I wanted to update everyone on my latest communications with David Pogue (Tech columnist for the NY Times) who recently posted a favorable review of DNS version 10, and a reply he was able to receive from a Nuance spokesperson.
As usual with emails & replies, the earliest is at the bottom:
-----------------
FROM: ERICA HILL
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
Hi Dr. Ryan. (And thank you David for copying me in so that I could
respond to Dr. Ryan).
You are correct that we decided to remove EMR support from the
non-Medical versions of Dragon. We thoroughly test dictation into EMRs
with our medical products and have specific features that make Dragon
Medical much more suitable for medical applications. We found that some
large hospitals were using the consumer editions of Dragon and not
getting the accuracy, quality and manageability that would be achieved
when using Dragon Medical. It is also a common practice in the software
industry to create feature packages for several markets and sell them at
different price points (e.g. Microsoft Office). That practice allows us
to maintain a low consumer price point for Dragon while offering higher
value solutions for our Medical customers that come with a higher price
point, but also deliver much more significant benefits.
Finally, while the price difference is significant for a single copy of
Dragon Medical, most of our large customers who use Dragon in
conjunction with an EMR leverage our volume licensing programs that make
that price differential smaller. Having said that, please note that
along with the launch of Dragon Medical 10 in September 2008, we will
announce attractive upgrade offers for customers who have been using
non-medical Dragon versions in medical settings.
Dr. Ryan you should feel free to contact me via phone or email if you
have additional questions. I understand from your previous message that
you've already purchased a copy of Dragon 10 (Preferred?) and I'll be
happy to work with you to either issue a refund or discuss options for
upgrading to Dragon Medical 10 when it is available.
Best,
Erica Hill
____________________________________________
ERICA HILL
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Pogue [mailto:david@pogueman.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 10:45 PM
To: John Ryan
Cc: Hill, Erica
Subject: Re: Nuance takes the low road with Dragon Naturally Speaking,
ver. 10
That's peculiar... It should dictate into ANY app.
Erica?
Dp
On 8/14/08 10:30 PM, "John Ryan" <ryanjo@flaintmed.com> wrote:
David,
I know that you are a big fan of Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS), and
I also am a regular user of version 9.5. You see, I am a doctor, but
not a good typist, and I have found that DNS is indispensable in
making entries into the text boxes of my Electronic Medical Record
(EMR) program.
For years, Nuance made a version of DNS that has a medical dictionary,
but this costs 10 times the price of DNS Preferred, which "learns"
medical jargon quite promptly, without the pricey medical dictionary.
DNS has saved me literally thousands of hours in the last few years in
efficiently updating my patients' records. In fact, the EMR that I use
recommends DNS, and has made special commands available to allow tight
integration with the EMR.
So you see, I was very interested in DNS 10, and I purchased a copy as
soon as it was available. After installing version 10, I fired up the
new slick interface, loaded my user files, and tried to begin
dictating into my EMR. DNS stopped dead. A dialog box appeared stating
that the only version of Naturally Speaking 10 that would dictate into
an EMR was the (pricey) Medical version. (Adding insult to injury, DNS
Medical version 10 isn't even available for sale yet.)
Although Nuance has allowed earlier versions of DNS to work with EMR
software, apparently the company has removed this feature in version
10! Very unfortunate for me, and sad that Nuance has chosen to take
the "low road" in dealing with its new and established customers.
John Ryan
