The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust have signed with Babylon to use its COVID-19 app to support patients.
The company is providing its AI digital care assistant to help support and monitor coronavirus patients 24/7 in the community.
People can use the service to check their symptoms, track their illness, cope with self-isolation, learn more about COVID-19, have live chat with trained team members and consult with GPs and clinicians by video.
Babylon said its care assistant app could be used by 8% of England’s population, helping to save clinicians time, and if a patient has more severe symptoms there is an option to speak to a clinician by video.
Prof David Rosser, Chief Executive, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said “We are bringing in Babylon’s technology to amplify our clinical teams’ capacity and expertise. Our first step was introducing ‘Ask A&E’, a symptom checker that triages our patients, lets them know whether they really need to come to us at hospital, and sends us the information about their symptoms if they do.”
“The second step is the COVID-19 Care Assistant, which expands our triage to support far more COVID-19 patients than we could before, with reassurance, support and advice throughout their illness. This should have a rapid and profound impact on patients across Birmingham and Solihull, while freeing up our clinicians to focus on the patients who need them most.”
David Loughton, CBE, Chief Executive, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust “The current COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest challenge we have faced since the inception of the NHS. One of the greatest opportunities of the 21st century is the potential to safely harness the power of technology revolution to meet the challenges of improving health.”
“I am delighted to announce that RWT, along with Primary Care Networks in the city, have joined with our technology partner Babylon to provide the COVID-19 Care Assistant service. This app is a free, interactive and helpful way for patients to check their symptoms, chat live to trained professionals, undertake remote consultations and be directed safely to the physical services that Primary Care colleagues and the Trust have set up in response to COVID-19. A digital-first approach is now an expectation from our patient population and I am delighted that we have responded positively to their needs.”
In January the company announced a 10-year agreement with Royal Wolverhampton to provide its app.
