[4] The company's subscription business model for private healthcare services was launched in the UK in 2013, and later expanded internationally to 17 countries including Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Rwanda, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.
[8] In August 2023, Forbes reported Babylon was "winding down" its business in Rwanda, potentially disrupting care for 2.8 million people.
The company was founded in 2013 by Ali Parsa, who was previously the CEO of the Circle Health hospital operator and investment banker.
Users can send questions or photos to the company's team of health care professionals (which includes doctors, nurses, and therapists) in a manner similar to a text message.
[13] Alternatively, users can hold video messaging consultations with a clinician to answer questions about common medical topics such as fever, sore throat, allergies, skin irritations, and colds.
[16] In addition to the direct healthcare services, users can access various health monitoring tools such as an activity tracker, order home blood-test kits[17] and review general lifestyle and fitness questions.
In September 2018, Babylon formed a partnership with the Canadian digital solutions company Telus Health to deliver Healthcare services in Canada.
In 2021, Babylon stopped providing clinical healthcare services in Canada and entered into a software licensing deal with Telus.
[20] At the time of launch, the Babylon AI system did not include some common diseases relevant to Rwanda such as tuberculosis or Malaria.
[25] The company collapsed into administration on 11 September 2023 and its assets were sold for £500,000 to US giant EMED Healthcare, which promised continuity and expansion.
In April 2020, Kinnevik AB reduced their valuation of Babylon due to "greater uncertainty over the roll-out of existing partnership contracts as a result of COVID-19.
[41] In October 2021 Babylon went public on the NYSE (ticker BBLN) via a SPAC merger with Alkuri Global Acquisition Corp, valued at $4.2 billion.
[48] On August 11 2023, Forbes reported Babylon is “winding down” its business in Rwanda, potentially disrupting care for 2.8 Million people.
[49] There have been concerns raised regarding the governance of Babylon Health, in particular the use of misleading promotional claims and the safety and quality of the advice offered by its artificially intelligent chatbot.
[50][51][52] In June 2018, the company announced that its AI could diagnose health issues as well as a human doctor, however, these claims have been widely disputed and the methods of evaluation utilized by Babylon discredited.
If this study is the only evidence for the performance of the Babylon Diagnostic and Triage System, then it appears to be early in stage 2 of the STEAD framework (preclinical).
"[54] The safety concerns relating to the chatbot highlighted significant gaps within the medical device regulatory framework for eHealth Apps.
Currently, in the UK, AI Healthcare chatbots can be registered as a class 1 medical device (comparable to spectacles and walking frames), hence are not subject to any form of regulatory approval.
[68] In 2017, Babylon made a legal challenge in the High Court to prevent the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from publishing a report that raised several concerns regarding the potential for prescriptions being misused and information not always being shared with the patient's primary GP.