Microsoft says Amalga speech deal unchanged

Microsoft's licensing deal with Philips Speech Recognition Systems to integrate the firm's speech recognition technology in its Amalga health software is unaffected by the sale of the Philips business unit.

In September Philips announced it had signed a deal with Microsoft to license its speech recognition technology into HIS. Two weeks later the Dutch company sold its Speech Recognition Systems business to US rival Nuance.

SpeechMagic was chosen as the preferred speech recognition technology for Microsoft Amalga Hospital Information System (HIS) and Amalga Radiology Information System (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

A Microsoft spokesperson told E-Health Europe that the company did not expect any changes as a result of the Nuance acquisition of the Philips business.  The spokesperson added Microsoft had already begun integrating Philips Speech Recognition Systems technology into Amalga.

“We don’t expect any changes to the agreement based on the acquisition of Philips Speech Recognition Systems by Nuance. We’re in the process of integrating the technology with Amalga HIS and Amalga RIS/PACS.”

Microsoft says it will offer Philips SpeechMagic to customers to help healthcare providers generate accurate information that is sharable, searchable and contributes to making clinical improvements.

In a statement Steve Shihadeh, vice president, Microsoft Health Solutions Group, said of the deal: “Ensuring seamless information sharing across the enterprise requires that input from various departments and sources, such as medical notes, discharge summaries or ward visits, is captured and stored in a standardised format.”

He added: “SpeechMagic’s advanced technology and ongoing research in the field of semantic interoperability will allow us to quickly bring advanced information capture to Amalga HIS and Amalga RIS/PACS customers around the globe.”