Nuance and Epic Collaborate to Deliver Computer-Assisted Physician Documentation
Real-time Clinical Documentation Improvement Technology Drives Appropriate Reimbursement and Improves Severity-Adjusted Quality Scores and Risk Adjustment Factors

BURLINGTON, Mass., – March 22, 2017 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) and Epic announced that the companies have partnered to deliver computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) capabilities embedded within Epic®. The Epic NoteReader CDI solution leverages artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities found in Nuance CAPD technology to automatically provide real-time clinical documentation improvement (CDI) feedback to physicians at the point of care. This improves severity-adjusted quality scores and captures appropriate reimbursement and risk adjustment factors that are critical to proper care and management of patients.

By electronically analyzing all relevant patient notes with deep learning and natural language understanding, Nuance’s CAPD technology automatically identifies clinical indicators in a patient’s medical record and advises the physician in real-time when there is important missing information that needs to be clarified. The Epic NoteReader CDI module works with Nuance’s latest AI technology to help accurately describe the quality of care provided, reflecting accurate patient acuity with the goal of reducing retrospective coding queries.

“We’ve worked with Nuance for years to embed cool voice innovations into clinical workflows. This new AI twist provides another level of wow,” said Carl Dvorak, president, Epic.

Nuance CAPD enables clients to now effectively deploy AI-powered technology to supplement their Clinical Documentation Specialist team to more efficiently analyze 100% of patient cases for documentation improvement opportunities, look across all payers, and provide support on a 24x7 basis. In addition, since physicians will be publicly measured on their risk-adjusted quality scores, the accuracy and completeness of their clinical documentation is becoming even more important. Risk-adjusted reimbursement models are also becoming more prevalent, requiring providers to more accurately capture and code Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCCs) to better reflect the actual acuity of their patient populations.

“As a long-time Nuance client, we have realized remarkable and sustainable results with Nuance’s CDI solutions including a 14% improvement in case mix index (CMI), an increase of $12.8 million in appropriate reimbursements in our first year after implementation and a 98% physician response rate to queries,” said Sharon Krug, clinical documentation system manager, TriHealth. “This Nuance/Epic CAPD innovation will help us build on those successes by offering CDI intelligence at the point of care to help physicians complete their notes faster, with less disruption and greater clinical context.”

“As a long-standing development partner with Epic, we are proud to deliver intelligent clinical documentation solutions within the Epic ecosystem to make clinical documentation during patient care a more natural, seamless and effective experience,” said Satish Maripuri, executive vice president and general manager of the Healthcare Division, Nuance. “We have more than a decade of joint innovation and collaboration between Nuance and Epic, and this new CAPD solution builds on that history to deliver AI-powered, real-time CDI intelligence that materially improves both clinical and financial outcomes for our joint clients.”

Nuance has a full suite of solutions to help Epic clients optimize their end-to-end clinical documentation processes while enabling clinicians to spend more time with their patients. These solutions include this embedded CAPD solution, Dragon® Medical, Nuance’s embedded speech in Epic Haiku and Canto, Dragon Medical Advisor, Nuance transcription solutions, PowerScribe® 360, PowerShare, and Clintegrity™ Coding, CDI and Quality Management. 

Nuance provides intelligent systems that support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year, helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.

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.

Trademark reference: Nuance, the Nuance logo, Nuance CAPD, Dragon Medical, Dragon Medical Advisor, PowerScribe, and Clintegrity are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.