[June 17, 2013] Nuance Unveils New Version of Dragon Medical Practice Edition Tweet Jun 17, 2013 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Nuance Communications, Inc. has announced a new version of Dragon Medical Practice Edition designed especially for smaller practices to help accelerate clinician adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and meaningful use of health information technology (HIT). In a release, the Company said that Practice Edition is powered by the same Dragon Medical speech recognition technology used by more than 180,000 physicians today, including advanced healthcare providers. Practice Edition introduces voice shortcuts to aid medical searches for information, and supports more than 90 specialized medical vocabularies and the customized needs of small practices, helping physicians improve productivity and document specialized care and medical decisions faster and more accurately. Spurred by CMS incentive payments, EHR adoption by the estimated 300,000 physicians working in small practices in the US is expected to approach 80 percent by the end of 2013, according to a National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. For many physicians in small practices, Nuance said that workflow speed and efficiency is often substantially reduced by the adoption of EHRs. Dragon Medical Practice Edition makes it easier for physicians in small practices to document care into medical records using their voice, by enabling clinicians to both dictate the "medical decision-making" of patient visits and navigate through the EHR using speech. A few simple words, such as "Search UpToDate for Acetaminophen contraindications" connects clinicians with the immediate medical information they need at any time within their clinical workflow. This improves the quality and completeness of the patient note and saves physicians valuable time with each patient visit. With up to 99 percent accuracy, physicians can dictate medical notes three times faster into an EHR, helping them save an average of 30 minutes a day through a more streamlined process. Additionally, Nuance said that the solution helps ensures proper documentation and a more complete record for appropriate outpatient reimbursement. "With Dragon Medical Practice Edition and the EHR, we can generate the medical information that truly reflects the work we do for complex patients. Our level four encounters increased from 3 to 14 percent over a six month period," said Chuck Stillwaggon, Practice Administration Orthopedics Northwest, PLLC, Yakima, WA. The new Dragon Medical Practice Edition is available for clinicians and medical practices with up to 24 physicians in the U.S. and Canada and is available from authorized resellers. More Information: http://www.nuance.com/partners/healthcare/search.asp ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]