Fonafix
Fonafix is a browser-based dysarthria assessment system from Czech publisher Scicake. It digitises the 3F Test and MASTcz, records patient speech and produces the report in one click. A Class I medical device reserved for healthcare professionals.
What is Fonafix?
Fonafix is a browser-based clinical system for assessing dysarthria, published by Scicake s.r.o., a Brno company that came out of the Brno University of Technology. Its core is the digitised 3F Test, the dysarthric profile, which scores three areas: faciokinesis, phonorespiration and phonetics. Inside the application a clinician picks the examination type: full 3F test, short 3F test, an AI version of the 3F test, the MASTcz battery, or the short 3F test in English or in Spanish. MASTcz covers automatic speech, naming, repetition, fluency in picture description, writing to dictation, comprehension of alternative questions, object identification, and understanding of spoken and written instructions. An examination runs entirely in the browser. The patient sits about 50 cm from the device, in a clear room, microphone uncovered, face framed inside a green ellipse for video. Each task is recorded as audio or video and Fonafix checks the take automatically, looking for speech, vocal fold vibration, noise, saturation and echo, and can refuse a recording and ask for another. If the connection wavers, data stays on the device and syncs once the network returns. Results are laid out along the DX, F1, F2, F3, JIC, IP and IR axes and across items covering lips, jaw, tongue, breathing, breathing during phonation, phonation, articulation, prosody and intelligibility. The report is produced in one click and exported as PDF, and two examinations can be compared into a progress report. The published claims are quantified: a ten-minute examination, five-minute deployment, no paperwork, assessment time cut by more than 80%. A Czech case study over six months reports 48 patients examined, 20 to 30 minutes saved each, and the short test used with 89% of them. Named users include Brno University Hospital and Motol University Hospital, and the research behind the product involves Scicake, the Brno University of Technology and the same hospital. Fonafix is a medical device under Regulation (EU) 2017/745, risk class I, and Scicake publishes an ISO 13485:2016 certificate. One nuance matters: while the AI version of the 3F test is an available examination type and the automatic recording quality control is in production, objective AI evaluation from camera and microphone, automatic therapy plan generation, therapy material and a separate patient application are all announced for a future version.
What it does
- Run the digitised 3F Test, in its full 45-question or short 9-question version, on a phone, tablet or computer
- Record the patient's speech as audio or video directly in the browser
- Check recording quality automatically: speech detection, vocal fold vibration, noise, saturation and echo
- Generate the examination report in one click and export it as a PDF
- Compare two examinations of the same patient and produce a progress report with absolute differences and charts
- Administer the MASTcz battery and the AI version of the 3F test
- Score results across lips, jaw, tongue, breathing, phonation, articulation, prosody and intelligibility
When to use Fonafix / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Fonafix is the right fit.
When to use Fonafix
- Hospital speech and language therapists who assess dysarthria and want scoring, recording and reporting handled in one place
- Private-practice clinical speech therapists looking to cut paperwork, with the examination report generated in a single click
- Neurology and rehabilitation teams following post-stroke or Parkinson's patients over successive examinations
- Ward teams running bedside assessments on acute patients, where the nine-question short 3F test replaces the full battery
- Department heads who want assessment standardised and objectified, with two examinations compared through absolute differences and charts
When not to use Fonafix
- Patients and private individuals: the licence agreement states in capitals that the software is meant for entrepreneurs and legal entities, not consumers
- Practitioners who are not licensed to provide healthcare, since signing up requires declaring authorisation under Czech law
- Therapists working outside Czech: the 3F norms and the MASTcz battery are Czech, and only the short 3F test exists in English and Spanish
- Clinicians dealing with speech disorders other than dysarthria and aphasia, which the system does not cover
- Teams expecting automated therapy today, since the therapy plan, the audiovisual material and remote follow-up are announced for a future version
How to use Fonafix
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Sign up for the web application; registration counts as acceptance of the FONAFIX licence and of the personal data processing agreement
- Create an organisation or join an existing one: a user belongs to only one organisation, and the administrator invites the rest of the team
- Fill in the billing details (company name, address, company number, VAT number, billing email), which are required before any purchase
- Buy credits inside the application, minimum ten; the invoice is issued automatically and paid by card through GoPay, bank transfer or QR code, due within five days
- Create the patient profile (code, identity, sex, date of birth, place of residence) and complete the case history, including the education level the MAST scoring needs
- Choose the examination type: full 3F test, short 3F test, AI version of the 3F test, MASTcz, or the short 3F test in English or Spanish
- Set up the capture: check the sound, explain the audio cue to the patient, seat them about 50 cm away, keep clear of walls and windows, leave the microphone uncovered and frame the face in the green ellipse for video
- Record each task as audio or video; Fonafix verifies the recording and asks for a retake when it is not usable
- Score the tasks, then move on to the evaluation, after which the scores can no longer be changed, and add the conclusion and the recommendation
- Open the examination report, export it as PDF or copy it, and compare two examinations to obtain a progress report
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Documented time savings: the published case study reports 20 to 30 minutes of administrative work saved per patient, and up to an hour in total with the short test
- The examination report is generated in one click and exported as PDF, so nothing has to be written up by hand
- The short test can be used at the bedside, including in the acute phase where the full examination is hard to run
- Standardisation and objectivity: two examinations of the same patient are compared with quantified differences over time
- No dedicated hardware, since a standard smartphone, tablet or computer is enough, with deployment announced in five minutes
- Real research backing: published normative values for the 3F Test, more than 50 scientific papers, and partnerships with the Brno University of Technology, Brno University Hospital and the BDALab
- Clear legal framing: licence and GDPR processing agreement published in full, Class I medical device under Regulation (EU) 2017/745, ISO 13485:2016 certificate
Cons
- Czech in practice: the 3F and MASTcz norms are Czech, prices are quoted only in Czech crowns, the billing form expects a CZ VAT number, and the licence has the signatory declare authorisation under Czech law
- The most visible AI promises are still ahead: objective evaluation from camera and microphone, automatic therapy plan generation and the patient application are announced for a future version
- No free plan, so without credits no examination can be started, and orders begin at ten credits
- Credits are non-refundable and cannot be transferred between organisations, and the published texts contradict each other on their validity, the site saying they never expire while the licence limits them to the term of the contract
- No API and no documented integration with an electronic patient record
- No hosting country, no list of sub-processors and no data protection officer are published
- Support comes with no commitment, since the licence guarantees no response time and routes help through a Helpdesk, and the software works online only
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no free trial currently on offer. Access is strictly pay-as-you-go: one credit costs CZK 139 excluding VAT and one credit is deducted for each examination started, with a minimum order of ten credits, that is CZK 1,390 excluding VAT. A 20% discount applies to the first purchase. Report generation, results display, comparison of two examinations and patient management consume no credits. A licence without a credit limit is available on request from the publisher, at a price that is not made public.
- CZK 139 excluding VAT per credit
- one credit deducted per examination started
- minimum order of ten credits
- with a 20% discount on the first purchase
- Licence without a credit limit
- available on request from the publisher
- no public price
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Fonafix handles your data.
GDPR overview
Implementation is contractual and explicit. A data processing agreement is published and signed together with the licence; it names Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 28(3), makes the healthcare provider the controller and Scicake the processor. Concrete commitments: confidentiality undertakings from authorised staff (art. 3.1); Article 32 technical and organisational measures, with secure, encrypted, access-restricted storage (art. 3.2); assistance in answering data subject rights requests under Chapter III (art. 4.1); general authorisation of sub-processors with prior written notice and a seven-day right to object (art. 5); assistance with Articles 32 to 36 (art. 6.1); audits and inspections at the customer's request (art. 8.1). Annex 1 lists the data types, including health data as a special category, and the people concerned. What is missing: no data protection officer is named, no dedicated GDPR address is published, and no list of sub-processors exists.
Who owns the data?
Two different things belong to two different parties. The FONAFIX software, its code, structure and all intellectual property remain Scicake's: the licence states in capitals that this is not a sale but a software use agreement, and grants only a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence limited to the term of the contract. Any improvement derived from a customer's ideas or suggestions also belongs to Scicake, without compensation. Patient data runs the other way. Under the published processing agreement the healthcare provider is the controller and Scicake merely the processor, acting only on documented instructions and only to deliver the service, although protecting and backing up entered and generated data is expressly the customer's responsibility.
Reuse rights
The customer keeps practical control of the clinical data it produces. It is the data controller, Scicake processes only on its documented instructions, and examination reports as well as comparison reports can be exported as PDF or copied to the clipboard and reused without asking anyone's permission. The software itself is another matter: the licence forbids copying, modifying, translating, reproducing, selling, sub-licensing, renting or lending it, and forbids derivative works, while any source code obtained through reverse engineering is deemed assigned to Scicake. Two clauses deserve attention. Scicake may change or restrict features at any time, including deleting the data attached to a feature it withdraws, and inside the application deleting an organisation or an administrator account permanently erases every patient record. Nothing in the published texts explicitly allows or forbids training models on customer data.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
No hosting country or region is published anywhere: not on the showcase site, not in the licence, not in the processing agreement. What the agreement does state (art. 3.2) is that all data is kept in secure, encrypted storage with access restricted to people authorised by Scicake, and (art. 2.2) that any transfer to a third country or an international organisation happens only on the customer's documented instructions, unless Union or Member State law requires otherwise. Jurisdiction is Czech and European: the processing agreement is governed by the GDPR and Czech law, the licence gives exclusive jurisdiction to the Czech courts, and the publisher Scicake s.r.o. is established in Brno, Czech Republic, therefore inside the European Union. Two cautions. The fonafix.cz domain is served behind Cloudflare and the address it resolves to is an anycast node, which says nothing about where data actually sits. And no list of sub-processors is published, although Article 5 of the agreement provides for prior notice and a seven-day right to object.
Where Fonafix works
Country-level availability.
Available in
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Fonafix.
- This is assessment support, not a diagnosis: scoring stays with the clinician, and the AI evaluation, once released, is meant to remain manually editable
- The software is supplied as it stands, with no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and the licence largely excludes Scicake's liability
- Health data is a special category under the GDPR, yet no hosting country, no list of sub-processors and no retention period are published
- Scicake can unilaterally amend the licence, the price list and the processing agreement, leaving a customer who refuses 30 days to terminate, and it can suspend or close an account if it considers an obligation breached
- Deleting an administrator's account deletes the entire organisation and every patient record with it, and unsaved examinations are lost at logout
- Credits are non-refundable even when unused, except where Scicake terminates, and the published statements about how long they stay valid contradict each other
- Over-standardisation is a genuine risk: a score can quietly stand in for clinical observation, and comparing examinations recorded in different conditions of noise, echo or distance can distort what the numbers appear to show
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low. No dedicated equipment and no IT project: the software runs on a standard smartphone, tablet or computer, the publisher advertises a five-minute deployment on existing hardware, and the case study describes outpatient and bedside use without a complex IT process. The real prerequisites are modest: an up-to-date browser, a permanent internet connection, microphone and camera permissions, and a quiet room. Administrative steps weigh more than technical ones, namely sign-up, creating or joining an organisation, complete billing details, then buying at least ten credits. A user manual and a Helpdesk form are provided.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Fonafix
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Fonafix for?
Which tests does the application offer?
How much does one examination cost?
Is there a free plan?
How do you pay?
Is any special equipment needed?
Is Fonafix a medical device?
What happens to patient data?
Is there a mobile app or a public API?
Which languages are supported, and how do you get help?
Should you pick Fonafix?
Fonafix is a deliberately narrow tool: one clinical field, dysarthria plus aphasia through MASTcz, and one kind of user, the clinical speech therapist. Judged on that scope, it delivers. The documented value is the disappearance of administrative time, with the report generated in one click, a short test usable at the bedside, and a published case study reporting 20 to 30 minutes saved per patient across six months of use. The scientific grounding is real rather than decorative: the 3F Test has published normative values for Czech, the team spans the Brno University of Technology, Brno University Hospital and the BDALab, and more than 50 scientific papers are claimed. The regulatory framing is equally deliberate, with a Class I medical device under Regulation (EU) 2017/745, an ISO 13485:2016 certificate, and both the licence and the GDPR processing agreement published in full. The AI promise needs care. An AI version of the 3F test does exist as an examination type, and the automatic recording quality control is in production, but objective evaluation from camera and microphone, automatic therapy plan generation and the patient therapy application are all announced for a future version. The product should be judged on what it does today. In practice the scope is Czech: Czech norms, prices in crowns, a Czech VAT number expected at billing. International use is offered as a partnership rather than a self-service option. The commercial model is simple and subscription-free, but there is no free plan and credits are non-refundable. Four things are worth settling before purchase: where health data is hosted, which sub-processors may handle it, how long it is kept, and which of the two published statements about credit validity actually applies.
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