Babylon launches AI-powered triage tool in Rwanda

Digital health provider Babylon has launched its AI-powered triage tool in Rwanda to further digitise the country’s healthcare system.

The tool is now being used by Babylon (known locally as Babyl) call centre nurses in Rwanda to help them work more efficiently and make improved, faster decisions for their patients. It will help nurses ask patients the right questions, collect relevant information about a patient’s symptoms and provide them with insights to help choose the correct triage path.

If a follow-up appointment is required, the patient information collected on the triage call is passed on to the doctor, saving both the clinician and the patient time.

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 centre, we are effectively placing doctors’ brains in the hands of our nurses in the digital triage.”

Babylon 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 healthcare system.

Babylon’s AI-backed triage tool is now available to Babyl’s clinicians and has been fully localised for Rwanda and accounts for local language, epidemiology, culture and health system pathways.

Founder and CEO of Babylon, Ali Parsa, 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’s highly scalable technology platform has helped extend quality care to people all around the world, including those in England at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.

The company is now working on the next phase of health service digitisation that will see them utilise digital tools to improve the patient journey in healthcare centres.