Nuance, a speech recognition technology major, has chalked out plans to increase its presence in the hospital space in India. Its two healthcare solutions: Dictaphone and Dragon which are speech driven clinical documentation (SDCD) tools will now help physicians increase efficiency in patient care and economize cost and time. The technology supports any therapeutic segment.

Doctors can do way with penning prescriptions. They can dictate the diagnosis and drugs, review progress, sign into the electronic medical records (EMR) to document patient information, surgical notes and complete discharge summaries. Dictaphone supports all physician workflow processes and can be integrated into the Hospital Information Systems (HIS), aids web-based speech recognition in PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) and radiology equipment.

The company has partnered with medical equipment providers including GE and Siemens to offer Nuance Solutions with their technology.

Globally, over 3,000 hospitals and 3.5 lakh doctors use Nuance Dictaphone Healthcare Solution. In India, the company has already made its maiden implementation in a large hospital.

"This installation scheduled for June will be a proof-of-point for our future business efforts. We are also in the process of finalizing implementation with two other large hospitals here", Sunny Rao, general manager, Asean & India, Nuance Communications told Pharmabiz.

Speech recognition is the ultimate in medical information business. Nuance which has developed the solution in Europe and US has ensured that the Indian version filters noise, recognizes the accent with a additional support to drug brand names prescribed.

Dragon solution is recommended for individual doctors. The speech assisted transaction documents patient care at clinics. The cost of Dictaphone is Rs 20 lakh for a 10-doctor usage. Dragon is priced Rs 40,000 is available online and through channel partners Icons (west & south) region and Apar (north and east) markets. The cost includes license, implementation, training and support for one year.

For Nuance healthcare arm formed in 2001 is the second largest revenue generator to the estimated FY 2008 revenue of $875-$900 million. Dictaphone installations include 75 per cent of the top 100 healthcare providers which include over 86 percent of 200-bed facilities and 80 per cent radiology centres.

Nuance healthcare arm is seven-months-old. Acquisitions abroad and in India (Focus Informatics for transcription services) have given the company a head start into the space, he said.

The company is in a dialogue with a leading government engineering college in Karnataka which has a developed a software for remote monitoring of patients. Efforts are on to integrate Dictaphone into telemedicine. In this regard, a trial run is being worked out, stated Rao.

Going by the improved patient care, decreased costs, accelerated turnaround time, higher productivity, total documentation, faster results, SDCD at hospitals in India will become indispensable. An independent report indicates that in India, one bed is available for 1,000 patients as against 5 beds for 1,000 patients in Thailand. The patient-doctor ratio in India is 10,000: 1. The government allocates 0.9 per cent of towards healthcare spend. By 2011, out of the 10 lakh beds which are expected to be added, the private hospitals share is 9 lakh beds. "This is where Nuance is gearing up to aggressively market Dictaphone, added Rao.

In India, Nuance has strength of 55 (35 scientists and 15 sales and support team). The Indian arm supports Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Mauritius markets.