ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SIIM 2012, Booth #819 – Today, Nuance Communications, Inc., (NASDAQ: NUAN) and Radimetrics announce the integration of their respective technologies, which together will help radiologists to monitor and report on patient exposure to imaging-related radiation. Together, Nuance and Radimetrics, a leading provider of radiation dose monitoring and management software, will allow hospitals and imaging centers to automate dose reporting as part of the PowerScribe 360 | Reporting platform, a speech-enabled documentation workflow that today is used by 1/3 of all U.S. radiologists.
Beginning July 1, 2012 the state of California will require facilities performing CT scans to record radiation dose as part of patients’ radiology reports or as an attached protocol page. While California is the first state to take official action to manage and control this issue, numerous groups including the FDA, The Joint Commission, Image Wisely, Image Gently and others are working to address patient radiation overexposure across the U.S.
“Through the integration of PowerScribe with Radimetrics’ software, Nuance is taking the lead on providing a radiation dose reporting mechanism that helps safeguard patients without tasking radiologists with another layer of reporting complexity,” says Janet Dillione, EVP and GM, Nuance Healthcare. “The California mandate to regulate over exposure to imaging-related radiation is a sign of things to come. Like other healthcare regulations, such as Meaningful Use and ICD-10, our goal is to help healthcare organizations get ahead of such transitions and in the case of the California law to reduce negative side effects of diagnostic exams and increase patient safety.”
Every year in the U.S., more than 70 million children and adults receive CT scans, a number that has grown six-fold over the last few decades. The integration of Nuance’s PowerScribe 360 | Reporting with Radimetrics’ eXposure solution will allow radiologists across the country to automate the inclusion of radiation dose information as part of the patient report without reliance on manual input, which can be prone to error and disruptive to clinical documentation workflow. Additionally, as a result of this integration radiologists will be able to easily track patients’ radiation exposure across scans and ensure that scans are performed in accordance with appropriate imaging protocol.
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has been working on a strategy to help all five of the UC Medical Centers to comply with the upcoming SB1237 California legislation. At UCSF they have leveraged eXposure in combination with PowerScribe 360 | Reporting to automate the inclusion of dose information within patients’ radiology reports. “We don’t know what we would have done without this automated dose reporting solution; it will help us ensure that medical imaging is done as safely and as effectively for the patient as possible,” said UCSF Radiology Program Manager, Kate MacGregor. “In addition to legislation compliance, this new workflow will potentially save hundreds if not thousands of hours of radiology staff dictation, and perhaps help us to avoid countless errors, which would be more likely had this been done manually,” says MacGregor.
“Working with Nuance is a natural extension of our commitment to radiation dose management and will immediately allow us to support the SB1237 California law, as well as accelerate dose management best practices across the country,” said Gregory Couch, CEO, Radimetrics, Inc. “By integrating eXposure with PowerScribe 360 | Reporting, we’re evolving radiology reporting in line with current state, federal and industry mandates so our customers can easily comply with today’s regulations and stay ahead of tomorrow’s.”
Please visit Nuance Healthcare at the annual SIIM conference at booth #819, happening June 7-10 in Orlando, Florida, to gain insight into the full diagnostic solutions portfolio: PowerScribe 360 | Reporting, PowerScribe 360 | Critical Results and PowerScribe 360 | Analytics. Product demonstrations will be available. To see a webinar on the importance of radiation dose reporting and how radiologists can automatically include radiation dose information in their reports visit: http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/events/webinars/radiation-dose-reporting/.
About Radimetrics
Radimetrics provides radiation dose monitoring and management software to hospitals and imaging centers. Radimetrics’ flagship product, eXposure™ is a single-system solution for tracking full body, organ-specific and cumulative radiation exposure across all imaging modalities. It provides crucial patient size-adjusted information to improve decision-making among ordering physicians, radiologists, clinical physicists, safety officers, radiology technologists and others in the radiology workflow, and delivers easy-to-understand patient reports. eXposure has powerful data capture and presentation capabilities to support patient safety, regulatory reporting, quality and utilization management initiatives, accreditation, and referrer and patient satisfaction. www.radimetrics.com
Nuance Healthcare
Nuance Healthcare, a division of Nuance Communications, is the market leader in providing clinical understanding solutions that accurately capture and transform the patient story into meaningful, actionable information. Thousands of hospitals, providers and payers worldwide trust Nuance voice-enabled clinical documentation and analytics solutions to facilitate smarter, more efficient decisions across the healthcare enterprise. These solutions are proven to increase clinician satisfaction and HIT adoption, supporting organizations to achieve Meaningful Use of EHR systems and transform to the accountable care model. Recognized as “Best-in-KLAS” 2004-2011 for Voice Recognition we invite you to learn more, http://www.nuance.com/for-healthcare/index.htm.
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About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language 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 devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
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