Leading Speech Recognition Solution Enables Pathology Department to Reduce Turnaround Time of Critical Patient Reports, Decreases Reliance on Transcription by 95%

PEABODY, Mass., February 15, 2005 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the global leader of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that Bronson Methodist Hospital has implemented ScanSoft® Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Medical 8, the leading speech recognition solution for medical professionals, to automate transcription within its Department of Pathology. Since implementing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical, the department has reduced reliance on manual transcription services by 95%, driving down costs and freeing pathologists and administrative staff to focus on patient care.

Using ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical, Bronson's entire Pathology department can now create reports in real-time simply by dictating clinical notes directly onto PCs and workstations. Using wireless headsets for added mobility, pathologists are able to move freely from the cutting room to the office while dictating, and transcription is virtually instantaneous. In addition, Bronson has created an extensive Macro library of standard report templates with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which has increased efficiency in the department, as pathologists can now quickly and easily produce reports simply by speaking a few key words. Prior to deploying Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical, the Pathology department relied on a four-person administrative support staff to process transcriptions, and reports could take up to 24 hours to turn around. With the entire pathology team now using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Bronson was able to deploy two of the support staff to other departments within the organization, and the remaining two-person staff is now able to focus on more value-added tasks, such as managing office operations.

"The time savings and the efficiency that we have achieved as a result of using ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking has been phenomenal," said Jeff Pearson, M.D., Medical Director, Department of Pathology, Bronson Methodist Hospital. "Our entire staff is using the software and we are very pleased with the ease of use, as well as the results. Not only are we able to turn around dictations instantaneously, but we are able to dictate reports more quickly using the macros within Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical. In doing so, we can get our pathological findings back to the clinicians quickly so that they can determine the best course of treatment for their patients. All of this adds up to better patient care."

ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8 has built-in understanding for more than 300,000 words, and includes 14 pre-made specialty vocabularies, including General Medicine, Pathology, Radiology, Cardiology and Surgery disciplines. Healthcare organizations such as Bronson Methodist Hospital can also easily add their own words to the solution to create fully customized vocabularies. Care providers can take advantage of voice-activated shortcuts, allowing a single word or phrase to automatically populate fields within a document. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can save healthcare organizations thousands of dollars per doctor each year in reduced or eliminated manual transcription costs. Tens of thousands of physicians worldwide use ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking to achieve substantial time and money savings, enabling them to focus on patient care.

"The healthcare sector is reaping tremendous benefits from the proliferation of speech technologies - the time and cost savings are real, as proven by implementations such as Bronson Methodist Hospital," said John Shagoury, president, ScanSoft Productivity Applications Division. "For large hospitals to specialty departments to individual practitioners looking to boost productivity and save money, ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking dramatically reduces costs associated with transcription services and other repetitive tasks, freeing up doctors to focus on improving the quality and efficiency of patient care."

About Bronson Methodist Hospital

Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, Mich., is a major medical center with 343 licensed beds and a medical staff of 650. The hospital provides care in virtually every specialty and serves as a regional referral center for southwest Michigan and northern Indiana. In 2000, Bronson completed a $181 million redevelopment of its campus, which has received numerous national awards for its design and healing environment. Bronson is currently listed by both Working Mother and Fortune magazines as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is the global leader of speech and imaging solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft products and technologies, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, the ScanSoft logo, Dragon, and NaturallySpeaking are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other company or product names mentioned may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in ScanSoft's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

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