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

The private care market in Panama City

Panama's 2023 census counted 4,064,780 people, up 658,967 since 2010.⁴ Panamá province, home to the capital, held 35.4% of the population, and the newer province of Panamá Oeste another 16.1%.⁴

Panamá province also recorded the country's highest participation in economic activity at 54.3%, which INEC links to its concentration of commercial activity.⁴ The Ministerio de Salud (MINSA) is the national health ministry.⁵

The rules a Panama City clinic works under

Law 81 of 26 March 2019 on the protection of personal data was published in the Gaceta Oficial, and Executive Decree 285 of 28 May 2021 sets out procedures such as complaints.¹² ANTAI explains that article 4 defines sensitive data as data in the intimate sphere of its owner whose misuse could lead to discrimination or serious risk, and gives a medical history as an example.²

Since the law took effect, processing must as a rule rest on the owner's consent, apart from the exceptions in article 8.² A patient may ask for access and receive it within ten working days under article 16, and a correction must be made within five working days under article 17.²

The Autoridad Nacional de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información (ANTAI), through its Personal Data Protection Directorate, investigates and sanctions people and companies that breach Law 81.² The directorate regulates public and private bodies that process or hold personal data, supervises how that data is stored and may ask data protection officers for documentation about their databases.³

Under article 33 of Law 81, model contract clauses adopted by the directorate make transfers of data inside and outside Panama lawful.³ A patient may complain to ANTAI in person, by email or online, without a lawyer.²

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 Panama City. Every message, draft, approval and signature is logged and exportable, so an access request can be answered within the ten days, and each subprocessor is named with thirty days notice before any change.⁶

The languages Panama City patients write in

In the 2023 census, 698,114 people, or 17.2% of the population, identified as belonging to an Indigenous people, and 1,286,857, or 31.7%, identified as Afro-descendant.⁴

wai works in any language, and intake can be answered by voice in whichever language the patient prefers.⁷ Each reply is drafted in the language the patient used, and a person at the clinic approves it before it is sent.

What a demo shows in Panama City

The demo opens on a WhatsApp message sent at 9:20pm from San Francisco. A woman asks whether her father can see the cardiologist this week, and whether she can come with him. wai reads the cardiologist's busy times from Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar and drafts a reply in Spanish offering two open times. The coordinator approves it at 7:45am.

The coordinator adds the clinic's consent for processing health data before approving, so it is on file before the visit, as Law 81 expects.² A reminder goes out the day before, and a cancelled time is offered to the waitlist.

A call missed while the front desk is on another line becomes a drafted text for the team to send. In the consultation wai drafts the note, the cardiologist reviews and signs it, and the claim for the father's insurer is prepared from the signed note for the team to check.

For hospitals, insurers and public bodies in Panama

Hospitals, insurers and public bodies in Panama can commission a system built on wai for one care pathway, with records hosted in Panama and the transfer terms of Law 81 agreed at the start. Data, model rights and exit terms are written into the contract, as the organisations page explains.

Where to start

First, write the consent for processing health data, including recording the consultation for an AI note, and record it for each patient.² Adapt the wording of the consent form template for Panamanian patients.

Second, name the person who answers access and correction requests and test that a full record can be produced within ten working days.² Third, check that each contract with a supplier that holds patient data uses terms ANTAI recognises for transfers.³ Then bring a week of WhatsApp enquiries to a fifteen-minute demo.

Frequently asked questions