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. 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.

The benefits of clinicians using "desktop" speech recognition to directly control an EHR system include sharply reduced costs and increased productivity. Transcription costs are reduced because clinicians can dictate directly into the EHR system with real-time speech recognition. Physicians can create patient documents at the point of care, resulting in faster turn-around times and more accurate patient records. Patient documentation can be more detailed because a medical record that combines point-and-click EHR templates with dictated physician narrative promotes ongoing higher quality care.


Wes Rishel, vice president Healthcare Industry Analyst for Gartner Healthcare said, "EMRs cannot make a dent in improving healthcare without dramatically increased physician adoption. Physicians must not only adopt the products, but begin to use them as more than electronic file-drawers and billing systems. Voice input well-recognized and well integrated with EMR software is critical to closing the gap to meaningful adoption."

Another challenge facing the rollout of electronic medical records contemplated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is achieving "meaningful use" without adding to physicians' documentation burden. According to Rishel, "this can be accomplished by closely coordinating voice entry with structured notes, rather than treating voice and structured entry as an 'either-or' proposition."

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. Senior vice president of marketing anD product strategy at Nuance Healthcare, Peter Durlach said, "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."

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