Indian HealthTech Startup EkaCare Selected to Build Multilingual AI Medical Documentation System for NHA

Bengaluru-based health technology startup EkaCare has been selected as a technology partner by the National Health Authority (NHA) to develop an artificial intelligence-powered medical documentation system for doctors working in public healthcare facilities. Announced on 11 November 2026, the initiative is being undertaken under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and represents an important advancement in the application of indigenous artificial intelligence to India’s public healthcare infrastructure.

The proposed Ambient AI-enabled Voice Scribe system is designed to automatically convert conversations between doctors and patients into structured digital medical records. By reducing the time healthcare professionals spend manually entering clinical information, the technology aims to improve documentation efficiency while allowing doctors to devote greater attention to patient consultations.

Developed using EkaCare’s indigenous speech recognition and agentic artificial intelligence technologies, the system supports more than 15 Indian languages and can process conversations involving multiple languages. The solution is designed to operate within the National Health Authority’s secure infrastructure, with medical professionals retaining responsibility for reviewing and approving all AI-generated clinical records.

National Health Authority Selects EkaCare Through Technology Evaluation

EkaCare, operated by Orbi Health Private Limited, was selected through the National Health Authority’s Expression of Interest process for open-source Ambient AI-enabled voice-to-text solutions for digital health record creation.

The selection process included a technical demonstration before the NHA’s Evaluation Committee, during which the company presented its artificial intelligence capabilities and their potential applications in public healthcare.

The technology was also demonstrated during the National Health Authority’s National Review Meeting with States and Union Territories, held in Kolkata on 5 and 6 November 2026.

EkaCare founder and Chief Executive Officer Vikalp Sahni, along with Vice President of AI Engineering Neha Jagadeesh, presented the company’s speech recognition model and agentic AI framework during the event.

The initiative seeks to address one of the major operational challenges in India’s public healthcare system: the time and effort required to maintain accurate medical documentation while attending to large numbers of patients.

AI Voice Scribe Converts Doctor-Patient Conversations into Digital Health Records

The Ambient AI-enabled Voice Scribe functions as an automated clinical documentation assistant that processes conversations during medical consultations and prepares structured clinical notes.

Instead of requiring doctors to manually type or enter details during patient interactions, the system captures relevant information from spoken conversations and organises it into predefined medical documentation formats.

The generated records can include patient complaints, medical history, prescribed medications, vital signs, laboratory findings, diagnoses and treatment plans.

The technology uses speciality-specific templates to organise information according to different clinical requirements. This approach is intended to make digital records easier to review and integrate into existing healthcare information systems.

Importantly, the system is designed to assist doctors rather than independently make clinical decisions. Every generated note must be reviewed, corrected where necessary and approved by a verified medical professional before being saved as part of the patient’s digital health record.

This human verification requirement is particularly important because artificial intelligence systems can occasionally misinterpret speech, medical terminology or clinical context.

Indigenous AI Supports More Than 15 Indian Languages

A significant feature of EkaCare’s technology is its ability to process medical conversations in more than 15 Indian languages, including consultations in which doctors and patients switch between languages.

India’s linguistic diversity presents a considerable challenge for conventional speech recognition systems, many of which have historically been developed primarily for English-language applications.

In Indian healthcare settings, medical conversations frequently combine regional languages, English medical terminology and locally used expressions. Accurately interpreting these interactions requires speech recognition technologies capable of handling variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and conversational patterns.

EkaCare’s system incorporates its Parrotlet-A 2.5 Pro speech recognition model, developed to process Indian-language conversations, including those involving healthcare terminology.

The model has been evaluated across languages including Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu and Indian English.

According to the company, benchmarking involving 6,550 Indian medical consultations demonstrated competitive speech recognition performance, with Parrotlet-A 2.5 Pro recording the lowest error rates among the models evaluated across five benchmarked languages.

These results are company-reported benchmark findings and do not independently establish equivalent performance across every clinical environment or supported language.

The multilingual capability could be particularly useful in public hospitals and rural healthcare facilities where patients may be more comfortable communicating in their native languages.

Lipi Agentic AI Framework Structures Clinical Information

The second major component of the system is Lipi, EkaCare’s open-source agentic artificial intelligence framework.

While Parrotlet-A is responsible for processing spoken language, Lipi is designed to transform conversational information into organised and usable documentation.

The framework processes recorded or transcribed interactions and generates structured notes according to the requirements of the application.

In healthcare, this involves identifying clinically relevant information from consultations and arranging it into medical record formats that doctors can review.

EkaCare has developed Lipi as an open-source platform that can be adapted for different applications beyond medical documentation.

The framework is built using the company’s Parrotlet speech model, Echo agent software development kit and an open protocol for exchanging information between AI documentation systems.

The open-source approach is intended to support interoperability, customisation and wider adoption by developers and institutions.

For the National Health Authority initiative, these technologies will be integrated to create an AI-assisted medical documentation system suitable for India’s public healthcare environment.

Integration with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

The proposed Voice Scribe system is designed to operate within the digital health architecture established under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

ABDM seeks to develop an integrated digital healthcare ecosystem by enabling secure and interoperable exchange of health information among patients, healthcare professionals and medical institutions.

EkaCare’s system generates clinical records using the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard, an internationally recognised framework for structuring and exchanging electronic health information.

FHIR compatibility is intended to make the generated records interoperable with digital healthcare systems operating under ABDM.

Once a doctor has reviewed and approved an AI-generated note, the information can be saved and linked to the patient’s Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA).

The ABHA framework provides individuals with a digital health identity and supports consent-based access to their medical records across participating healthcare institutions.

For doctors accessing the Voice Scribe through its standalone interface, authentication will be supported through the Healthcare Professionals Registry.

The proposed integration is intended to help create more consistent digital medical documentation while maintaining professional accountability over the information entered into patient records.

Designed for Integration with Existing Hospital Software

The National Health Authority’s Voice Scribe initiative is designed to accommodate different types of healthcare institutions and their existing digital infrastructure.

Public hospitals will be able to integrate the system with their Hospital Management Information Systems through an embedded interface.

This would allow doctors to use AI-assisted documentation within existing hospital software rather than requiring a completely separate clinical workflow.

The technology can also be accessed through a standalone interface or integrated using application programming interfaces based on the open MedScribe Alliance standard.

Such flexibility is important because public healthcare facilities across India operate with different levels of digital maturity and varying software systems.

An interoperable approach could make the technology more accessible to hospitals seeking to introduce artificial intelligence without replacing their entire digital infrastructure.

The exact rollout schedule, number of participating hospitals and commercial arrangements have not yet been publicly specified.

Secure Infrastructure and Data Sovereignty

Healthcare information contains sensitive personal and medical details, making data security an essential consideration in deploying artificial intelligence systems within public hospitals.

EkaCare’s Voice Scribe solution is designed to operate within infrastructure controlled by the National Health Authority and powered by Amazon Web Services.

The proposed deployment uses an isolated, secure environment intended to keep patient information within the infrastructure designated for the programme.

This architecture is designed to give public healthcare institutions greater control over how medical information is processed, stored and accessed.

The company’s emphasis on open-source technologies and infrastructure-level control is also intended to reduce dependence on proprietary external platforms.

However, the effectiveness of these protections will depend on implementation, access controls, operational safeguards and compliance with applicable health data governance requirements.

Reducing Administrative Burden on Healthcare Professionals

Medical documentation is an essential component of patient care, but maintaining detailed clinical records can consume considerable time during busy hospital schedules.

Doctors working in high-volume public healthcare facilities must often balance patient consultations with prescription preparation, diagnostic documentation, medical histories and administrative reporting.

Artificial intelligence-assisted documentation could help reduce repetitive data-entry tasks by automatically preparing draft medical records from clinical conversations.

The potential benefits include more consistent documentation, reduced administrative workload and improved availability of structured clinical information.

Automated record preparation could also help healthcare institutions improve continuity of care by making relevant patient information easier to retrieve during subsequent consultations.

Nevertheless, the technology’s practical impact will depend on transcription accuracy, clinical usability, doctor acceptance and its ability to function reliably in noisy or resource-constrained healthcare environments.

Clinical oversight remains essential to ensure that generated records accurately reflect the consultation and do not introduce incorrect information.

Strengthening India’s Indigenous Healthcare AI Ecosystem

The selection of EkaCare highlights the growing participation of Indian startups in developing advanced technologies for national digital public infrastructure.

India’s healthcare system presents opportunities for artificial intelligence applications tailored to local languages, clinical practices and public service delivery requirements.

By combining indigenous speech recognition, open-source agentic AI and interoperable medical data standards, EkaCare is developing a solution specifically suited to the operational needs of Indian healthcare institutions.

The company’s existing medical documentation product, EkaScribe, has already been adopted by doctors in private healthcare settings, providing experience in applying conversational AI to clinical documentation.

The National Health Authority initiative represents an opportunity to extend similar capabilities into the public healthcare system, where patient volumes and documentation requirements can be substantial.

It also demonstrates how Indian-developed AI models can be integrated into government-supported digital infrastructure rather than remaining limited to standalone commercial applications.

Advancing AI-Enabled Public Healthcare in India

The National Health Authority’s selection of EkaCare marks a significant development in the application of artificial intelligence to India’s digital healthcare ecosystem.

The proposed Ambient AI-enabled Voice Scribe combines multilingual speech recognition, automated clinical documentation, open-source technology and interoperability with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

Its ability to process conversations in more than 15 Indian languages could help address an important technological challenge in a country where medical consultations frequently take place in regional languages.

The requirement for doctor verification, integration with existing hospital information systems and deployment within NHA-controlled infrastructure provides a framework for introducing AI assistance while retaining professional oversight.

Although the nationwide deployment schedule and operational scale have not yet been announced, the initiative represents an important step towards developing healthcare technologies that reflect India’s linguistic diversity and public healthcare requirements.

The partnership also highlights the expanding role of Indian HealthTech startups in building indigenous artificial intelligence solutions capable of supporting essential public services and strengthening the country’s digital health infrastructure.

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