Lexi
Redefining Healthcare Communication, Starting with Language.
Idea in Health Care
Introduction
Hospitals spend billions on interpretation services that are expensive, slow, and unreliable – yet language barriers still cause medical errors, liability, and lower quality of care. Lexi expands language access with AI medical interpretation that makes communication instant, accurate, and secure.
Problem
In 2014, a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl was rushed to a California ER in excruciating pain. Her parents didn’t speak English, and no interpreter was available. She was misdiagnosed and given a drug her body couldn’t tolerate. Hours later, she died. This isn’t just one story. Because of language barriers, 30 million patients in the U.S. are 66% more likely to suffer medical errors, stay hospitalized 4 days longer, and pay $2,000+ more per visit. Hospitals spend billions on interpretation, yet solutions are inadequate. On-site interpreters are costly and scarce. Remote services rely on missing, uncharged tablets with poor audio. With a national interpreter shortage, providers turn to non-compliant stopgaps like Google Translate or family members, leading to preventable harm and legal risks. Worse, no solution covers the full care continuum. These failures cost hospitals millions and compromise equitable care. Communication is the core of healthcare, and hospitals need a smarter solution.
Opportunity
Lexi is an AI-powered medical interpretation platform enabling instant, accurate, and secure communication between providers and patients across the care continuum. By adapting to clinical workflows, Lexi helps hospitals cut costs, expand language access, and improve health outcomes. Unlike generic tools, Lexi is built for healthcare, fine-tuned for medical lexicon, HIPAA-compliant, and designed to support both commonly spoken and high-demand underserved languages like Haitian Creole. Lexi integrates across mobile apps, hospital hardware, and EHR, bridging gaps from intake to discharge. At a fraction of the cost, Lexi addresses interpreter shortages and reduces reliance on unethical stopgaps. Because healthcare communication is more than translation, Lexi tailors interpretation to providers’ care approaches and adapts to patients’ understanding in real-time while prioritizing cultural competence. Our goal is equitable, high-quality care for all, regardless of language barriers.