KLAS Research — Healthcare IT Rating Firm
What KLAS Is
KLAS Research (formerly KLAS Research, now simply “KLAS”) is an independent healthcare IT data and insights company based in Utah. Since 1997, KLAS has been collecting unbiased performance data directly from healthcare providers to create ratings and reports on healthcare software and service vendors.
KLAS ratings are widely respected in healthcare IT because:
- They are based on provider-submitted data, not vendor self-reports
- They cover 500+ software categories
- They publish ratings annually and track performance over time
- The methodology is transparent and peer-reviewed
How KLAS Ratings Work
KLAS sends surveys to healthcare organizations that use the software being rated. They collect data on:
- Customer satisfaction (1–5 scale or A–F grade)
- Uptime and reliability
- Implementation experience
- Service and support
- Would you buy again?
The resulting reports are used extensively in healthcare IT purchasing decisions.
KLAS categories relevant to AI scribes:
- “Ambient AI” (or “AI Scribe” category)
- “Computer-Assisted Clinical Documentation”
- “Dragon Medical / Speech Recognition”
KLAS Best in KLAS Award
Each year, KLAS publishes a “Best in KLAS” report recognizing the top-performing vendors in each category. Winning “Best in KLAS” is a significant sales driver in healthcare IT because:
- Hospital purchasing committees use KLAS ratings as a primary input
- Being named Best in KLAS reduces the sales cycle
- It signals to competing hospitals that the vendor is trusted by peers
Abridge has won Best in KLAS for Ambient AI in both 2025 and 2026 — making it the top-rated ambient AI scribe in consecutive years.
Why KLAS Matters for the Competitive Analysis
KLAS ratings are one of the most objective competitive signals available for healthcare IT vendors because they are based on real provider feedback. A vendor with strong KLAS ratings has:
- A shorter enterprise sales cycle
- Lower churn (customers are less likely to switch away)
- Social proof from named peer institutions
Abridge’s back-to-back Best in KLAS wins (2025, 2026) in the ambient AI category are a significant moat — not a technical moat, but a market trust moat.
For comparison, Nuance DAX (Microsoft) historically held the top KLAS spot in speech recognition / clinical documentation before Abridge overtook it.
Limitations of KLAS Ratings
- Self-selection bias — Vendors that pay for KLAS reports or have more engaged customers may be overrepresented
- Small sample sizes — Some categories have few respondents
- Recent data only — KLAS ratings reflect a point in time; a vendor that was excellent 2 years ago may have degraded
- No clinical outcomes data — KLAS rates satisfaction and operational metrics, not patient outcomes
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