Nuance and The National Decision Support Company Collaborate on Value-based Imaging Solutions to Help Meet Emerging CMS Quality Mandates

CHICAGO, Nov. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) and the The National Decision Support Company (NDSC) today jointly announced a new integrated set of clinical decision support and collaboration capabilities that utilize the American College of Radiology's (ACR) Imaging 3.0™ tools to enable radiologists and healthcare provider organizations to comply with current and emerging value-based payment models.

By combining clinical decision support, radiology reporting and image sharing technology to open communications channels and provide real-time information sharing between radiologists and ordering physicians, the integrated solutions advance quality initiatives while driving accuracy and efficiency in healthcare. Nuance and NDSC are offering unmatched Imaging 3.0 support to help healthcare providers:

• Ensure the most clinically-appropriate imaging exams are ordered for patients;
• Enable real-time consults between a subspecialty radiologist using Nuance PowerScribe^® 360 and the ordering physician when imaging guidance is needed;
• Identify via the PowerShare^™ Network when duplicate exams exist and make these available for easy review; and,
• Improve the quality of the radiology report by utilizing the latest clinical evidence and follow-up recommendations within PowerScribe 360.

Clinical decision support to physicians ordering imaging exams
By leveraging ACR Select™, nationally-recognized Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) published by the American College of Radiology and exclusively licensed by NDSC, physicians are guided to order the most clinically-appropriate exam for a patient while working within their native electronic health record (EHR) workflow. ACR Select, which is widely deployed and integrated with major EHRs, is used by physicians nearly one million times per month when seeking clinically-validated imaging guidance when ordering exams. This helps healthcare providers comply with federal law that will require physicians to consult qualified decision support criteria when ordering Medicare outpatient advanced imaging exams.

Radiologists' real-time consultations with ordering physicians
Real-time consultations between ordering physicians and radiologists using Nuance PowerScribe 360 is a key to ensuring the most appropriate exam is ordered, especially in complex cases where ACR Select does not yield a definitive automatic recommendation. In order to support these specialty consultations within both the ordering workflow in the EHR and within the radiologist's reporting workflow, Nuance and NDSC have developed a communications channel between PowerScribe360 and ACR Select.

"Leveraging the feedback provided by ACR Select, together with consultation features enabled through this integrated solution creates an invaluable communication channel between healthcare providers to improve the quality of service when it is needed most," said Mike Mardini, CEO of NDSC. "Because it's documented, a value can be placed on the consultation process. In fact, this kind of guided, peer-to-peer sub-specialty consultation model represents a clinically oriented, less intrusive and less expensive alternative to traditional Radiology Benefit Management (RBM) prior authorization, and enables radiologists to take on stewardship a role of the imaging care decision."

Eliminating duplicate imaging exams using Nuance PowerShare Network
To help alleviate the problem of unnecessary imaging exams, Nuance and NDSC have integrated ACR Select with Nuance PowerShare Image Sharing to enable providers and payers to access a much richer longitudinal imaging record for the patient at the time of order. This alerts ordering physicians to similar imaging procedures recently performed and allows them to review these patient medical images, thereby improving the quality of care while simultaneously reducing duplicate exams and unnecessary patient radiation exposure.

Clinical decision support for the highest quality diagnostic interpretation
PowerScribe 360 has also been extended with ACR Assist, a collection of structured information, taxonomies and clinical content, bringing evidence-based guidelines directly to radiologists working within PowerScribe 360 during the interpretation process. This helps structure radiology reports, improving the consistency and completeness of these diagnostic interpretations. This structure is the foundation to creating important outcomes data when linked with order appropriateness data generated by ACR Select.

"By integrating the ACR clinical content with PowerScribe 360, the most trusted solution for radiology reporting, and PowerShare, the nation's largest network for medical image sharing, Nuance and NDSC are tightly connecting the ordering provider and radiologist during the ordering and diagnostic interpretation process, fundamentally enabling new ways for radiology to deliver value-based imaging services as alternative payment models accelerate," said Peter Durlach, senior vice president of healthcare marketing and strategy, Nuance Communications.

"We are proud to see the ACR's rich history in developing evidence-based criteria being delivered at the point of care to thousands of our members. These partners demonstrate the type of collaborative platforms that will be needed to connect the ordering provider to the radiologist within the context of the EMR, reporting and imaging workflows. When combined with the delivery capabilities of vendors, tools such as ACR Select and ACR Assist can help radiology not only participate in, but actually shape the future of value-based radiology services," said Mike Tilkin, CIO of the American College of Radiology.

For demonstrations of these new value-based imaging solutions, please visit the Nuance booth #4729 at the Radiological Society of North America conference (RSNA 2015) November 29 – December 4, 2015.

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/for-healthcare. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What's next, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn.

About NDSC
National Decision Support Company provides integrated solutions for developing, maintaining, accessing, delivering, and analyzing actionable, standards-based Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for imaging, lab, and care pathways, and is an exclusive distributor of national standards clinical decision support imaging guidelines. ACR Select is the complete web service version of American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria® (AC).  The company partners with healthcare provider organizations and national medical societies—including American College of Radiology, American College of Cardiology (ACC), and European Society of Radiology (ESR)—to structure content and deliver it through physician-centric workflows. NDSC's clinical solution set provides physicians access to the latest evidence-based approaches to medicine, allows providers to develop and deliver local care pathways and protocols, and lets healthcare organizations continuously analyze the impact that AUC has on care delivery without disrupting the doctor-patient relationship. For more information, visit www.NationalDecisionSupport.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo 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.

The statements in this press release relating to future plans, events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties.  There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the Nuance products, and the continued development of Nuance products.  The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation.  Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.

SOURCE National Decision Support Company

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