Скачать или смотреть Over two million Rwandans use AI-powered healthcare service

(30 Jul 2018) LEAD IN:
An artificial intelligence-powered digital health service is lightening the load for Rwanda's busy doctors and crowded health centers.
Over two million people in the East African nation have registered with Babyl Healthcare, a chatbot-based system that asks medical questions to interpret a patient's symptoms.

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Patients in Rwanda are now being treated using artificial intelligence.
Over two million Rwandans have registered with Babyl Healthcare, an artificial intelligence-powered digital service that's able to diagnose health conditions and prescribe medicines.
It's the first country to make the technology available nationwide.
The company's software is claimed to be so advanced, it has demonstrated the ability to provide healthcare advice that's on-par with practicing clinicians.
Some have disputed those claims. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) says that while the technology has its merits, it could never provide the same level of care as a human.
Rwanda operates a universal health coverage scheme.
The consultation costs 200 Rwandan francs (approx. $0.20 USD), thanks to subsidies by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a partnership between Babyl and the Rwandan government.
"Between 80 to 90 percent of our clients are actually calling us from rural areas, not town," explains Babyl Health's medical director Patrick Singa.
"And I think the reason is in town people have some kind access to health care.
"This product matters the most to people who do not have access and those are people living in rural areas.
"Those are people who, to see a doctor you need to travel maybe the whole day or few hours just to get the hospital.
"In town, you just go to the next clinic and you get your appointment. So, this product I would say perfect for rural areas."
Some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed by Hutu extremists during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, according to the United Nations.
In 2013, there were 678 doctors in Rwanda, according to the country's ministry of health. That meant a ratio of one doctor to around 16,000 inhabitants.
Patrick Singa, Medical Director of Babyl Health, says the goal is not to replace doctors but to assist them.
"So, we still need doctors, but artificial intelligence, the way we see it, t's just a tool that we are putting in the hands of doctors to empower them," he says.
"So, this is how we see it. We are not in the business of replacing doctors, we are in the business of augmenting them, augmenting the capability and improving what they have been doing."
The service is available to anyone over 16-years-old. Babyl Health claims over 30 percent of Rwandans eligible for the service have registered since launch in September 2016.
Smartphone users can get medical advice by entering their symptoms into a mobile app.
Babyl claims about 90 percent of Rwandans don't have a smartphone, so those without access to the internet call the company's call center in the country's capital, Kigali.
Here, call center nurses conduct a so-called "triage," asking questions posed by the chatbot and inputting the patient's data. These call centres conduct over 800 consultations a day.
"Here at Babyl Health, there are triage nurses," explains Babyl Health worker Aimee Nduwimana.
"They are the ones in first contact with the patients to see if their conditions are in the package that doctors in Babyl Health can treat.
"So, when they triage the patient and they put the patient on the list to be seen and called by a Babyl Health doctor."
Now she's registered with Babyl.

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