Startup Profile: Babylon Health

  • Babylon Health is a health service provider that provides remote consultations with doctors and health care professionals via text and video messaging through its app.
  • The company opened in the UK in 2013 and have since been expanded internationally to Rwanda, Canada and China.
  • In the UK Babylon’s NHS services cover more than 40,000 registered user-patients

About Babylon Health

 

Babylon Health was launched in 2013 by founder and CEO, Ali Parsa, who was previously the CEO of hospital operator, Circle Health. The Babylon mobile application provides a service through iOS and Android through a subscription-based pay-as-you-go package. The application provides users the opportunity to send inquiries in the form of questions, photos or video messages to healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses and therapists. The Babylon mobile app also enables users to book health exams in surgeries in London, when necessary.

 

Dr Ali Parsa, Founder and CEO of Babylon Health

 

Although Babylon is primarily known for it’s over the phone video consultations with GPs, as of January 2016, Babylon was developing an AI feature that would pre-screen the users’ health conditions. Talking about Babylon’s use of AI, Parsa stressed that the needs of the customer is the main incentive and guide to Babylon’s development of its AI technology.

 

How it works

 

Babylon have developed an AI system that can receive data about the symptoms someone is suffering from, compare the information to a database of known conditions and illnesses to find possible matches, in order to identify a course of action. People can also use the “Ask Babylon” feature to inquire about their medical concerns to get an initial understanding of what they might be dealing with.

Babylon offers an in-app “talk to a doctor” service, providing 24/7 access to healthcare professionals. The aforementioned doctors can give medical advice, discuss treatment, and even order prescriptions that can be delivered to the patient. All of the patient’s clinical records are securely stored, and their health history can be accessed when needed. If a patient needs to revisit their appointment, they can easily review the medical notes and replay a recording of the appointment.

Another feature that is available on the app is “Healthcheck”; an AI tool can take answers from questions about family history and a person’s lifestyle and compare it to the medical database to then create a health report and suggest treatment.

 

Funding

 

In August 2019, Babylon Health closed a $550 million round of Series C funding; a big jump from the previous rounds of funding, such as $60 million investment three years ago. Prior to the Series C funding, Babylon had only raised about £72 million in total. Babylon Health has since raised a total of $635.3M in funding over 3 rounds.

Babylon HQ, South Kensington

 

For more information, see https://www.babylonhealth.com/