Israeli hospital launches AI system to enable hospitalized children to communicate without speaking

The system uses AI to create personalized printable communication boards in under five minutes, tailored to each child's needs as well as their age, language, gender, and background.

Clalit-Schneider Children's Medical Center and Code for Israel launched an AI-powered system that lets children who cannot speak communicate with medical teams and family members. 

The system uses AI to create personalized, printable communication boards in under five minutes, tailored to each child's needs, age, language, gender, and background.

Communication boards can be essential for children who cannot speak to express pain or communicate their needs. Many hospitalized children have pre-existing language difficulties, while others may require ventilation that prevents them from speaking. The children may not yet have learned to write or are too weak to do so. Communication boards allow them to communicate without speaking or writing.

Previously, preparing customized communication boards could take up to several hours. The new system reduces the time to minutes.

Existing boards can also be updated, shared with professionals, and stored within a reusable library.

System designed to allow children to communicate, teams to spend more time with patients

“When a child cannot speak, they don’t just lose their voice - they may also lose the ability to say that they are in pain, that they are afraid, or that they simply want their parents. For us, technology is not the story. The story is restoring children’s ability to communicate, express themselves, and participate actively in their care. This new system allows us to create personalized communication boards within minutes, enabling us to provide this support to many more children,” Dr. Oshrat Sella Weiss, head of the Speech-Language Pathology Service at Clalit-Schneider Children’s Medical Center, said.

The system will also let teams spend more time with patients, CEO of Code for Israel Idan Roll added.