HIMSS 2008 – ORLANDO, FLA - February 25, 2008 - Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, is today announcing the launch of its Healthcare Solutions division’s new on-demand offering for critical test result management (CTRM).

Veriphy™ 2.0, the newest addition to the Healthcare Solutions suite, introduces new features for closed-loop communication, based on the industry-leading CTRM solution developed by recently acquired Vocada. Veriphy is currently the only end-to-end enterprise solution for communicating critical test results from hospital diagnostic departments to ordering clinicians. The solution works with other clinical information systems for laboratory, radiology, cardiology, and pathology and is used by more than 150 diverse hospital customers nationwide including:

Albert Einstein Medical Center
Baylor Health Care System
Bon Secours Health System
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Los Angeles County Health Services

In 2006, nearly two-thirds of the hospitals surveyed by The Joint Commission failed to meet the accreditation requirement regarding communication of critical test results. CTRM is now recognized by The Joint Commission as a viable strategy to advance patient safety by improving the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.

Vocada™ Veriphy™ 2.0 enables healthcare centers and systems to overcome the inherent distractions, time constraints, and multiple communication hand-offs impacting providers. By leveraging CTRM, hospital administrators and clinicians can set performance standards for the communication process of serious outcomes, monitor performance, and act promptly when problems or negative trends appear.

“We provide medical services for more than 500,000 outpatient and emergency visits every year; it is critical that we have one complete solution that quickly and reliably transitions from reporting to critical test result management if and when a critical test result is found,” said Michael Matthews, director of clinical information systems, Department of Diagnostic Radiology Yale-New Haven Hospital. “Our radiological and emergency department staff needs an effective, consistent way of not just documenting, but communicating patient information to ensure patient safety remains priority, while not sacrificing provider productivity.”

Veriphy 2.0 ensures active, verified communication, instant documentation, and automatic tracking, reporting, and compliance with legal and professional standards. The automated system provides a consistent and accountable way to notify caregivers about high-priority patient information. Highlights of Veriphy 2.0 include:

Emergency Department (ED) Enhancements – ED physicians can leverage two-way communication functionality to send a preliminary finding to the Lab or a radiologist for a specialist “over-read” or confirmation of the ED’s initial diagnosis in real-time.
Directory Tab – Caregivers’ contact information is easily accessible via a tab in Veriphy’s Desktop, making it simple to communicate with the correct ordering clinician.
Outbound Calling for Alerts – Veriphy calls the ordering clinician and delivers a critical test result (CTR) message without requiring the ordering clinician to call back and retrieve a message. The system also verifies that the message was received and documents the communication process for later review, if necessary.
Accessible Messages in Batch Mode – An ordering clinician can log into the system once to retrieve all pending CTR messages in order of priority. This eliminates the need to log in for each message.
Customized Fax Alerts – A hospital can easily include the hospital logo or other design elements, multiple patient identifiers, or formats for different categories of recipients.

In addition, Dictaphone is unveiling a consultancy service to support ED communication best practices. The consultancy service will improve patient safety and provider productivity through CTRM and verifiable clinical communication. This service includes a review of communication procedures, expert recommendations, and deployment support of Veriphy 2.0.

“Proper communication of critical test results can mean the difference between life or death, but communicating critical test results is often an inefficient, error-prone, manual procedure lacking standardization to ensure that important information, such as results of an MRI, reach the responsible clinician,” stated Peter White, general manager of the Veriphy division for Nuance. “Hospitals that have implemented Veriphy have turned this time-consuming manual procedure into a streamlined process that communicates CTRs to the ordering clinician in just minutes. This means providers and patients can be better informed of the results so necessary treatment can begin immediately.”

For more information, including demonstrations of the new features of Vocada Veriphy 2.0, visit Nuance’s Healthcare Solutions booth #5846 at HIMSS 08, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, February 24-28 in Orlando, FL. Because Veriphy is offered as a hosted application, it requires no investment in new hardware or software. Veriphy adapts to clinician behavior and work patterns and requires minimal orientation.

Healthcare Solutions Division

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, Vocada, and Veriphy 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.