Nuance Expands Vision and Capabilities for Next Generation AI Powered Virtual Assistants for Healthcare

Company showcases unified vision for ambient clinical documentation and announces general availability of virtual assistants for physician mobile app


BURLINGTON, Mass. and VERONA, Wisc., Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced important advancements in its capabilities and vision for delivering advanced conversational AI solutions to the 500,000+ clinicians that rely everyday on Dragon Medical for their clinical documentation. At Epic’s 2018 User Group Meeting (“UGM”), Nuance and Epic showcased a vision for how ambient clinical documentation can make conversational AI-powered virtual assistant capabilities widely available through Epic apps.

Now as part of Nuance’s rapidly expanding virtual assistant portfolio, and delivering on commitments made earlier this year, the company is also including the first commercial availability of voice-enabled workflows through Epic Rover. The 100+ healthcare organizations that already have access to Dragon Medical through Epic Haiku, and the thousands of physicians that use it every day to create voice-driven clinical documentation, will be the first to benefit from commercial availability of advanced virtual assistant-enabled workflows. The new capabilities will enable physicians using the most widely adopted and highest performing speech solution for Epic mobile apps to conversationally retrieve schedules, lookup patient information, laboratory results, medication lists and visit summaries.

“Whether we use them for setting timers, listening to music, or searching the internet, voice-driven virtual assistants are becoming a part of our daily life,” said Adam Whitlatch, vice president of research and development, Epic. “With the availability of these advanced capabilities and our shared vision for ambient clinical documentation, we look forward to continuing our development with Nuance and delivering next generation conversational AI-powered virtual assistant solutions to the Epic client community.”

Nuance and Epic are also working closely with joint clients like Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) who is leveraging Nuance’s Dragon Medical virtual assistant technology integrated into Epic. These solutions make it easier for physicians at VUMC to retrieve information from the EHR more efficiently and conveniently, as well as enter data, manage tasks, use computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and communicate with other providers.

“We have worked closely with Nuance and Epic and have found that using Nuance’s voice assistant with Epic not only helps us empower our physicians through voice, but enables us to leverage virtual assistants to assist with tasks while supporting HIPAA-compliance,” said Yaa Kumah-Crystal, MD, MPH, MS, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Pediatric Endocrinology at VUMC. “We believe the incorporation of voice assistants in the provider workflow can enhance the delivery of care and we will continue to team with leaders in health IT to deliver on this commitment. One of our physicians described the platform like a helpful intern always ready with an answer.”

“Our goal at Nuance is to continue to create superior healthcare conversational AI technologies that materially enhance the clinician and patient experience,” said Peter Durlach, senior vice president, strategy and new business development, Healthcare division, Nuance Communications. “Nuance is committed to building a future where care teams can become even more productive, better informed and better served through the use of advanced conversational AI technologies.”

About Nuance Healthcare
Nuance provides intelligent systems that support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year, helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is the pioneer and leader in conversational AI innovations that bring intelligence to everyday work and life. The company delivers solutions that can understand, analyze and respond to human language to increase productivity and amplify human intelligence. With decades of domain and artificial intelligence expertise, Nuance works with thousands of organizations – in global industries that include healthcare, telecommunications, automotive, financial services, and retail – to create stronger relationships and better experiences for their customers and workforce. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact Information
Palmer Reuther
Corporate Communications
Nuance Healthcare
M: 978-697-9227
palmer.reuther@nuance.com