Ali Parsa
On virtual doctors and the AI revolution in healthcare.
Ali is a serial healthcare entrepreneur and engineer. He’s the founder and CEO of Babylon, the revolutionary artificial intelligence and digital health company. Babylon’s mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on Earth.
With over 4.5 million members and 170 global partners, Babylon is transforming the way we deliver healthcare. Before Babylon, Ali created Circle, which became Europe’s largest partnership of clinicians. The Independent Healthcare Awards presented Ali with an Entrepreneurial Achievement award for establishing Circle. He was given the Royal Award for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for founding his first business, V&G.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Telemedicine, a booster for healthcare
“Cultural shift is the most fundamental part of using any technology”
Ali Parsa founded digital health company Babylon in 2013 with a simple mission: to make access to a doctor available to anyone with a mobile phone. Babylon has since floated on the Nasdaq stock market and become involved in important partnerships ranging from the UK’s NHS to the healthcare system in Rwanda. And during the Covid pandemic, one of Babylon’s cornerstone ideas was put to the test as many people spoke to their doctor on a video call for the first time.
In this episode of Health To Wealth, Ali explains that Babylon’s approach to providing healthcare today involves drawing on the vast amount of online information available, and automating diagnosis as well as direct interaction with physicians. The true revolution, he says, will come through preventative healthcare that will be tailored for the individual by systematically collecting and analysing their health data. What’s needed, says Ali, is a re-think whereby doctors are paid for keeping people healthy rather than simply treating them when they are sick. Technology may never be able to provide the personal touch of a human, but it can transform global access to good health.
