For Sixth Year in a Row, Nuance’s eScription Background Speech Recognition Platform Achieves Best in KLAS Distinction

Consecutive Best in KLAS Awards from 2004-2009 Reinforce eScription as the Leading Solution for Hosted Background Speech Recognition, Helping to Drive Significant Growth in 2009

Burlington, MA, December 22, 2009 –Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, today announced that its eScription on-demand platform for computer aided medical transcription (CAMT) using background speech recognition, has received a 2009 Best in KLAS award, ranking #1 in the speech recognition category. With this industry award, which is driven solely from customer feedback, and according to Nuance’s review of past Best in KLAS reports, eScription is now one of only four other healthcare IT solutions to have achieved Best in KLAS six years in a row since 2004.

Since January 2009, 26 new healthcare organizations have deployed the eScription platform. By delivering compelling financial and turnaround time results in clinical documentation, supported by excellent installations and account management services, the eScription platform continues to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction. In fact, of the customers surveyed by KLAS for this report, an impressive 97 percent said they would buy the eScription solution again.

“We have been using Nuance’s eScription platform since June 2009. eScription’s Best in KLAS achievements were certainly compelling during our initial market review process,” said Sandy Schumacher, RHIT, director of health information services at University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation. “Since June, eScription has exceeded expectations. The Nuance team provided us with a proven result orientated project plan and delivered great training and support to our transcriptionists and managers. I believe, because of that we have reached productivity goals ahead of schedule. Moving forward, we will integrate eScription into our EMR workflow. Additionally, as part of our goal to ensure doctors can document effectively via their preferred workflow, we will be piloting partial dictation and Dragon Medical in conjunction with the eScription platform.”

Whether a healthcare organization has an in-house staff of medical transcriptionists (MTs) or employs a fully outsourced approach to transcription, eScription background speech recognition is proven to deliver reduced document turnaround times, improved document consistency and quality, cost savings and rapid ROI. The platform enables clinicians to create documents in the most efficient way possible – by speaking into a phone, dictation device or electronic medical record (EMR), while background speech recognition technology creates a high quality first draft that MTs quickly review and edit, typically doubling productivity when compared to traditional transcription. With its ASP architecture, eScription requires little capital investment and IT support is minimized. In addition, once they have made the transition, most MTs using the eScription platform prefer speech editing to traditional transcription.

2009 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards were determined based on 40 performance criteria, including features, functionality, and customer interactions in areas such as sales, implementation, technical support, and executive involvement. KLAS, a market research firm, published its latest findings in the 2009 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report (December 2009). The product rankings are derived from product evaluations and confidential interviews with healthcare information technology (HIT) customers, incorporating performance data collected over the past 12 months (October 15, 2008 - November 15, 2009).

“In 2009, the eScription platform continued its impressive growth.. We believe, and have heard firsthand from our customers that this growth is because of the measurable value that the eScription solution helps healthcare organizations to drive,” said John Shagoury, President, Nuance’s Healthcare division. “Nuance’s eScription team demonstrates an outstanding level of commitment to product innovation and customer service. The eScription platform’s sixth consecutive Best in KLAS recognition is a success we are proud of and work hard to achieve each and every year,”

Nuance’s front-end speech recognition products for radiology, PowerScribe and RadWhere, were also ranked as part of the 2009 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report. In fact, eScription, RadWhere and PowerScribe hold the top three product rankings for the market segment. PowerScribe and RadWhere are the highest rated front-end speech recognition solutions included in the KLAS report. For information on all of Nuance’s solutions for diagnostic imaging visit: http://www.nuance.com/healthcare/landing/radiology.asp.

“For more than a decade, the Best in KLAS awards have recognized healthcare technology companies that set the standard for delivering the best experience to providers,” said KLAS President Adam Gale. “The Best in KLAS distinction honors more than just a good product or service. It represents a commitment to meeting customer expectations in every phase of the buying process – from the sales presentation to implementation to ongoing service and support.”

About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS’ mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors, and vendors. Working together with executives from over 4500 hospitals and over 2500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends, and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures performance of software, professional services, and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.
© 2008 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved.

Nuance Healthcare
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 3,000 healthcare 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, the Nuance logo and eScription 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.