Multilingual Care – Rethinking Communication for Caregivers and Patients
Challenge
Fast, clear, and reliable communication between patients and clinical staff is a central component for safe and effective medical care. In the multicultural environment of the clinics of the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund (Vienna Health Association), however, communication with non-German-speaking patients often reaches its limits.
The communication aids currently in use are inadequate: they offer only a limited selection of languages and are mostly difficult to access when needed. Medical terminology is often translated inaccurately or incorrectly, which can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. The use of video interpreting services, which require advance booking, can become an insurmountable obstacle in acute situations. In addition, only a few laptops are equipped with the service, meaning that devices have to be carried from ward to ward. This delays processes and puts additional strain on staff.
Furthermore, Wi-Fi dead zones in clinics make the use of web-based tools unreliable or impossible. Data protection is also at stake—many standard solutions do not offer transparent data processing, leading to security concerns.
Devices that have already been tested proved to be unintuitive and posed an additional burden on clinical staff—yet another device to be carried around! The use of private mobile phones—whether by patients or clinical staff—fails due to hygiene and data protection requirements.
All these factors make it clear: the Wiener Gesundheitsverbung (Vienna Health Association) faces the urgent task of finding new, user-friendly, data-protection-compliant, and reliable communication solutions that are specifically tailored to the sensitive clinical environment.
Question
Desired result
The aim of the challenge is to find an innovative, data protection-compliant, and intuitively usable solution that enables fast and precise communication between clinical and non-clinical staff and non-German-speaking patients in all everyday clinical situations.
At the heart of this is a solution that fully complies with legal requirements and meets all Austrian data protection standards. The solution must be designed so that it is available anytime and anywhere communication is needed—whether at the patient’s bedside, in the emergency room, or during rounds—thus ensuring widespread accessibility.
Furthermore, the solution must meet the highest standards for translation quality. Medical terminology should be correctly recognized, understood, and accurately conveyed in the target language. Validation of translation quality would be a strong quality feature.
Operation should be intuitive and as barrier-free as possible so that even older patients or those with motor impairments can communicate without assistance. For hygiene reasons, the device must be easy to clean and resistant to disinfectants. In addition, the solution should offer broad language coverage—including rare languages and regional dialects—to meet the real requirements of the multicultural clinical environment. Functionality must also be reliable in noisy settings, such as the emergency department or multi-bed rooms.
A further desired feature is a scan function for the recognition and translation of written information, such as medical assessments, medication plans, or forms.
Non-goals are:
- software that must be installed on laptops
- video translation services that requires advance booking
Call for submissions
Your innovation for better patient communication!
The WIGEV (Vienna Health Association) is looking for visionary companies for an innovation challenge. The aim is to find products or solutions that quickly, accurately, and practically improve communication between clinical and non-clinical staff in hospitals and patients who do not speak German.
Shape Tomorrow, Today - Share your innovation with us:
Use the online form to present your solution. Describe your technical approach, your overall solution strategy, as well as support and training concepts. Show how your solution meets the requirements.
What matters:
Convince us with clear application examples, certificates, references, and a possible concept for a trial deployment. Highlight your unique selling points—what makes your solution especially innovative and practical?
Confidential inforamtion:
Share with the jury your assessment of costs and efforts—ideally with reference to similar projects. This information helps with further project planning.
Additionally required:
A meaningful cover image is mandatory. Optionally, you may add further documents (e.g., graphics).
Important:
Deadline for submissions is 27 August 2025!
Submissions as consortia are possible. Please keep it brief: max. 10–12 slides or 4–5 pages.
This is a market exploration—there is no need for extensive studies or new concepts.
Benefits of the challenge and further project development
The WIGEV (Vienna Health Association) is using this challenge to gain an overview of possible solutions and potential partners. The jury of internal experts will then invite those companies whose solutions score particularly well according to the evaluation criteria to an innovation dialogue. During this event, the solutions and a potential cooperation for a proof of concept can be discussed for the first time. Please keep 2 October 2025 free for the innovation dialogue!
For companies, this means that by participating in the challenge, you will appear on the public contracting authority’s radar. Your submission will remain visible as your business card to other interested parties even after the challenge has ended. You are also positioning yourself for further public procurement projects. If you are among the winners and are invited to the final innovation dialogue, you will have the opportunity to present your solution in a market conversation and exchange ideas directly with the project managers.
This process creates awareness and understanding for suitable innovations on the part of the public contracting authority. This is important so that, following the market exploration, innovative approaches can be considered in any ensuing procurement project in accordance with the Austrian Federal Procurement Act.
Depending on the results, the further project plan foresees the following:
Depending on the results, the process may continue after the challenge as follows:
The Vienna Health Association aims to get to know translation solutions as quickly as possible in order to enable communication with non-German-speaking patients and clinical staff.
If the market discussions suggest that implementation is appropriate, the immediate goal is to commission a proof of concept through the procurement procedure deemed reasonable and permissible according to the findings of the market exploration.
Next steps will depend on the maturity of the solution, the company behind it, the complexity of implementation, and the final assessment of the jury.
Do you have the right solution?
Then submit!
Questions about the challenge
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