We gave two patients the same medical information. One version had translation errors in a quarter of it, the kind of rate interpreters average. The other had almost none. Then we asked both the same questions about their care.
Lalia accuracy test
HIPAA & GDPR compliant
Every patient understood, in their own language.
Lalia is a HIPAA-compliant AI medical translator for clinics. It translates doctor and patient in real time with medical-grade accuracy, produces a visit transcript, and turns discharge instructions into the patient's language, so patients with limited English understand their care.
Email hello@laliahealth.com
Call (469) 353-4543
98.6%patient comprehension with accurate translation, vs. 31.4% with typical interpreter errors
HIPAAcompliant, with a BAA for every clinic and zero data retention
15Austin physicians helped shape Lalia
Clinician · English
How long has she had the fever?
ES¿Desde cuándo tiene fiebre?
Parent · Español
Desde el martes. Anoche llegó a 39 grados.
ENSince Tuesday. Last night it reached 39 °C (102.2 °F).
Clinician · English
Is she drinking fluids and still wetting diapers?
ES¿Está tomando líquidos y todavía moja los pañales?
Example conversation. Lalia tells speakers apart by the language they speak, so nobody presses a button to talk.
The language barrier
Doctors are stuck with translation tools that are glitchy, unavailable, or inaccurate.
Austin is home to many adults who are still learning English, and its clinics see a wide mix of languages, especially Spanish and Middle Eastern languages. When patient and doctor can't understand each other, health outcomes get worse.
27%
longer wait added to each appointment for a patient with limited English proficiency (LEP).
Direct Physicians Journal
25%
error rate per encounter, even with professional interpreters.
National study of pediatric ED interpreters
30–40%
of machine translations, like Google Translate, contain major errors in medical use.
British Medical Journal; JAMA Internal Medicine
49.1%
of adverse events involving LEP patients caused physical harm, compared with 29.5% for English speakers.
The Joint Commission; NIHSmall translation errors change what patients understand
What clinicians told us
“With private practices you do the best you can with what you got. We now use Google Translate for conversations, which is definitely not ideal.”
“If we use a translation service for Arabic discharge instructions, the EMR frequently spits out the characters as disjointed or backward on the printer.”
How Lalia compares
| Option | HIPAA compliant | Available 24/7 | Affordable | Serves Texas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone and video interpreter services | Yes | Varies | No | Yes |
| AI interpreters from out-of-state startups | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Consumer apps like Google Translate | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lalia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What Lalia does
One tool for the conversation, the record, and the paperwork.
Live translation
Real-time conversation
Clinician and patient speak naturally. Lalia translates each turn and reads it aloud.
Transcripts
A record of every visit
Both languages, side by side, so a medical assistant can gather history and the chart stays accurate.
PDF translation
Discharge papers that print right
Drop in instructions or forms and get a translated copy, including right-to-left languages like Arabic.
Telehealth
Video visits too
The same live translation inside a telehealth visit, for patients who can't come in.
Open a session
Choose the patient's language on any laptop or tablet in the room.
Talk normally
Lalia translates each turn and builds the transcript as you go.
Send them home informed
Translate the after-visit paperwork before the patient leaves.
Accuracy that patients can feel
Translation errors don't just slow a visit down. They change what a patient understands about their own care. Lalia is built to close that gap.
98.6%
comprehension when patients received accurately translated care information.
31.4%
comprehension for the same information with a 25% error rate, the rate seen with professional interpreters.
3×
better understanding of their own care for patients with limited English when translation is accurate.
Lalia patient comprehension test. Error rate: national study of pediatric ED interpreters.
Built for medicine, not travel
Medical-grade accuracy
Trained on medical language and real dialects
- Medical terminology from the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System, plus multilingual medical datasets such as HeadQA and MedicalMT.
- Human translators verify Lalia's output, and the AI is trained consistently, without the drift of a one-time certification.
Spanish isn't one dataset. Lalia accounts for:
Mexican & Central AmericanCaribbeanAndeanAntilleanChileanRioplatenseEuropean Peninsular
HIPAA compliance
HIPAA and GDPR compliant
- Fully HIPAA compliant, and GDPR compliant for international data.
- A Business Associate Agreement and Data Processing Agreement with every clinic.
- Zero retention: your patients' data is never used to train the AI.
- Runs on private, HIPAA-compliant servers.
Pricing
One flat price for the whole clinic.
Clinic subscription
$200 / month
- Live voice translation
- Visit transcripts
- PDF and document translation
- Telehealth translation
- HIPAA compliant, Business Associate Agreement included
What a typical Austin clinic spends today
About 8 LEP patients a week × 15 minutesat $1.25/min
Interpreter cost per month$600
Lalia per month$200
Saved every month$400
Every one of the 15 physicians we surveyed said they would pay $200 a month for Lalia.
Free pilot program starts January 2027. We're taking a small group of Austin clinics first.
Apply for the pilot
Our mission
Language should never decide the quality of someone's care.
Patients deserve to understand their own diagnosis, and doctors deserve to understand their patients.
Lalia's founder, Rhianna Patel, grew up around her dad's laundromat, picking up Spanish from the employees and customers she worked alongside. As a pre-med student at UT Austin shadowing physicians, she saw the same gap in the exam room: long holds for phone interpreters, families translating for each other, and patients going home without understanding their care plan.
We're building Lalia with physicians across Austin so every family, whatever language they speak, leaves the visit knowing what happens next.
See Lalia in action
Video coming soon
What we're building
- A clinic-ready translation app
- AI trained on medical literature
- AI trained across languages and dialects
What changes in the clinic
- Patients trust the information they get from their doctor
- Doctors see more patients each day
- Patients receive better care
The impact
- Less physician burnout
- More efficient clinics
- Better health equity
Testimonials
Shaped with the doctors and patients who'll use it.
“If your software wins on connectivity, speed, and reliable software, we will use the AI tech. That's the key to solving the current system's failures.”
“Anyone could use this AI. My medical assistant could gather history using the AI application. And the idea of generating translated discharge instructions is pretty frickin brilliant.”
“Yes, I would like to use the AI, because it would reduce the duration of the appointment.”
“Yes, I could see myself using the AI, because currently the translator translates some things but not all.”
We asked 15 physicians which features they need
Live translation
Visit transcripts
PDF translation
Telehealth
1st placeSell Your Impact Pitch Competition, McCombs School of Business
S.E.L.L.Social Entrepreneurship Learning Lab, UT Austin McCombs
Get in touch
See Lalia in your clinic.
A demo takes 20 minutes. We'll walk you through live translation, accuracy, and our HIPAA setup. Free pilots for Austin clinics begin January 2027.
Emailhello@laliahealth.com
Demosdemo@laliahealth.com
Call(469) 353-4543