Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday 10th October 2018. 9.00am, Basel, Switzerland.
Today, Fondation Botnar is proud to announce a new partnership with Ada Health that will bring AI-powered healthcare to East Africa and Romania.
The partnership will mean that Ada becomes the first health guidance app to feature Swahili language integration, making its health assessment technology available to more than 100 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Globally, four billion people lack access to basic health services and, due to population growth, there will be an estimated 18 million shortfall in health workers by 2030. This partnership will contribute to solving this problem by combining artificial intelligence, human medical expertise and the power of mobile technology to deliver access to health guidance and care at scale.
Through the partnership with Fondation Botnar, Swahili and Romanian will be integrated into Ada’s growing list of languages and these new language integrations with be initially deployed in East Africa and Romania, focusing on families and adolescents in areas with limited access to healthcare. Within the first three years, the initiative is projected to reach two million people within both counties.
The inclusion of Romanian complements the foundations existing social inclusion work with UNICEF Romania that provides scalable support measures for vulnerable children and their families in Romania.
The partnership forms part of Fondation Botnar’s strategic focus on exploring innovative approaches to support and empower health workers with AI-enabled solutions, ensuring that they can better assess and give guidance to patients when a doctor is not available.
“The global shortage of health workers has a severe impact on children and adolescents,” said Stefan Germann, CEO, Fondation Botnar. “Our partnership with Ada will focus on addressing this issue in East Africa and Romania by using AI to help adolescents and families access high-quality health guidance for their physical and mental health. The project will also provide valuable insights to Fondation Botnar and Ada as we look to expand this innovative approach to other low- and middle-income countries.”
The partnership between Fondation Botnar and Ada Health falls under the launch of Ada Health’s Global Health Initiative, a series of major projects focussed on improving accessibility and delivery of primary care in underserved populations around the world.
Ada’s artificial intelligence technology has been trained over the past seven years using real-world medical cases and with insights from a team of over 100 doctors, scientists and researchers. Since launching its free-to-download health guide app in 2016, Ada has completed over seven million health assessments and has been the #1 medical app in over 130 countries worldwide.
“Since launching Ada, we’ve heard hundreds of stories about how the app has improved or even saved lives,” said Daniel Nathrath, CEO and co-founder of Ada. “Often these stories come from parts of the world where it can be extremely difficult to see a doctor or get professional medical advice — but where people do own, or have access to, a smartphone. By partnering with organisations such as Fondation Botnar that share our vision for the future of healthcare, we are increasing Ada’s impact in developing economies, and moving forward our mission to make quality, personalised care a reality for everyone.”
About Fondation Botnar
Fondation Botnar is a Swiss foundation established in 2003 with the core purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people in growing secondary cities around the world. To achieve this, Fondation Botnar acts as a catalyst, connecting diverse partners and investing in solutions that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and digital innovation.
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Media contact for enquiries:
Kiara Barnes
Engagement and Communications Manager
Direct: +41 61 201 04 82
Mobile: +41 76 549 43 48
kbarnes@fondationbotnar.org
About Ada Health
Ada Health is on a mission to bring the future of personalized care to everyone. Founded in 2011, by a team of doctors, scientists and engineers, Ada offers an AI-powered health platform that is helping millions of people around the world understand their health and navigate to the appropriate care. Our sophisticated artificial intelligence technology also supports clinical decision making and enables payers and providers to deliver quality, more effective healthcare. Ada launched globally in 2016 and has been the number 1 medical app in over 130 countries. You can find more information and contact details at www.ada.com.