Software that listens to a visit, turns the conversation into text and helps the doctor with a diagnosis and next steps is already in use in a number of Estonian hospitals, ERR News reports. Confido, one of the first to test it, started last year. Its chief executive Edvard Garder told ERR that the tool now runs in several departments and will be extended to the whole organisation: Patients have responded positively to the solution because doctors have more time to spend with them
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Narva Hospital is looking for Estonian-language speech recognition and transcription software in a public procurement. It also wants the assistant to propose medical codes. The tender stresses that the doctor stays the decision-maker and that nothing written by the AI may enter a patient's record before a healthcare professional has checked and approved it. Tartu University Hospital started a trial in its emergency department in mid-October for three months, and Heba Clinic uses AI to prepare medical histories and visit summaries.
According to Nele Labi, deputy secretary general for innovation at the Ministry of Social Affairs, there is no single national system, and hospitals mostly choose tools on their own. The state is developing two larger solutions: transcription for family doctors and for the electronic ambulance system. Labi said private hospitals are generally ahead in testing new solutions.
Patients must be told about recordings and their purpose, and strict data protection rules apply. Confido and Tartu University Hospital let patients decline. Labi said rapid development calls for greater legal clarity, and working groups have been set up at the ministry. Garder argued that the state should set a security standard rather than impose one system on every provider.
Source: ERR News, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
For an Estonian company that wants to sell AI tools to hospitals or clinics, the story shows what buyers already write into tenders: the professional keeps the decision, AI text needs human approval, patients must be informed and may refuse, and data protection applies in full. A supplier should check before signing that its contract terms on data processing, liability and approval of AI output match these requirements.
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