Clinic AI in Frankfurt, what private clinics and health systems should know in 2026

The private care market in Frankfurt

At the end of 2023, 244,401 Frankfurt residents held a foreign passport, 31.7% of the city's population, from 179 countries.⁷ The largest groups held Turkish passports (24,452), then Croatian (15,299), Italian (14,909) and Romanian (10,753), and Indian citizens were the fastest-growing group, up 929 in a year to 10,692.⁷

Doctors here belong to the Landesärztekammer Hessen, the state medical chamber, which has its headquarters in Frankfurt and a district chamber in the city.⁵ Under the Hessian Heilberufsgesetz it supervises members' professional duties, runs specialist training and certifies continuing education.⁵

The rules a Frankfurt clinic works under

Health data is a special category under GDPR Article 9. Section 22 of the Federal Data Protection Act permits processing it for diagnosis, care or treatment where the data is handled by medical staff or others bound by an equivalent duty of secrecy.³ Breach reports under GDPR Article 33 go to the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Wiesbaden.⁹

Section 203 of the Criminal Code punishes a doctor who discloses a patient's secret without authority. It allows disclosure to people who contribute to the practice's work, such as an IT provider, where that is necessary, and makes the doctor liable if they did not ensure that provider was bound to secrecy.² For an AI vendor that means a written confidentiality obligation in the contract, alongside the data processing agreement.

Section 393 SGB V governs cloud use in the statutory system. Providers and their processors may process health data in the cloud only in Germany, an EU member state or a country with an adequacy decision, where the processor has a German establishment, and only with a current C5 attestation, which from 1 July 2025 means a Type 2 attestation.¹ A clinic that treats statutory patients should ask for that attestation by name.

Section 201 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence, punishable by up to three years, to record another person's non-public spoken word without authority.² wai records only with the patient's consent, and the consent form template covers it. Section 630f of the Civil Code requires the record to be kept for ten years after treatment ends.⁴

Since 1 October 2025, every provider in the statutory system must use the ePA, Germany's electronic patient record, and fill it with findings and doctors' letters from treatment.¹⁰ wai is built to connect to the ePA. We set up your clinic's connection with you.

wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic. wai is compliant with these rules and built for clinics in Frankfurt. wai drafts the note, the doctor reviews and signs it, and every draft, approval and signature is logged for the clinic to export.

The languages Frankfurt patients write in

Across Germany in 2024, 77% of people in private households spoke only German at home, 17% used another language alongside German and 6% spoke no German at home.⁸ Among the 15.5 million people who spoke mainly or only another language, Turkish led at 14%, then Russian at 12% and Arabic at 9%.⁸

Frankfurt's passport mix adds Croatian, Italian, Romanian and Indian families to that picture.⁷ wai works in any language, and each reply goes out only after a member of the team has approved it.⁶

What a demo shows in Frankfurt

The demo starts with a WhatsApp message sent at 22.15, in Turkish, from a daughter asking whether her father can see the cardiologist this week and whether she can come in with him. wai reads it in the family's thread, checks the cardiologist's busy times in Outlook and drafts a reply in Turkish offering two open Thursday slots. A member of the team approves it at 8am.

The booking link takes a deposit in euros through the clinic's own Stripe account, with the clinic as merchant of record, and the patient receives a confirmation with a receipt, then an intake questionnaire. After the consultation the cardiologist edits and signs the drafted note and the referral letter. Bring a real overnight enquiry from last month, in the language it arrived in, and watch it run.

For hospital groups, insurers and public bodies in Frankfurt

Hospital groups, private insurers and public health bodies in the Rhine-Main region can have a system of their own built on wai, under their brand, with data, configuration and model rights agreed in the contract. The work starts with one pathway and its measures, and the details are on the organisations page.

Where to start

First, add a recording consent to intake and to the consultation script, to meet section 201.² Second, get the data processing agreement, the section 203 secrecy obligation and the hosting location in writing, plus the C5 attestation if the clinic treats statutory patients.¹²

Third, confirm ten-year retention and full export in the contract.⁴ Fourth, count last month's enquiries by language and hour, so the demo runs on the clinic's real mix. The guide to data residency covers transfers in more depth. This page is general information on German law as read on 14 October 2026, and the clinic's own adviser should confirm how it applies.

Frequently asked questions