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- The wisdom of translation: An AI navigator will help doctors and foreign patients understand each other
The wisdom of translation: An AI navigator will help doctors and foreign patients understand each other
Russian clinics may have a voice AI assistant capable of solving the problem of communication with foreigners. Scientists have developed the country's first digital navigator that will allow medical tourists and citizens of other countries working in Russia to describe symptoms in their native language, upload medical documents through a smart camera and receive a structured medical history for the attending physician in Russian. Now such services are actively developing all over the world, they are becoming more and more in demand in medicine, and the fact that Russia will have its own comprehensive tool is a significant step, but you need to understand that such a navigator cannot diagnose, experts noted.
AI navigator for foreign patients
Young scientists at Sechenov University have developed an AI navigator with a smart camera that allows a foreign patient to talk about their symptoms in their native language and get an accurate translation of this information into Russian. The innovative AI—based service supports 10 languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, Tajik, Uzbek and others, and allows the patient to complete the preliminary stage of admission — from describing symptoms to making an appointment with a doctor - without the involvement of an interpreter.
"We are creating not just a translator, but a full—fledged medical navigator that will help develop medical tourism in our country and simplify the access of patients from friendly countries to high—tech medical care in Russia," said Ulyana Pokazannikova, founder of the startup, CEO of Medical Communications, a third-year student at the N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine.
Ulyana Razvannikova, founder of the startup, CEO of the Medical Communications Company, 3rd year student at the N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine
Using the service looks like this: the patient selects a section for foreigners on the clinic's website and describes the complaints in his own language. The system transcribes speech, highlights key symptoms, asks clarifying questions, like a doctor at an appointment, and then issues a resume in his native language to confirm correctness. Then the AI suggests that the person be referred to a specialist and forms a ready-made structured medical history for the doctor in Russian: complaints, medical history and life.
Another feature of the service is the smart camera module. The user can take photos of medical documents (test results, conclusions, statements) written in their native language. AI analyzes, translates, and structures this data, arranging it in chronological order. This feature can also be useful for Russian-speaking patients, especially the elderly and people with chronic diseases. The system allows you to download and structure the entire medical history and all medical documents — this automates the routine work of the doctor and reduces the time of diagnostic search, the developers said.
Pilot launch and new functionality
The AI Navigator has no direct competitors. According to the developers, universal translators (Google Translate, "Yandex Translator") is not adapted to the medical terminology of the languages of Asia and not structure the history of clinical standardsand existing in our country AI assistants for doctors designed only for Russian-speaking patients.
The prototype of the medical AI navigator is already ready, and its pilot launch is scheduled for May this year. In the future, the developers intend to supplement the product with telemedicine support in their native language for patients who are planning treatment in Russia or have already returned home after it. In addition, the program will include a face-to-face reception support system that allows the navigator to translate speech in real time.
The tool solves an urgent problem of the medical community, the head of the AI department told Izvestia. Cloud.ru Dmitry Yudin. When a patient describes symptoms through a relative translator or Google Translate, some clinically relevant details are lost. A structured medical history in Russian, compiled from speech in a person's native language, is a solution that has long been expected in healthcare.
— The originality here is not in the idea itself (medical chatbots with translation exist), but in the combination of "voice input + OCR" (Optical Character recognition) of medical documents plus structuring according to the Russian clinical standard plus integration into the medical information system, — said the expert.
It is important to understand that the tool collects anamnesis, not makes a diagnosis — this is a fundamental difference that is important to keep in communication, otherwise regulatory risks will "kill" the project at the start.
In foreign markets, similar solutions have already entered clinical practice — the American No Barrier works in hospitals and is integrated into electronic medical records, the system acts as a translator for live appointments in 40 languages, said Dmitry Botov, head of the master's program and the AI Talent Hub at ITMO University.
The demand for such a tool is obvious: medical tourism and the role of AI in medicine are actively developing all over the world, the specialist noted. The fact that such products are being created by student teams today is a good indicator that AI education in Russia is reaching the level of real products for urgent socio-economic tasks.
The project has already entered the top 30 best student entrepreneurship initiatives in Russia GSEA 2026, and the developed software is registered as a result of intellectual activity (RID).
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