Ada is a health company based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

that operates Ada, an end-user self-assessment

Web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serv ...

. It was founded by Claire Novorol, a British pediatrician, Martin Hirsch and Daniel Nathrath.

History

The app started out as a

platform as a service Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing ...

for doctors and was adapted in 2016 to focus on the bits patients could understand. The app takes reported symptoms, matches them with symptoms of patients of similar age and gender, and reports the statistical likelihood that the patient has a certain condition. The Ada consumer product, the app, is currently available in English,

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, Swahili,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, and French. As of September 2020, the Ada app has been downloaded 10 million times and completed 20 million symptom assessments. It is free of charge and has the highest consumer rank among similar apps. Thanks to funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Fondation Botnar, in November 2019, Ada launched its app in both Swahili and Romanian. In 2022 it was integrated into Scout by

Sutter Health Sutter Health is a not-for-profit integrated health delivery system headquartered in Sacramento, California. It operates 24 acute care hospitals and over 200 clinics in Northern California. Sutter Hospital Association was founded in 1921 as a r ...

Media coverage

Ada has been compared to

WebMD WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites. It was fou ...

, Babylon's GP at Hand app, and Your.MD. In October 2017, when three apps were tested with symptoms from

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...

, shingles, alcohol-related liver disease, and

urinary tract infection A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection that affects part of the urinary tract. When it affects the lower urinary tract it is known as a bladder infection (cystitis) and when it affects the upper urinary tract it is known as a kidne ...

, 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."

Ada & Rare diseases

A 2019 retrospective study evaluated Ada DX potential impact in accelerating rare disease diagnosis, with the following results: * Ada's top suggestion matched the confirmed diagnosis in 89.25% of cases (83 of 93 cases). * In more than 56% of cases, Ada provided correct disease suggestions earlier than the time of clinical diagnosis. * More than 33% of patients could have been identified as having a rare disease in the first documented clinical visit.

Reception

In 2020, the World Economic Forum awarded Ada and other 99 candidates as its "Technology Pioneers." Since its global launch in 2016, Ada has won several awards, such as App Promotion Summit's Fastest Growing App, Proddys Award for best Health and Fitness Product, CogX: Good Health and Well-being Award, German Brand Award, and German Innovation Award.

References

{{reflist 2011 establishments in Germany Medical technology companies of Germany Companies based in Berlin Health information technology companies Private providers of NHS services