Many doctors still can\u2019t use a transcription service made by Nuance Communications Inc. three weeks after the company was hit by a powerful, debilitating computer attack.<\/p>\n
Hospital systems including Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said eScription, a Nuance staple product that allows physicians to dictate notes from a telephone, still isn\u2019t functioning. The outage obliterated doctors\u2019 instructions to patients, forcing some to revert to pen and paper.<\/p>\n
The computer virus, called Petya, has sent ripples through health care, among the last industries to make the switch to digital record keeping and one of the most frequently targeted by hackers, said Michael Ebert, a partner with KPMG who advises health and life-science companies on cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth care has been late to respond to the need for protected information, and the information is worth more,\u201d Ebert said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how far behind we are, and we know we have to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hackers increasingly use viruses to encrypt companies\u2019 information systems, unlocking the data only when a ransom is paid. After the Petya attack began in late June, companies from Oreo-maker Mondelez International Inc. to Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc warned of a blow to their sales. Information systems used by FedEx Corp.\u2019s TNT unit may never fully recover, the shipping company said Monday.<\/p>\n
Nuance shares were down 2.3 percent to $17.14 at 10:57 a.m. in New York. They\u2019ve dropped about 6 percent since June 27, when the attack began.<\/p>\n
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a system of 25 hospitals and 3,600 doctors, said that its dictation and transcription services are still affected \u201cwith no estimated time of resolution.\u201d The nonprofit is using features of medical records systems made by Cerner Corp. and closely held Epic Systems in the interim, said Ed McCallister, the Pittsburgh system\u2019s chief information officer.<\/p>\n
When the hack hit in June, the virus spread quickly. Ebert said one of his clients stood in a parking lot with a bullhorn, pleading with employees not to turn on computers, lest the virus spread into them. Another saw 100 workstations infected in an hour. Others shut down their entire systems, painstakingly starting computers one by one offline to see whether they had been tainted.<\/p>\n
After acknowledging June 28 that portions of its network were affected, Nuance, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is still picking up the pieces.\u00a0In addition to transcription, Nuance named about 10 other affected products, including those used for radiology, billing and software that tracks quality of care.<\/p>\n
About half of the company\u2019s $1.95 billion in revenue came from its health-care and dictation business last year. The malware attack represents a big risk for Nuance, as many of its customers use products that appear to have been affected, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time there is a cyberattack and a company is exposed to that threat, that presents both reputational risk as well as the risk from disruption,\u201d he said. \u201cSince a lot of the deals get signed toward the end of the quarter, the timing of it could have impacted certain deal closures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nuance said it has been fixing affected systems, enhancing security and bringing customers back online. The company declined to say how many clients were affected by the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing everything within our power to support our health-care customers and provide them with the information and resources they need to provide quality patient care, including offering an alternative system and solutions,\u201d company spokesman Richard Mack said Wednesday in an email. \u201cWe have no indication that any customer information has been lost or removed from the network.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss of service is an invitation to customers to seek other products and vendors, such MModal, a Nuance rival. Even though Intermountain Health Care, a Salt Lake City-based company that operates 22 hospitals, wasn\u2019t affected, it turned off all its Nuance products and is using other transcription tools, said Daron Cowley, a spokesman.<\/p>\n
At Beth Israel Deaconess, a Harvard-affiliated hospital, doctors who have been accustomed to using Nuance\u2019s telephone-based product are switching to its Dragon system, where physicians dictate into a computer, making edits as they go.<\/p>\n
That still means lost revenue for Nuance. While the computer-based product is a single software purchase, Nuance bills for eScription by line of text. So far, it\u2019s been three weeks of revenue they can\u2019t get back, and more users may drop away, said John Halamka, Beth Israel\u2019s chief information officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest thing for a clinician is a change in workflow,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve changed for a couple of weeks, you might not go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nuance has done well to try to maintain customers in the aftermath of the attack, KPMG\u2019s Ebert said, but the damage has already been done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re probably going to have a bad quarter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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