One of Sydney's largest private hospitals selects Crescendo

Sydney, Jan 29, 2008 - Crescendo and Lanier Voice, Crescendo's Authorized Distributor in Australia, announced today that Sydney Adventist Hospital ("the San") has completed the roll-out of DigiScribe-XL Digital Dictation in its Radiology and Pathology Departments. Recognized in 2006 as one of Australia's best hospitals following a survey of over 418 around the country, Sydney Adventist Hospital is one of the largest and most comprehensive private hospitals in Australia.

San Radiology first selected Crescendo after extensive market research, looking to replace their old dictation system. A backup alternative to the Agfa TalkTech workstations, DigiScribe-XL allows Radiologists to dictate directly from their PC while viewing images. Telephone access is also available for review of reports by non Radiology areas requiring quick access to results.

Pathologists were soon convinced to embrace digital dictation as well, with adaptations to their specific working conditions. For microscope and laboratory tissue handling, DigiScribe-XL provides Pathologists with a hands-free dictation environment using a small 'pencil' microphone attached to the microscope, replacing their old handset equipment which was an impediment to free movement. For cut up procedures, the old headsets / boom microphone equipment has been replaced with a complete hands-free installation comprising of an independent boundary microphone, a foot pedal and multi-media speakers. To start a dictation, the Pathologist simply taps twice on the foot pedal attached via USB extension to the PC equipped with the DigiDictate-IP dictation application, located about 3 meters away. Warning tones and audible prompts are used to indicate the start and the end of a dictation through the speakers and a remote keypad with a USB extension can be used to enter demographics into the system.

The new DigiScribe-XL system allows both Departments to allocate and manage transcription work more efficiently, in a fully automated fashion. Secretaries are also able to share work easily to better cope with periodic peaks of activity. "DigiScribe-XL provides us with the flexibility required to support different workflows without impacting each Section's working habits. The reporting process has been simplified for Pathologists and clerical staff and the report generation is quicker than it used to be," reports Dr. Bevan Hokin, Pathology Department Director.

Confidentiality is fully preserved thanks to the Crescendo Wide Area Service, which stores files and critical information centrally at all times, leaving zero footprint on users' PCs; "a major consideration for healthcare facilities," insists Duncan Burnett, National Product and Technical Manager for Lanier Voice. "Crescendo addresses the confidentiality aspect like no other, and Sydney Adventist Hospital project clearly sets the standard for other hospitals and clinics in Australia to enter the digital era with the most reliable tools."

Costa Mandilaras, President, Crescendo Systems Corporation, comments: "It is an honour to count Sydney Adventist Hospital as one of our customers; a prestigious industry validation that only strengthens our leadership in the healthcare sector. Together with our distributor Lanier Voice providing high-end consultancy and support services, we are fully ready to support Australian healthcare facilities in their transition to the digital era."

About Crescendo
Crescendo develops digital dictation, speech recognition, transcription, workflow and document management systems tailored for the needs of the healthcare sector. Since 1990, the Crescendo premise-based technology has allowed over 2,000 single and multi-site healthcare installations to streamline and cost-efficiently manage the most complex documentation workflows while achieving the cross-system integrations (PACS, RIS, etc.) that are so critical to the quality of patient care. For more information, please visit http://www.crescendo.com/

Press Contact
Claire Betis
Marketing Manager, Crescendo Systems Corp.
1 800 724 2930