Finnish live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store
Everything you need to follow Finnish doctor appointments
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Finnish speakers.
Follow what the doctor says in real time
- Captions appear word by word as they speak
- Handles medical terminology, drug names, and clinical language
- Place the phone on the desk — no setup needed
- Works in any consultation room, clinic, or hospital setting
When the doctor speaks another language
- Captions and translates in real time
- Follow your diagnosis in the language you understand best
- 60+ languages, no manual switching
- For foreign specialists, travel, or immigration settings
A full record of the consultation
- Record the appointment and upload it for a complete transcript
- Review instructions, drug names, and follow-up steps at home
- Share with a family member or carer if needed
- Works on any consultation recording
Key instructions extracted automatically
- Diagnosis, medication, and follow-up steps pulled from any transcript
- Organised into clear sections
- Nothing important missed or forgotten
- Works on any saved appointment recording
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreEvery situation covered
Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.
At a terveyskeskus (health centre) in Helsinki, Tampere, or a smaller kunta (municipality), your lääkäri explains symptoms and treatment in Finnish. Captio AI captions every word so you follow the full consultation.
At a specialist appointment at HUS (Helsinki University Hospital) or a regional sairaala, medical terminology arrives in formal Finnish. Captio AI captions in real time so you follow every detail.
At the apteekki (pharmacy), the farmasisti explains dosage and drug interactions quickly in Finnish. Point your phone toward them and read the instructions as they speak.
At the hammaslääkäri (dental clinic), the dentist gives instructions during treatment when lip-reading is impossible. Captio AI captions from audio alone.
In a session with a psykologi or psykiatri, sensitive conversations require full comprehension. Captio AI captions the full session so you engage without gaps.
At the päivystys (emergency department), staff speak quickly under pressure. Open Captio AI and read their instructions in real time.
Most accurate and fastest models
word accuracy
independent benchmark, 2025
real-time captions
first word appears as you speak
Download for free
Download on theApp Store
Built for the conversations where every word matters
Captions as the doctor speaks
Words appear on screen while the doctor is still talking. You read the diagnosis, drug name, or follow-up instruction at the same moment it is said — not after they have moved on.
Medical terminology handled accurately
Drug names, procedure names, clinical terms. Captio AI handles the vocabulary of a real consultation — not just everyday speech.
Review the appointment after
Record the consultation and upload it to Audio Transcription. Get a full written record of everything said — instructions, dosages, referrals — to review at home and share with a carer if needed.
Works in any clinical setting
Consultation rooms, hospital wards, A&E, dental chairs, pharmacy counters. Place the phone near the speaker and Captio AI captions whoever is talking.
Any language
For foreign-language doctors, specialists abroad, or appointments through an interpreter. Live Translator captions and translates in real time so you follow your diagnosis in the language you understand best.
100% private
Medical conversations are among the most sensitive there are. Captio AI processes audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded, stored, or shared.
Why Finnish is hard to understand
Vowel and consonant quantity
- Long and short vowels and consonants are phonemically distinct but look identical
- Finnish contrasts long and short versions of both vowels and consonants — 'tuli' (fire), 'tuuli' (wind), 'tulli' (customs). These length distinctions are phonemically crucial and change meaning throughout clinical vocabulary. On the lips, a long vowel and a short vowel produce no visible difference in lip shape — only duration, which is auditory. A deaf or hard of hearing patient lip-reading Finnish misses an entire phonological dimension that distinguishes words.
Consonant gradation
- Finnish word forms change consonants unpredictably across case endings
- Finnish consonant gradation systematically alternates between strong and weak consonant grades across grammatical forms: 'kirja' (book) becomes 'kirjan' (of the book), 'kukka' (flower) becomes 'kukan'. In clinical speech where medical vocabulary appears in multiple grammatical cases within a single sentence, the same word's consonant changes form to form. A deaf patient lip-reading sees different lip shapes for the same word depending on its grammatical role — an unpredictable visual stream.
Vowel harmony
- Eight vowels in strict harmony produce repetitive lip movement patterns
- Finnish has eight vowel phonemes in a strict front/back harmony system: a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, y. Front and back pairs — a/ä, o/ö, u/y — produce similar but distinct lip shapes. In fast clinical speech where vowels harmonise across long suffixed words, a deaf patient sees sequences of similar lip shapes repeating through a word with no clear boundary marker between content and suffix.
Agglutinative word length
- Finnish clinical words are extremely long without internal pause points
- Finnish forms long compound and suffixed words without spaces: 'terveyskeskus' (health centre), 'lääkäriasema' (medical station), 'verenpaineenlääke' (blood pressure medication). In clinical speech these are delivered as single units at full pace. A deaf patient must parse a word that in English would be a multi-word phrase from one continuous lip movement sequence with no natural break.
Saami community specific barrier
- Saami communities in northern Finland face compounded hearing and language barriers
- Research published in PMC found that hearing impairment is common among Saami adults in northern Finland — a community that also faces a language barrier when receiving healthcare in Finnish rather than a Saami language. For a Saami person who is hard of hearing and whose primary language is not Finnish, a clinical appointment conducted in Finnish presents a simultaneous language and hearing comprehension challenge that neither lip-reading nor Finnish language skills alone can fully bridge.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreHearing loss in Finland: two sign languages, strong frameworks, and the Saami gap
Finland has approximately 5,000 deaf users of Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) and 300 users of Finnish-Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL), supported by a workforce of around 600 sign language interpreters — one of the stronger interpreter-to-user ratios in Europe. Finnish Sign Language has constitutional status, and the Non-Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination based on disability in access to services including healthcare. The Finnish Federation of Hard of Hearing (Kuuloliitto) and the Finnish Association of the Deaf (Kuurojen liitto) are active organisations providing support and advocacy. In comparative terms, Finland's legal and institutional framework for deaf rights is among the more developed in Europe.
Despite this strength, documented gaps persist. Research has found that hearing impairment is disproportionately prevalent among Saami adults in northern Finland, a community that faces a compounded barrier: hearing loss plus healthcare delivered in Finnish rather than their home language. The intersection of sensory impairment and linguistic minority status creates an access challenge that the general Finnish deaf support infrastructure — designed for Finnish-speaking deaf people in urban settings — does not fully reach. In rural northern Finland, where Saami communities are concentrated, interpreter availability is thinner and clinical services are more dispersed.
For the broader Finnish hard of hearing population — an estimated 750,000 people who use hearing aids or have significant but not profound hearing loss — the FinSL interpreter framework is not the primary mechanism. These individuals rely on hearing aids, acoustic accommodation, and spoken communication, and many navigate healthcare appointments with residual hearing that is nonetheless insufficient for a full clinical conversation. In a language where vowel length, consonant gradation, and harmony patterns all carry meaning that is invisible on the lips, even a person with moderate hearing loss misses significant portions of clinical speech. Captio AI captions Finnish in real time at any terveyskeskus or sairaala, so every patient follows their doctor's words in full.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreWhat you hear stays with you.
Gone the moment it ends
Captio AI processes your audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is kept.
Not a product
Your conversations are not something Captio AI sells, shares, or monetizes — to anyone, for any reason.
Not used to train anything
What you say in a doctor's appointment or a job interview never ends up in a training dataset. Not ours. Not anyone else's.
Private by default
Download on theApp StoreCaptio AI supports 60+ languages
People love Captio AI
"My lääkäri at HUS uses long Finnish medical compounds — terveyskeskus, verenpaineenlääke — at full speed. The consonant gradation makes the same word look different depending on its case. Captio AI captions the full consultation and I understand every part of my diagnosis."
"Finnish long and short vowels — tuuli vs tuli — are impossible to distinguish on lips. My cochlear implant helps but not at clinical pace. Captio AI captions every length distinction and I follow the full appointment."
"The farmasisti at my apteekki in Oulu explains drug interactions in rapid Finnish — long suffixed words that blur together. Captio AI captions every word and I leave knowing exactly what each medicine is for."
"In Rovaniemi my interpreter had to cancel the appointment. Captio AI meant I didn't have to reschedule — I went to the terveyskeskus and read every word the doctor said in real time. Completely independent."
"My lääkäri at HUS uses long Finnish medical compounds — terveyskeskus, verenpaineenlääke — at full speed. The consonant gradation makes the same word look different depending on its case. Captio AI captions the full consultation and I understand every part of my diagnosis."
"Finnish long and short vowels — tuuli vs tuli — are impossible to distinguish on lips. My cochlear implant helps but not at clinical pace. Captio AI captions every length distinction and I follow the full appointment."
"The farmasisti at my apteekki in Oulu explains drug interactions in rapid Finnish — long suffixed words that blur together. Captio AI captions every word and I leave knowing exactly what each medicine is for."
"In Rovaniemi my interpreter had to cancel the appointment. Captio AI meant I didn't have to reschedule — I went to the terveyskeskus and read every word the doctor said in real time. Completely independent."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Understand your diagnosis in Finnish.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store