Babylon Launches AI in Rwanda in Next Step Towards Digitising Healthcare in Rwanda

LONDON & KIGALI, Rwanda–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AI–Babylon Holdings Limited (NYSE: BBLN) (“Babylon”) — a world leading company reengineering how people engage with their health at every step of the care continuum — has launched its AI-powered triage tool in Rwanda to further digitise the Rwandan healthcare system. Babylon, known locally as Babyl, has been delivering digital health services in Rwanda since 2016 and, last year, embarked on a 10-year partnership with the Government of Rwanda to build Africa’s first digital-first universal healthcare system. Today, Babyl has over 2.6 million registered patients – and completes up to 4,000 consultations every day. Integrating Babylon’s cutting-edge technology, such as its AI-powered triage tool, into the existing Rwandan healthcare system is an important part of the company’s commitment to improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare across the country.

The AI-powered triage tool is now being used by Babyl’s call center nurses to help them work more efficiently and make better, quicker decisions for their patients. The tool will help nurses ask patients the right questions, collect necessary information about a patient’s symptoms, and provide them with insights to help choose the correct triage path. If a follow-up appointment is needed, the patient information collected on the triage call is passed on to the doctor, saving both the clinician and the patient time. Babylon’s highly scalable technology platform has helped extend quality care to people all around the world, from hospitals in England’s NHS, to over 11 SE Asian countries through Babylon’s partnership with major insurer Prudential, to some of the most rural corners of America. The AI-backed triage tool now available to Babyl’s clinicians has been fully localised for Rwanda and accounts for local language, epidemiology, culture and health system pathways.

Like many countries around the world, Rwanda struggles with issues of accessibility and affordability of healthcare, whilst also facing ever-rising levels of chronic disease and severe healthcare workforce shortages. The introduction of Babylon’s AI is a big step forward for Babylon’s commitment to support the Government of Rwanda’s agenda to digitally transform the national healthcare system.

Shivon Byamukama, CEO of Babyl Rwanda said:

“Rwandans have embraced digital healthcare that allows them to access clinicians from wherever they are. With the introduction of the AI triage tool in our call center, we are effectively placing doctors’ brains in the hands of our nurses in the digital triage.”

Paula Musoni, Minister of ICT & Innovation said:

“The use of technology to deliver government services to Rwandans citizens has been at the core of the national ICT strategy. Whilst Rwanda has done extremely well in applying ICT to deliver most government services, the introduction of Babylon AI allows us to augment human capacity in a chronically understaffed sector that has been put under even more pressure due to the pandemic. Through this technology, Babyl is elevating the quality of treatment for every online patient irrespective of where they are in the country.”

Ali Parsa, Founder & CEO of Babylon said:

“We are honoured that the Government of Rwanda has chosen us to support them in digitising the Rwandan healthcare system, and are excited to see how Babylon’s AI helps further this objective. Our mission is to make quality healthcare accessible and affordable for every person on earth, and our work with the government of Rwanda shows how achievable this is – even in more remote areas where smartphone penetration is low. This is just the start, and we still have so much to learn and deliver, and yet what we already have learnt from the people of Rwanda is that where there is a will, there is always a way.”

Babylon is now working on the next phase of health service digitisation will see Babylon utilise digital tools to improve the patient journey in healthcare centers. These digital tools will create greater efficiencies and enable more effective use of scarce health resources in health centers, whilst also increasing the quality of care, through the effective prioritisation of patients.

About Babylon

Babylon is one of the world’s fastest growing digital healthcare companies whose mission is to make high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable for every person on Earth.

Babylon is re-engineering how people engage with their care at every step of the healthcare continuum. By flipping the model from reactive sick care to proactive healthcare through the devices people already own, it offers 24 million people globally ongoing, always-on care. Babylon has already shown that in environments as diverse as the developed UK or developing Rwanda, urban New York or rural Missouri, for children on Medicaid, or the elderly on Medicare, it is possible to achieve its mission by leveraging its highly scalable, digital-first platform combined with high quality, virtual clinical operations to provide integrated, personalized healthcare.

Founded in 2013, Babylon’s technology and clinical services support a global patient network across 15 countries, with 15 languages available. And through a combination of its value-based care model, Babylon 360, and its work in primary care through NHS GP at Hand, Babylon will manage over 350k lives globally by the beginning of 2022. In the first half of 2021 alone, Babylon helped a patient every 5 seconds, with approximately 1.7 million AI interactions and 1.3 million consultations. Importantly, this was achieved with more than a 95% user retention rate and 5 star rating from circa 90% of our users.

Babylon is already working with governments, health providers and insurers across the globe in order to provide them with a new infrastructure that any partner can use to deliver high-quality healthcare with lower costs and better outcomes. For more information, please visit www.babylonhealth.com and for further information about Babylon’s AI visit https://www.babylonhealth.com/ai.

About Babyl

Babyl Rwanda is a subsidiary of Babylon and is the largest digital medical consultation service provider in Rwanda. Babyl has signed a 10-year partnership with the Government of Rwanda in early 2020 to develop a new healthcare delivery model of ‘Digital-First Integrated Care’, where all Rwandans are able to gain access to qualified doctors and nurses through their mobile phone. RSSB & Mutuelle insurance members have access to the service. To date, Babyl has over 2 million registered users & carries out up to 4,000 consultations a day.

Babyl has supported the Government of Rwanda on home-care follow up for asymptomatic Covid-19 patients, where patients were followed up on a daily basis. Reporting other symptoms that may occur and ensuring the patients were out of the high-risk population and isolated at home until they test negative to the virus.

For more information about Babyl see https://www.babyl.rw/

Contacts

Amy Palin

amy.palin@babylonhealth.com
+44 (0) 7447595043