MHRA AI Airlock Phase 2 Report

To eliminate human
error in medicine.

We all have stories — a parent, a child, a friend — who slipped through the cracks of a system stretched too thin. Medicine should be as safe as aviation, every single time. We believe AI, used carefully and proven rigorously, is the path to get there.

2.5M+
consultations across the platform
1,000+
NHS organisations live
50+ clinical specialties
including mental health, GP, specialty care outpatients, physiotherapy and more

TORTUS
and the hare.

When we started TORTUS, we kept asking the same question: why has so much health tech with $billions of investment, created so little lasting value for clinicians and patients?

We saw companies running fast, breaking things, and leaving hospitals to clean up. That's the hare. We chose to be the tortoise — build the evidence, run the trials, publish the results, grow sustainably, and prove the science with every step.

As fast as we can, as slow as we need.

Origami tortoise and hare on a yellow background
Fig. — Tortoise & hareAs fast as we can, as slow as we need

Step by
step.

Every milestone earned. Every claim backed by a trial, a paper, or a deployment.

  1. Nov 2022
    TORTUS is founded at Entrepreneur First, Europe's leading talent investor, by NHS doctors and engineers.
  2. Mar 2023
    $4.4M Seed raised, led by Khosla Ventures — one of the world's leading health-tech investors — alongside Entrepreneur First and angels.
  3. Sep 2023
    First AVT to deploy in the NHS. Phased trials commence with Great Ormond Street Hospital — the first ambient voice technology used in clinical care in the UK.
  4. Mar 2024
    Phase IV multi-site clinical trial, backed by £500k from NHS England, runs across nine clinical sites and 17,000 patients. Results: 23.5% increase in direct patient care and 13.4% productivity gain in Emergency Departments. Featured in the NHS Ten Year Plan. Lancet publication forthcoming.The TORTUS team at the London office
  5. Apr 2024
    Accepted into Digital Health London programme.
  6. Jun 2024
    Published in npj Digital Medicine (Nature) — the first clinical ontology of hallucination and omission in ambient scribes, and the first scientific framework for measuring clinical accuracy in AVT.
  7. Nov 2024
    First in the world to register an ambient voice technology as a Class I medical device with the MHRA.
  8. Dec 2024
    Accepted into the National Innovation Accelerator programme.
  9. Mar 2025
    Landmark partnership with X-on Health, integrating directly into the phone lines of 3,500 GP surgeries across the UK.
  10. Jun 2025
    Presented at the Economic Forum hosted by OpenAI to The Rt Hon Sir William Hague.
  11. Sep 2025
    First NHS secondary care deployments including London Ambulance Service, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, and Royal Devon — featuring the NHS's first Epic and Cerner ambient integrations.
  12. Dec 2025
    Accepted into Phase II of the MHRA AI Airlock programme to define the future of clinical AI.Presenting TORTUS at the MHRA AI Airlock programme
  13. Jan 2026
    Launched The Shell — the world's first dedicated hallucination reduction system for ambient scribes in healthcare, powering our best-in-class note accuracy.
  14. Mar 2026
    1 million patients seen across the NHS via TORTUS.
  15. May 2026
    2 million patients seen. On track to keep doubling — slowly, deliberately, and with the evidence to back every step.

The people
behind it.

Clinicians, engineers, researchers and operators — building together in London.

Dr Dom Pimenta
CEO
NHS internal medicine physician and cardiologist, AI academic.
Jean Marie Ferdegue
CTO
ex-Meta, ex-Trainline & Ada Health | 5 years in digital healthcare. Former paramedic.
Sal Khalil
Founding Engineer
ex-FCA.
Gianluca Truda
Staff Research Engineer (ML)
ex-Entrepreneur First, former founder. Applied ML researcher.
Jake Meadows
Head of Product
Technical PM. 5+ years in digital healthcare.
Orlaith Hickey
Product Manager
ex-Thymia.
Merton Lansley
Technical Lead
ex-Otta.
Dr Jack Newberry
Senior Engineer
ex-Healthtech 1. Former surgeon.
Tiago Tristao
Senior Engineer
ex-Huddlestock.
Julian Smith
Web Lead
ex-Tray.ai.
Francesca Negro
Lead Product Designer
ex-Trainline & Ada Health | 5 years in digital healthcare.
Dr Alice Conway
Clinical Compliance Associate
Clinician-led regulatory and quality.
Petra Blackburn
Customer Success
ex-Hexarad.
Ladislaya Ladanyi
BD Manager, Partnerships
ex-Entrepreneur First.
Tim Barber
Head of People (contract)
People and culture.
Dr Lizzie Remfry
Clinical Fellow
PhD. Clinical evaluation and research.

Board & Advisors

Healthcare operators, scientists and investors guiding the long view.

Dominic Dodd
Chair
5× CEO of UK healthcare systems.
Dr Hal Paz
Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures
Healthcare operator and investor.
Michal Valko
Advisor
ex-DeepMind, ex-Meta. Trained Llama-3.
Sabine Azancot
Advisor
Former Director of Innovation, UnitedHealth Group.
Prof Ian Abbs
Advisor
Former Chair of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS FT.
Lorenzo Espinosa
Advisor
ex-Ada Health.

Our
principles.

Four commitments that shape every product decision, every clinical evaluation, every deployment.

Patient First
Patient safety is the first consideration in every decision we make. Nothing ships until the clinical risk has been thought through.
Be Kind
Empathy in everything — for the patients we serve, the clinicians we work with, and the colleagues we build alongside.
Stay Curious
We explore like scientists, driven by data. We question assumptions, run experiments, and let evidence lead the way.
Raise The Bar
We continuously push the edge of what is possible — in accuracy, safety, and the standard of care we help deliver.

Work with
the best.

We're office-based in Holborn, London — mission-oriented, with a small, focussed team doing work that matters. If you want to work with supertalented people on the hardest problems in clinical AI, we'd love to hear from you.

Browse open roles below, or drop us a line at careers@tortus.ai.

Are you ready to build with TORTUS?

Get in touch with our team.