcare costs.” Nuance is proud to announce: -- More than 30 percent of U.S. radiologists use PowerScribe for Radiology to drive clinical documentation, a proven speech recognition solution shown to reduce transcription costs by up to 100 percent and to pay for itself in as little as six months. -- Nearly 1,200 radiology customers use Dictaphone's speech recognition solutions (PowerScribe and RadWhere) to drive radiology reporting, including more than 100 new customers since October 2007. -- With American College of Radiology (ACR) appropriateness criteria as its foundation, Dictaphone's imaging decision support solution, RadPort, has been shown to: -- Reduce ordering time up to 80 percent by eliminating radiology benefits management (RBM) phone calls and satisfying insurer pre-certification requirements. -- Dramatically reduce the ordering of "inappropriate", or low utility, examinations from 15 percent of total examinations to less than 2 percent.* -- Increase the rate of radiological findings from 74 percent to 84 percent.* -- The introduction of Veriphy 2.0 and the HL7 Server helped to grow the Veriphy critical test result management customer base to 165, a 66 percent growth in six just months. -- Dictaphone's PowerScribe and RadWhere for Radiology applications were two out of the top three ranked solutions in the General Market Software category for front-end speech recognition from the KLAS 2007 Year-End Top 20 Best in KLAS Report. -- A seamless integration between PowerScribe for Radiology and RadCube, enabling customers to add business intelligence to their radiology data capture and review process, and to access and analyze data that would otherwise remain disparate and unstructured (see separate RadCube press release also announced today). Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Illinois has been using PowerScribe for Radiology since June 2007 to improve documentation and communication processes. Jonathan W. Berlin, MD, MBA, associate professor of radiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and from the department of diagnostic radiology at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare said the following. "Voice recognition in radiology decreases report turn-around time dramatically, as dictated radiology reports no longer have to be sent outside the interpreting institution to be transcribed. Creating a ‘closed-loop’ of communication that does not rely on outsourced transcription means than radiology reports can be posted to the medical record within minutes, optimizing patient care as well as significantly enhancing radiology service.” Dictaphone’s closed-loop radiology management product portfolio enables ordering clinicians and radiologists at teaching hospitals, community-based medical centers and imaging facilities to optimize workflow from the time an exam is ordered, interpreted, documented and throughout to the administration and analysis of patient care. For sales and pricing information, please call 1-888-350-4836. "The radiology sector has led the healthcare industry in its adoption of speech recognition technology,” said Robert Wise, President, Dictaphone Healthcare Division, Nuance. "The combination of order decision support, critical communications and trend analysis alongside speech-driven clinical documentation is changing the way radiology departments operate. Our commitment is to provide solutions that help radiologists perform their job better within the environment they work with the tools to which they’re accustomed.” *The above percentages reflect findings based on a two and a half year study at one site starting in the last quarter of 2004. A team of researchers utilized data mining software (RadCube) to analyze the ordering trends of MRI and CT exams based on the use of a decision support system (RadPort). 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, Dictaphone, RadPort, PowerScribe, RadCube, Veriphy, Commissure and RadWhere 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.