Matt Revis, director of product management for dictation solutions at Nuance Communications Inc. in Burlington, Mass., discusses Nuance's recent acquisition of Dictaphone Corp. and the future for speech recognition in the healthcare IT industry.

RT Image: How do you see speech recognition changing the way we live and do business?

Matt Revis: Speech recognition will automate how people interact with just about every computing device – from a [personal computer] to a telephone to your automobile.

Speech recognition is the fastest way to get information from the human mind into a sharable, manageable and actionable form. Particularly in healthcare, where the cost to transcribe physician dictation is more than $10 billion per year, speech recognition can have a profound impact on cost structure. Money that was previously spent on a manual process can be repurposed to patient care initiatives.

RT: Why did Nuance decide to acquire Dictaphone?

Revis: Nuance Communications Inc. has agreed to acquire Dictaphone Corp., the leading supplier of dictation, speech recognition and transcription processing solutions in the healthcare industry because:

1. The opportunity for speech solutions within healthcare is large: An estimated $10 billion per year in North America and $15 billion worldwide is spent by healthcare organizations to manually convert recorded dictation into electronic transcripts. Unprecedented speech recognition accuracy achieved in recent years has proven the ability of speech-based solutions to generate significant productivity gains compared to manual processing of recorded dictation. The company believes that speech-based transcription technology has penetrated only 5 to 10 percent of the healthcare market in North America.
   
   
2. Demand for automation is increasing: An estimated one billion patient records are created each year in North America alone, a volume that is expected to increase as the population ages.
   
   The [healthcare] industry's move to emergency medical records (EMRs) demands the creation of robust clinical data repositories of patient information. Dictaphone's natural language processing technology permits extraction of key data from the large volume of narrative medical reports produced every year, offering customers the ability to enrich their data repositories significantly.
   
3. Speech recognition delivers cost savings: The ability of speech recognition to deliver real benefits in automating the processing of recorded dictation comes at an ideal time, when organizations have increasing patient reporting requirements, information technology spending within healthcare is increasing and the industry drivers for solutions that promote EMRs and patient safety are strong and growing.
   
   In recent years, hospitals, clinics, medical groups, physicians' offices, insurance providers and service organizations have increasingly turned to speech solutions to automate manual processes and accelerate the adoption of EMRs.
   
   
4. [Our] acquisition of Dictaphone will significantly expand our products, channels and services for healthcare: The opportunity for speech within healthcare is happening now. We expect Dictaphone to add significant revenues in software and services within healthcare, robust products and a robust team skilled in product development, marketing, sales, professional services and support.
   

RT:  What steps are you taking to reduce the huge costs that go into manual medical transcription each year?

Revis: Nuance is focused on providing the full complement of workflow technologies to eliminate most manual transcription by the end of the decade. This not only includes speech recognition, but also natural language processing, Web-based dictation capture and management and information capture and distribution. Nuance is making significant investments in all of these areas in order to empower healthcare providers to maximize the level of care they can provide.

RT: Where do you see Nuance Communications compared to other vendors in the market who offer speech and imaging solutions?

Revis: Nuance is the leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance by calling directory assistance, getting account information, dictating patient records, telling a navigation system their destination or digitally reproducing documents that can be shared and searched. In imaging technologies, Nuance's ScanSoft™ imaging products have long been the No.1 name in scanning and document conversion.

RT: What is the next step for the company in terms of future ventures and technologies?

Revis: Nuance will continue to focus on making user experiences more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents.

In speech technologies, Nuance is committed to its mission of providing complete solutions in areas including enterprise call center automation, embedded devices and general dictation. Nuance's imaging business remains an important component of our continued growth and success; the company continues to invest in new product releases and manages the business wisely to continue its revenue growth and profits.

— Tom Shaffner