Swedish live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
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Everything you need to follow Swedish doctor appointments
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Swedish 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 vårdcentral (primary care centre) in Stockholm, Gothenburg, or a smaller town, your läkare (doctor) explains symptoms and treatment in Swedish. Captio AI captions every word so you follow without missing details.
At a specialist appointment at a universitetssjukhus (university hospital) or regional sjukhus, medical terminology arrives in formal Swedish. Captio AI captions in real time so you follow the full consultation.
At the apotek (pharmacy), the pharmacist explains dosage and drug interactions in rapid Swedish. Point your phone toward them and read the instructions as they speak.
At the tandläkare (dental clinic), the dentist gives instructions during treatment when lip-reading is impossible. Captio AI captions from audio alone.
In a session with a psykolog or psykiater, conversations require full comprehension. Captio AI captions the entire session so you engage without gaps.
At the akutmottagning (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
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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 Swedish is hard to understand
Pitch accent
- Swedish pitch accents change meaning but are invisible on the lips
- Swedish uses two distinct pitch contours — Accent 1 and Accent 2 — to distinguish word meaning. 'Anden' means either 'the spirit' or 'the duck' depending solely on pitch. 'Biten' means 'the bite' or 'bitten' based on the same distinction. These pitch patterns are purely auditory — no change in lip shape separates them. For a deaf or hard of hearing patient lip-reading clinical vocabulary, the pitch accent layer is entirely inaccessible.
The sj-sound variation
- The Swedish sj-sound varies dramatically between dialects
- Swedish has a distinctive voiceless consonant /ɧ/ — the 'sj-sound' — found in words like 'sjukdom' (illness) and 'sjukhus' (hospital). This sound's pronunciation varies radically by region: northern dialects produce it differently from Stockholm Swedish, and Finland Swedish replaces it with a different sound entirely. For a deaf patient who learned to lip-read one dialect's realisation of this sound, a doctor from a different region produces an unfamiliar lip shape for a word that appears constantly in medical vocabulary.
Finland Swedish variation
- Finland Swedish has a distinct phonological profile
- Swedish spoken in Finland has different prosody, vowel qualities, and the sj-sound realisation from Sweden Swedish. Deaf or hard of hearing patients who encounter Finland Swedish-speaking medical staff — in Finland, or in Swedish hospitals where Finnish-Swedish healthcare professionals work — face a phonological system they may not have lip-read before, including in medical terminology.
Casual speech reduction
- Informal Swedish drops and reduces syllables in fast conversation
- In casual clinical conversation after the formal diagnosis part, Swedish speakers reduce speech considerably — 'jag ska' becomes 'jag ska' and further compresses, unstressed syllables shorten or drop, and words merge across boundaries. Medical aftercare instructions delivered in a conversational register are significantly harder to follow from lip shapes than the more deliberate clinical vocabulary used for formal diagnoses.
Long compound words
- Swedish medical compounds are extremely long
- Swedish forms long compound words without spaces — 'sjukvård' (healthcare), 'läkemedelsbehandling' (drug treatment), 'blodtrycksmedicin' (blood pressure medication). In clinical speech these compounds are delivered as single long units at full speech speed. A deaf patient lip-reading must parse a compound as long as an English phrase from a single continuous lip movement sequence without internal boundaries.
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Download on theApp StoreHearing loss in Sweden: 1.3 million people and a gap between policy and access
Approximately 1.3 million people in Sweden — around 13% of the total population — live with some degree of hearing loss. Despite Sweden's reputation as a progressive welfare state with strong disability rights commitments, research has consistently documented a gap between stated policy and lived experience for deaf and hard of hearing Swedes. A study of patient and citizen participation in Sweden found that accessibility measures promised in policy and UN declarations — including provision in Swedish Sign Language — do not consistently materialise in practice. Deaf people in Sweden have a lower level of educational attainment than the general population, and the deaf employment gap in the Swedish labour market reflects reduced access to education, training, and workplace communication support.
In healthcare settings specifically, approximately 7,400 people are registered STS-IS (Swedish Sign Language interpretation service) users in some form. This is a meaningful but finite interpreter workforce serving a community navigating a system where appointments, diagnoses, and treatment discussions all require precise communication. Research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research examined healthcare participation for deaf and hard of hearing people in Sweden and found that accessibility in clinical settings remains complex and elusive — despite legal commitments, the practical experience of a deaf patient in a Swedish vårdcentral or sjukhus involves frequent communication compromises.
Swedish Sign Language was formally recognised in education from 1981, when deaf pupils first received instruction in STS rather than being forced to learn Swedish through oral methods alone. This was a landmark recognition, but recognition in education did not automatically produce interpreter availability at medical appointments four decades later. A deaf Swede attending a sjukhus today may wait weeks for an STS interpreter for a non-urgent appointment, while urgent and emergency settings routinely proceed without one. Captio AI captions Swedish in real time at any vårdcentral or universitetssjukhus, so every deaf or hard of hearing person follows their doctor's words directly, without waiting.
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 läkare at Karolinska switches between formal clinical Swedish and casual speech mid-consultation. The pitch accent words — where two words look the same on the lips — are impossible for me. Captio AI captions everything and I understand my diagnosis, not a version of it."
"Gothenburg Swedish has a different sj-sound and intonation from Stockholm Swedish. My cochlear implant handles one but not the other. Captio AI captions both and I follow any doctor regardless of where they are from in Sweden."
"Finland Swedish sounds completely different from Sweden Swedish to me. I could not lip-read my specialist appointment in Helsinki. Captio AI captions Finland Swedish without any problem — I followed the full consultation."
"The apotek pharmacist runs through läkemedelsbehandling options — long compound words at full speed. I couldn't catch them. Captio AI captions each compound word clearly and I left knowing exactly what I was taking and why."
"My läkare at Karolinska switches between formal clinical Swedish and casual speech mid-consultation. The pitch accent words — where two words look the same on the lips — are impossible for me. Captio AI captions everything and I understand my diagnosis, not a version of it."
"Gothenburg Swedish has a different sj-sound and intonation from Stockholm Swedish. My cochlear implant handles one but not the other. Captio AI captions both and I follow any doctor regardless of where they are from in Sweden."
"Finland Swedish sounds completely different from Sweden Swedish to me. I could not lip-read my specialist appointment in Helsinki. Captio AI captions Finland Swedish without any problem — I followed the full consultation."
"The apotek pharmacist runs through läkemedelsbehandling options — long compound words at full speed. I couldn't catch them. Captio AI captions each compound word clearly and I left knowing exactly what I was taking and why."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Understand your diagnosis in Swedish.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store