Equiti is acquiring Lexi AI to build a hybrid language-access model that combines AI language support with human medical interpreters.
Equiti, which sells medical interpretation services to hospitals and health systems through its Martti business, provides 24/7 access to qualified medical interpreters across more than 250 languages and dialects. Lexi provides multilingual, AI-powered medical interpretation. The acquisition deal merges Lexi's immediate AI language support, covering over 35 languages and dialects, with Martti and its network of qualified medical interpreters to help healthcare organizations expand language access.
The acquisition was announced October 28. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
With this acquisition, Equiti is building on Martti’s work pioneering video remote interpretation in healthcare more than two decades ago, according to executives. The use of AI can expand where and when language services can be offered, particularly for everyday interactions that may not currently receive interpretation support, Equiti executives said.
Martti was built alongside healthcare organizations to make qualified interpreters available by video. Lexi, in turn, has been developed with healthcare customers to extend immediate language support into more workflows. The acquisition brings those capabilities together, with human-in-the-loop design, patient safety and patient experience at its center, Equiti executives said.
The company saw an opportunity to combine its services with Lexi's AI expertise rather than build a healthcare AI interpretation product internally, Maureen Huber, Equiti CEO, told Fierce Healthcare.
"Lexi brings specialized expertise in AI, engineering and healthcare product design, along with experience putting that technology into the hands of care teams. That combination takes time to build," Huber said. "For more than 20 years, our work through Martti has been about making qualified human interpretation accessible within healthcare. We understand the service, the clinical environment and what it takes to support healthcare organizations every day. Developing AI and machine learning technology calls for additional, specialized expertise. We wanted people who had already been doing that work with healthcare in mind."
She added, "We spent time evaluating the category and learning from customers. Lexi brought together the people, product and approach we were seeking. Combining their expertise with ours gives us a stronger foundation to expand language access responsibly."
Combining AI and human interpretation makes language support more accessible across the patient journey, helping organizations improve care delivery while making better use of their resources, according to Equiti executives.
Healthcare organizations are increasingly interested in AI interpretation capabilities and are looking for guidance, Huber noted.
"Customers were asking: 'Where could AI help? How do we evaluate it? What is appropriate for our patients?' Healthcare leaders see the same advances in consumer AI that everyone else sees. They also must think about what happens when those tools enter a care environment, sometimes before an organization has decided how they should be used. They want a partner who understands both the possibilities and the responsibilities," she said.
She added, "I would describe that as inquiry and evaluation. There is real curiosity about extending language support to more of the patient experience, particularly before and after a visit. Our job is to help customers identify those opportunities while keeping qualified human interpretation central to care delivery."
Equiti calls this approach Modality Matters, a connected model that allows healthcare organizations to match each encounter with the appropriate modality — immediate, healthcare-purpose-built AI support for approved use cases and qualified medical interpretation where clinical complexity, regulatory requirements, organizational policy or patient preference calls for a human interpreter. With this approach, organizations have the flexibility to shift between modalities as clinical context and communication needs change in real time.
The combined portfolio of Equiti and Lexi's capabilities will extend language access into everyday interactions that often go unsupported, Huber noted.
Equiti is focusing Lexi's AI-powered medical interpretation on routine patient engagement, including before and after care, such as appointment communications, scheduling and nonclinical follow-up logistics.
"We see a significant opportunity for Lexi in that communication before and after care: helping patients exchange messages, arrange appointments and stay connected in their preferred language. Language access must extend beyond the clinical encounter. Think about what happens after a patient leaves the clinic. They receive a message about a follow-up appointment, but they need to ask whether it is at the same location, how to reschedule, or whom to contact. Those may be simple questions for the organization, but the answers determine whether the patient can take the next step," she said.
Qualified human interpreters remain the foundation for care delivery, Huber noted. "In conversations such as those about a diagnosis, informed consent, treatment or palliative care, the ability to clarify meaning, recognize cultural context and respond with empathy is essential. A medically qualified interpreter helps people understand one another through conversations that can be complex and deeply personal," she said.
Equiti said it can work with customers to define appropriate uses within their policies and applicable requirements, preserving patient choice and access to a qualified human interpreter.
Language access is also a strategic performance driver for healthcare organizations, as effective communication influences patient understanding and experience, clinical outcomes, workforce efficiency and financial performance.
Equiti's customers include Wellstar Health System, Corewell Health, NYU Langone and Lee Health. Lexi works with a growing pipeline of federally qualified health centers and community providers including Lowell Community Health Center, which serves one of the most multilingual communities in Massachusetts.
As general-purpose AI gets better at translation, a healthcare-specific interpretation platform has distinct advantages, Huber asserted.
"Healthcare communication involves clinical meaning, cultural context, jargon and acronyms during situations where people may be frightened, vulnerable or unsure how to ask a question. Our job is to remove those communication barriers, and that requires understanding the care environment, fitting into clinical workflows and knowing when a qualified human interpreter needs to be involved," she said. "That is where Equiti’s experience matters. We bring the relationships, service infrastructure and human expertise developed through more than two decades of healthcare interpretation, alongside Lexi’s technology and team."
Huber said she envisions broader uses of Lexi's AI language support in healthcare workflows. "A patient’s need to communicate continues after the conversation with a clinician ends. Lexi already supports text-based messaging, including translation of text provided by a care team, and can even leave voicemail messages for patients. That creates opportunities to help patients access information and communicate between visits. Helping someone navigate follow-up care is a natural direction for that work, like understanding the next step, connecting with the right office or arranging an appointment. The value is in making it easier for patients to act on the care plan they have been given and ask for help along the way," she said.
"We built Lexi to fit the way healthcare teams actually work, bringing immediate language support into the devices and workflows they already use,” Siddharth UR, co-founder and chief product officer of Lexi, said in a statement. “As part of Equiti, we can extend that experience across the patient journey and connect it to a broader language access model built around the needs of each encounter.”
Lexi will operate alongside Martti under Equiti, with the teams working together on implementation and integration across healthcare workflows. Equiti will work with each customer to determine how the solutions fit within its language access program, clinical environment, and organizational policies.