Nuance Communications to hire 3,000 medical language specialists in India

The $2-billion company currently employs more than 4,000 MSL professionals

Nuance Communications Inc, a Nasdaq-listed provider of voice and language solutions, is planning to hire 3,000 medical language specialists (MLS) in India over the next two years, according to its vice-president (global human resources, healthcare division) Eric Tinch.

Announcing the launch of the company's 600-seater facility in Hyderabad on Tuesday, he told mediapersons that the expansion was part of a larger growth plan for India.

The $2-billion company, which had invested $7 million in its India operations since the last two years, currently employs more than 4,000 MSL professionals (both office-based and home-based) across its sites in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mumbai.

Stating that India is a cornerstone for Nuance's growth strategy and that no longer medical transcription is different from the IT profession, Lane Fenner, vice-president (global operations, healthcare division), said the Indian transcription industry began its journey in 1999 and reached a milestone in 2004-2005 with the arrival of speech recognition technology. 

A recent report indicated that the medical transcription industry in India is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over four per cent to reach $1 billion by 2020, he added. 

According to Shailendra Sharma, vice-president (customer success of the healthcare division - cloud solutions), nuance Communications had always been driving scale through acquisitions. 

"Nuance had acquired 56 companies since the last five years. M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is definitely a part of our strategy," he said.

Nuance Communications currently employs 12,000 professional for its transcription business globally. Of these, 50 per cent came into Nuance's  fold through five large acquisitions, including three in India, Sharma added.

Fenner said Nuance's healthcare division caters primarily to clients in the US and Canada. "As other markets open up, we will expand to those geographies. Today, the UK is fairly a large market (for medical transcription services) as well as Australia," he added.