In a landmark move for European digital health, the Greek Government and Sword Health have announced a nationwide partnership to integrate AI-driven triage and care coordination into Greece’s public healthcare system. The agreement will embed Sword’s “Sword Intelligence” platform into the national 1566 health-information helpline, which serves as the first point of contact for citizens seeking guidance on care. 

The 1566 line, used by more than 10 million citizens, will get a significant upgrade: AI will handle routine and high-volume tasks such as initial triage, inquiry routing, appointment scheduling, and care referrals. By offloading repetitive tasks from human operators, the system aims to reduce wait times, improve consistency, and ensure that urgent cases get faster attention  while non-emergency cases are guided toward primary-care or specialist services efficiently. 

The initiative is billed as one of Europe’s first national-scale deployments of an AI “front-door” to a public health system. Officials say the upgrade is critical because Greece’s healthcare  serving remote mainland, rural and island populations  has long struggled with access delays, uneven distribution of services, and surges in demand. AI triage is seen as a scalable, resilient solution to these structural challenges. 

Importantly, the government has committed to transparent implementation: an independent monitoring and evaluation framework will assess performance, adherence to global standards, and patient-safety outcomes  a move intended to build trust and accountability. o the CEO of Sword Health, the partnership isn’t just about routing calls it’s about “rebuilding how care flows,” using AI to expand access, relieve pressure on providers, and deliver more responsive, people-centred healthcare.