Ada Health is a global health company created by doctors to improve human health by transforming knowledge into better outcomes. The company has headquarters in Berlin, with offices in New York, London, and Toronto.
History
Ada was founded by in 2011 by Dr. Claire Novorol (an NHS clinician), Professor Martin Hirsch (an expert in artificial intelligence) and Daniel Nathrath (an entrepreneur). The company was inspired by Dr Novorol's experience in clinical genetics at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where her searches of the medical literature and scientific databases led her to help make a diagnosis for a baby with a rare genetic condition. Upon realising that doctors could make faster and more accurate decisions if supported by digital tools, she founded a network of medical doctors interested in digtal health called "Doctorpreneurs", and through that work traveled to Berlin where she met her two co-founders. Ada's first product, "Ada DX" was originally a clinical decision support technology that would help doctors to make accurate diagnoses, particularly in rare diseases. The system used a Bayesian probabilistic reasoning system based upon the medical history and differential diagnosis approaches of clinical medicine. A doctor would input signs, symptoms, and findings, and then by presented with a ranked list of probabilities for each suggested condition. A visual display showed the clinician how each data point they had entered would contribute to the relative statistical weighting of the probably conditions suggested.
Medical Focus
In 2016 the business pivoted from supporting doctors directly to supporting patients experiencing a new health problem with a browser-based online tool and smartphone app, commonly referred to as a "symptom checker" called Assess. Users enter their demographics, medical history, and interact with a chatbot that asks them about the symptoms, timecourse, and severity of the problems they are experiencing. The Assess tool covers a broad range of potential patients, including children, pregnant people, those with mental health concerns, and the elderly. The probabilistic reasoning software supporting the software dynamically adjusts the questions asked to the user based on their previous answer, while also trying to ask as few questions as possible to prevent fatigue. This reasoning software is supported by a medical knowledge base built and reviewed by doctors that references the scientific medical literature, textbooks, regional epidemiology, disease models, and case reports including a range of several thousand common and rare diseases. At the end of their assessment the user is presented with a "triage" recommendation that suggests the level of urgency required and directs users to care options ranging from self-care at home to immediately seeking urgent care. In addition the app lists a number of "possible causes" that suggest medical conditions that might be causing the problem. Ada's software is available in Arabic, English (US and UK), Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Swahili, Romanian, and French.
Regulatory Classification
Ada's product available to healthcare enterprise clients, and the Ada consumer app (i.e. downloadable from app stores) are both CE-certified Class IIa medical devices under the European Union's Medical Device Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/745, EU-MRR). The company operates a quality management system certified under ISO 13485, and in the UK has passed UKCA marking assessment.
Media coverage
Ada has been compared to WebMD, Babylon's GP at Hand app, and Your.MD. In October 2017, when three apps were tested with symptoms from asthma, shingles, alcohol-related liver disease, and urinary tract infection, Ada performed very well; it asked about the most important symptoms and provided the best diagnoses. It produced diagrams showing which of the symptoms for each disease were present and the strength of the link, and a diagram of the percentage of people likely to have that diagnosis.
In September 2020, Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development issued a report identifying Ada as of the AI solutions that have the "potential to address existing health inequalities and provide medical expertise to clinicians, health workers, and patients alike – all with the aim of improving the quality, access, and cost of healthcare delivery."