Health Care, not Sick Care: Babylon CEO Calls for Fundamental Shift in Approach to Wellness

PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A healthcare system focused on symptoms of the sick rather than a proactive approach to wellness poses a significant challenge in a post-COVID world, Babylon CEO Dr. Ali Parsa told CNBC's Healthy Returns Summit.

Parsa, speaking alongside healthcare executive and investor Molly Joseph on a panel entitled, "Reimagining Healthcare: Putting Prevention Over Cure," noted the role technology can play in moving the focus from simply treating the sick to keeping people healthy – a shift that will improve the system, increase the accessibility of quality care, and decrease downstream costs long-term for both patients and providers.

"The COVID pandemic isn't the only pandemic that we have on our hands," said Babylon CEO Dr. Ali Parsa. "We are also in a major crisis for mental health and chronic conditions and up until now, we've waited for those crises to hit individuals and then we spend a ton of money and effort scrambling to fix big issues when it's almost too late."

On the heels of Babylon announcing its position as a leading digital-first, value-based care provider in the U.S., the session covered Babylon's rapid U.S. expansion and how the company combines a value-based care model with a digital-first approach to deploy a highly scalable platform aimed at keeping patients at the peak of health.

"We are big believers in value-based care, aligning the incentives of the payer, provider and patient," said Parsa. "We need to change our lens and instead of dealing with crises, we need to make sure that people stay healthy. That can be done with technology. Technology is a tool that allows us to look at someone ahead of time, collect data, and try to prevent the situation before it happens."

Both Parsa and Joseph made a call to action for the widespread adoption of a new care approach that bridges the gap between high quality healthcare and technology.

"There is an opportunity to bring together best-in-class technology and best-in-class healthcare models in a way that we haven't," said Molly Joseph, Managing Partner at Cypress Pass Ventures. "Both industries have been developing separately, and it's about bringing those together."

More information about the invite-only CNBC Healthy Returns Summit and breakout session can be accessed here.

About Babylon
Babylon is a leading global, digital-first, value-based care company whose mission is to make high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone on Earth. We are re-engineering healthcare, shifting the main focus from sick to preventative care so that patients experience better health and reduced costs. This is achieved by leveraging a highly scalable, digital-first platform combined with high quality, virtual clinical operations to provide all-in-one, personalized healthcare. We endeavor to keep patients at the peak of health and get them back on their feet as quickly as possible, all from their devices, with the aim to promote longer and healthier lives. When sick, Babylon provides assistance to navigate the health system, connecting patients digitally to the right clinician 24/7, at no additional cost.

Founded in 2013, we have since delivered millions of clinical consultations and AI interactions, with ~2m clinical consultations and ~3.9m AI interactions in 2020 alone. We work with governments, health providers and insurers across the globe, and support healthcare facilities from small local practices to large hospitals. 

SOURCE Babylon