Babyl Rwanda: healthcare delivered over a mobile phone
Affordable technology, growing computing power, artificial intelligence and medical expertise combined into a personalised, instant and accessible health service.
Babyl Rwanda combines affordable technology, the growing computing power of machines, artificial intelligence and specialist medical knowledge to deliver a health service that is personalised, instant and accessible.
Why the phone, not the app
Babyl Rwanda gives direct access to health professionals through a practical and widely available channel: an ordinary mobile phone. No smartphone, no data plan, no application to install.
That choice is the reason it worked. Mobile penetration in Rwanda reached 76.1% in February 2018, and building on the device people already owned is what allowed the service to expand and succeed.
It is a useful corrective to a common assumption in digital health: the most advanced interface is not always the one that reaches the most patients.