TORTUS
The only ambient voice technology certified UKCA Class IIa, with published safety science to back it. Narrow by design: no MCP, no A2A, desktop-only, and one independent NHS pilot found 20% of licensed users never logged in once.
PRICING
| Per user | £100–£200/user/mo | G-Cloud 14 published band, free trial available |
| Enterprise | Custom | licence includes capped organisation audio hours, overage rolled into next contract or payable on termination |
TORTUS publishes no pricing on its own site. The band above comes from its live G-Cloud 14 listing on the UK Digital Marketplace, which is a vendor-supplied public procurement figure. EUR values are converted from GBP and move with the rate. Third-party directory Elion lists 'from $200/user/month', consistent with the top of the G-Cloud band. The 1,000+ NHS organisations figure includes GP practices reached through the X-on Health partnership rather than direct contracts.
checked 2026-08-18 · vendor pricing page
Element scores
Strengths
TORTUS became the first ambient voice technology certified as a UKCA Class IIa medical device on 24/06/2026, which means an Approved Body reviewed the clinical evidence rather than the vendor self-declaring, and the company now carries mandatory active post-market surveillance. The safety engineering is real and measured: the Shell validates each statement against the consultation audio and removes 93.1% of detected hallucinations before a clinician sees the note, lifting hallucination-free notes from 34% to 86% in production. The evidence base is the best in the category, with three peer-reviewed papers, a hallucination ontology in npj Digital Medicine now used as evaluation methodology across nine NHS sites, and a 17,000-patient multi-site NHS England evaluation reporting 13.4% A&E productivity gain and 23.5% more direct patient-care time. Certifications stack up: ISO 13485, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, NHS DTAC, and MHRA AI Airlock Phase 2 participation.
Honest dings
The platform surface is thin. There is no MCP server and no A2A support, independently scored 0/12 and 0/4 on 03/08/2026, so this does not plug into an agent stack. The Embed SDK mounts TORTUS's own iframe rather than exposing composable pieces. It is a desktop application for macOS and Windows with no browser interface and no mobile support, which rules out ward rounds on a phone. There is no fine-tuning and, per the G-Cloud listing, no customisation beyond templates, while the GOSH study recorded clinicians asking for exactly that. Adoption is the honest worry: an independent Unity Insights evaluation across Kent and Medway found 20% of primary care users never logged in at all and weekly unique users ran between 19% and 42% of issued licences, which at £100–£200 per seat per month is a large amount of shelfware. Capitalisation is thin too, roughly $8.5M raised against Corti's $88.9M and far more for US rivals, in a market where the NHS AVT Supplier Registry keeps lowering the barrier for competitors.
Sources (15) — every claim traceable
Every audit lists the research it rests on — transparency and traceability are the product. Tools evolve: each audit is a snapshot of its audit date, and re-audits supersede older versions (kept below for reference).
- tortus.ai — Official: >2.5M consultations, 1,000+ NHS organisations (incl. X-on GP practices), 4 years live, 50+ clinical settings; UKCA Class IIa, ISO 13485, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus; +13.4% A&E productivity, +23.5% direct patient-care time, +15% ambulance hub throughput (accessed 2026-08-18)
- tortus.ai/years-in-the-making — Official: first AVT certified UKCA Class IIa on 24/06/2026; Class I self-declaration vs Class IIa Approved Body review; ISO 13485 QMS audited annually; active post-market surveillance mandatory (accessed 2026-08-18)
- shell.tortus.ai — The Shell: per-statement validation against source context, 93.1% of detected hallucinations removed before note completion, hallucination-free notes from 34% to 86% in production (accessed 2026-08-18)
- tortus.ai/labs — Three peer-reviewed publications, 380+ citations, >2.5M consultations processed; MHRA AI Airlock Phase 2 selection; Phase IV trial 9 sites / 17,000 patients / £500k NHS England backing (accessed 2026-08-18)
- nature.com/articles/s41746-025-01670-7 — npj Digital Medicine (Nature): first clinical ontology of hallucination and omission in ambient scribes, evaluation methodology now used across nine NHS sites (accessed 2026-08-18)
- pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11452835 — Peer-reviewed GOSH Phase II (Future Healthcare Journal): >2x documentation quality increase for notes and letters; pre-study hallucination testing 0.5% minor / 0.21% major, post-improvement 0.21% minor / 0% major; clinicians requested specialty customisation (accessed 2026-08-18)
- healthinnovation-kss.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11… — Independent Unity Insights evaluation for Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex: 20% of primary care users never logged in, weekly unique users 19–42% of issued licences, 24-hour audio deletion complicates bug tracing, expectation-setting criticised (accessed 2026-08-18)
- applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/… — UK Digital Marketplace G-Cloud 14 listing: £100–£200 per user per month, free trial, 99.5% SLA, private cloud, macOS/Windows desktop app only, no browser interface, not designed for mobile, 'Customisation available: No' (accessed 2026-08-18)
- docs.tortus.ai/reference/api — Embed SDK API reference: @tortus-ai/embed-client, publishable key, sandboxed iframe, production/sandbox environments, consultation artifacts (medicalNotes, letters, medicalCodes, transcriptions) (accessed 2026-08-18)
- apis.io/providers/tortus — Independent API-surface assessment scored 03/08/2026: agent readiness 16/100, MCP Server 0/12, A2A 0/4; EHR integrations Epic, EMIS Health, TPP SystmOne, Oracle Health, Access Rio, Medicus (accessed 2026-08-18)
- elion.health/products/tortus-osler — Third-party directory: OSLER described as an agent that sees the screen and uses mouse and keyboard across any EHR without backend integration; pricing from $200/user/month (accessed 2026-08-18)
- tech.eu/2024/02/12/tortus-secures-4-2m-seed-funding… — $4.2M seed led by Khosla Ventures, February 2024; founded 2022 by Dr Dom Pimenta and Christopher Tan out of Entrepreneur First (accessed 2026-08-18)
- tracxn.com/d/companies/tortus/__ow8bX2sQ1A-MlQBbxIG… — Independent company profile: $8.54M total raised across two rounds, London, seed stage (accessed 2026-08-18)
- x-on.co.uk/blog/x-on-health-and-tortus-ai-launch-am… — X-on Health partnership launching 'Surgery Intellect' for primary care; X-on telephony carries 40M+ GP calls per month; confirms the indirect route behind the 1,000+ NHS organisations figure (accessed 2026-08-18)
- england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-… — NHS England AVT guidance and Supplier Registry: DTAC completion and MHRA registration expectations, DCB0160 and DPIA requirements, EPR integration and monitoring framework context (accessed 2026-08-18)