Boston Children's Hospital entered into a partnership with Buoy Health, the health technology startup confirmed Aug. 8.
The agreement establishes Boston Children's Hospital as Buoy's first innovation partner. Buoy offers an online health assistant tool to help patients assess their health concerns, leveraging artificial intelligence to triage patients with simple symptoms — such as fever, cough or rash — to the appropriate care setting.
Under the partnership, Boston Children's Hospital will offer access to Buoy's AI health assistant on its website, so parents across the globe can access the tool for their children's care. Since the tool uses machine learning, a type of AI in which a computer learns over time, Buoy will be able to continue to refine its algorithm as it's used on the website.
"Deep pediatric expertise is concentrated in relatively few places, yet kids are cared for around the world," Jean Mixer, vice president of digital health at Boston Children's Hospital, said in a news release. "Digital tools like Buoy allow Boston Children's to share our pediatric expertise globally, making it accessible right at people's fingertips and helping to make more informed decisions."