2025-10-15
News
Estonian healthcare professionals face daily language challenges. Now, verified translations in Care to Translate help bridge those gaps and improve patient understanding.
Estonian is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union. While it’s spoken natively by about 1.1 million people (most of them in Estonia), it has been requested from both our customers and users.
“At Care to Translate, we believe that everyone deserves access to safe and understandable care – no matter the size of their language community,” says Maja Magnusson, CEO at Care to Translate. “Adding Estonian has been a big request from the market, and so it’s been a natural next step for us.”
Research shows that 1 in 3 Estonian healthcare professionals experience language barriers at work, and one in five has had to cancel or postpone appointments because of them. Under Estonian law, it’s the patient’s responsibility to find an interpreter. But in practice, this often means that relatives, colleagues, or even ChatGPT step in. This increases the risk of mistranslations, misunderstandings, or, worse, prevents patients from seeking care at all.
“Estonia is known for its advanced digital health system and forward-thinking innovation, making it the perfect fit for a solution like Care to Translate that bridges languages through technology,” explains Maja. “Our app is built to make smaller languages accessible in the same way that large languages are. Ensuring that no one is left behind.”
If you’ve used Live Translate, our real-time translation feature, you already know how helpful it can be in multilingual care settings. But why do verified phrases matter just as much?
“Having medical experts verify the Estonian translations ensures both accuracy and safety,” explains Ladan Grönkvist, Project Manager at Care to Translate. “It builds trust among users, especially in healthcare settings where clear and correct communication can have a direct impact on patient outcomes. Human verified translations mean that both patients and healthcare professionals can rely on the app, even in critical or life-threatening situations.”
Before any phrase is marked as verified, it goes through a detailed review process that considers:
“Estonian stands out for its clarity and logical structure. It’s not a gendered language and doesn’t use a future tense, which simplifies communication and helps avoid ambiguity,“ explains Ladan. “At the same time, its rich system of word forms allows for very precise expression – something essential in medical contexts where even small nuances can affect understanding. The language’s balance between simplicity and precision makes it particularly well-suited for clear and effective medical communication.”
The goal is to make every translation sound natural, clear, and culturally accurate. Here’s how we make sure our Estonian translations meet the highest standards:
“I really appreciated how smooth and systematic the translation process was,” says Ladan. “Estonian’s grammar is relatively logical, and the language’s simplicity in certain aspects – such as not having gendered words – made the translation process more efficient.”
All of this is to ensure unity across all translations, clear communication and to reduce the possibility of misunderstandings.
Verified translations in Estonian are already available in Care to Translate. Update your app and start using it in Estonian today.
Want to know what’s next? Get in touch with us if you have questions about upcoming languages, how you can tailor the app for your organization or want to hear more about why verified translations matter in care.