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| Samsung is investing in Ada Health, an AI doctor app |
German digital health company Ada Health was backed by Samsung in South Korea and the investment arm of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer.
The German company has developed a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to try to diagnose symptoms.
Ada Health said it raised $ 90 million in new financing, bringing the company's total investment to $ 150 million.
Bayer managed the financing through its investment arm Bayer Leaps, while Samsung invested through the Samsung Catalyst Fund.
Samsung Catalyst Fund is a venture capital fund that Samsung uses to support companies around the world.
Former Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Samsung, Sun Yong, joined the Board of Directors of Ada Health.
Ada Health, founded in 2011, said its app has been downloaded more than 11 million times.
The app basically works like a WhatsApp chat with a trusted family doctor, but around the clock.
When a patient shows symptoms, the AI chatbot asks a series of questions to reveal the problem.
Then the app displays to the patient the most likely cause of the disease and offers some suggestions for the next solution to the problem.
IOS and Android apps offer general advice like: B. Watch GP for the next 3 days.
However, when patients interact with Ada Health via the app via the medical system, they can book appointments directly and share their initial examination results with real doctors.
Samsung and the medical sector:
The company has entered into agreements with several healthcare, health insurance and life sciences companies.
Although patients can download the app for free, Ada Health charges partners a fee to access their program.
The new money will be used to help the company grow its business in the United States, the largest market with two million users.
Ada Health has close to 4 million users in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and India with nearly 1 million users each.
The funds have also been used to improve the company's algorithms and medical knowledge base, and to cross 10 languages.
The company hopes to provide the app with more information than the symptom data provided by patients.
This could include laboratory data, genetic testing, and sensor data.
Smartwatches and other sensors have made great strides.
Today you can take blood pressure, record an EKG, and measure heart rate fluctuations and blood oxygen levels.
Compared to other medical apps like Babylon and Kry, Ada Health receives less funding.
Unlike Babylon and Kerry, Ada Health does not allow patients to make video calls to GPs.
Ada Health runs a service called Doctor Chat that allows users to consult registered GPs through an on-demand chat portal.
However, it was deactivated in March 2018 after having been alive for nearly a year.