CardMedic is a UK-based digital health company specialising in healthcare communication support tools, has been awarded £411,000 from Innovate UK’s SMART grant programme to deliver an AI-powered solution aimed at breaking down language barriers in healthcare settings
The SMART grant programme is run by Innovate UK, the UK government agency dedicated to innovation and technology development.
The funding will support a 12-month project, running from April 2025 to March 2026, to scale and integrate an enhanced portal transforming how healthcare organisations provide language services.
The initiative builds on CardMedic’s existing digital app, with plans to develop an end-to-end, AI-enhanced language service provision system offering immediate access to healthcare communication tools, including personalised interpreter services from trusted providers.
The funding will support a 12-month project, running from April 2025 to March 2026, to scale and integrate an enhanced portal transforming how healthcare organisations provide language services
Commenting on the Innovate UK funding award, Tim Grimaldi, Co-founder and Managing Director of CardMedic, said: "This funding enables us to realise our long-term vision of making healthcare communication even more accessible and efficient. At a time when the NHS is focused on driving productivity and improving patient care, our solution offers innovative ways to deliver high quality language services quickly, efficiently and where they were previously unavailable.
“We're creating an innovative solution that will further transform how language services are delivered across the NHS. This will not only improve accessibility but also create a more efficient and cost-effective system that benefits patients, healthcare providers and language service providers alike."
The project will deliver two key developments. The first involves enhancements to the existing CardMedic Frontline app, aimed at improving speed, accessibility, and performance.
Planned features include adjustable content sizes for people with visual impairments, streamlined language navigation for those with English as a second or third language, optimised offline and device-agnostic use, and improved landscape viewing to better support patients’ understanding of diagnoses and treatments.
The project will deliver two key developments
Secondly, the company will launch CardMedic Connect, a new digital portal designed to help healthcare providers offer more responsive, tailored language services.
The platform will give seamless access to a range of language service providers suited to specific clinical and patient needs.
It will integrate AI to strengthen CardMedic’s expert-validated medical communication database, providing a comprehensive and culturally aware resource that ensures accurate, consistent information delivery.
This innovation seeks to improve access to interpreters who are not only fluent in required languages but also culturally competent, a factor seen as increasingly important in delivering equitable and effective patient care.
The platform will give seamless access to a range of language service providers suited to specific clinical and patient needs
The project also addresses operational efficiencies and procurement processes for NHS Trusts, aiming to simplify how language services are accessed and delivered.
With a customer base that includes multiple healthcare organisations across the UK and US, CardMedic is well positioned to deploy these enhanced features in frontline clinical settings.
The company also plans to leverage its platform’s compatibility with NHS procurement frameworks to support fair and transparent engagement for language service providers and interpreters.
This innovation seeks to improve access to interpreters who are not only fluent in required languages but also culturally competent
The initiative targets the rapidly expanding global healthcare language services market, currently valued at £8.1 billion, and represents a strategic move by CardMedic to address longstanding communication inequalities in healthcare.
This latest success follows CardMedic’s £499,683 award from SBRI Healthcare earlier this year.
Combined, the two national funding awards bring the company’s total recent grant funding to nearly £1 million, underlining its status as a rising leader in healthcare communication innovation.