Buoy Health, Inc.

Buoy Health, Inc., also known as Buoy, is a privately held digital health company founded in 2014 and based in Boston, Massachusetts with a second office located in New York City. Buoy developed and offers a web-based, interactive healthcare tool that uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning to assess a user’s answers to a series of health and symptom-related questions communicated through a chatbot.
== History ==
* Buoy was founded in 2014 by Andrew Le, MD and co-founders Adam Lathram, Nathanael Ren, and Eddie Reyes at the Harvard Innovation Lab, an institution related to Harvard University that provides business incubation and mentor programs.
* Jack Connors, a Boston-based entrepreneur and philanthropist, invested in Buoy’s seed stage as an angel investor in 2014.
* On March 8, 2017, Buoy launched its web-based, interactive healthcare symptom checker AI tool as a free-to-use service.
* In August 2017, Buoy raised $6.7M in Series A funding from venture capital firms Optum Ventures, FundRX and F-Prime capital partners and angel investors.
* In August 2019, Buoy raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by venture capitalist Bill Hambrecht and included investments from Humana, Prime Capital, and Optum Ventures.
* In February 2020, Buoy updated its online AI health tool to assess risk factors for COVID-19 and provide care information and resources based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
== Products ==
In March 2017, Buoy launched their first product, a web-based, interactive healthcare tool that uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning to assess a user’s symptoms. The AI health tool uses a progressive series of health questions communicated through a chatbot to offer possible diagnoses and recommends levels of care based on severity and other risk factors. At the conclusion of the assessment, a search tool is displayed to find healthcare providers based on the results of the screening.
Buoy’s AI health tool algorithm was programmed with clinical data from over 18,000 clinical papers and is regularly updated. Updates are reviewed by Buoy’s medical advisory board.
In December 2019, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study on how patients’ use of the Buoy tool impacted their plans for seeking care. The JAMA study found that the used of a health chatbot decreased uncertainty among patients and that use of Buoy’s AI health tool lowered the level of urgency patients in the study originally associated with their condition.
Buoy has partnered with healthcare networks, such as Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin, health insurance companies and employee benefit plans to provide custom configurations of their AI health tool. 
== Response to COVID-19 ==
In January 2020, Buoy partnered with HealthMap to launch a function of their web-based AI health tool that works to triage users COVID-19 outbreak health concerns.
In February 2020, Buoy released an updated version of its online AI health tool with added queries designed to assess risk factors for COVID-19 and provide care information and resources based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On March 27, 2020, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced Buoy as the official COVID-19 resource for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
On May 22, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced the launch of COVIDCheck. Virginia Department of Public Health’s web-based system that allows residents to check health symptoms and advise if they should seek COVID-19 testing. COVIDCheck is the result of a partnership between the Commonwealth of Virginia and Buoy Health. COVIDCheck uses Buoy’s AI health tool as the program's symptom checker.
==In the media==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Buoy Health linkedin page
* Buoy Health twitter page
* Buoy Health instagram page
* Buoy Health facebook page
* Buoy Health | Crunchbase
* Buoy Health - Welcome.AI
* Buoy Health Inc - Company Profile and News - Bloomberg
* Working at Buoy Health | Glassdoor.co.in
* Buoy Health Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | PitchBook
* Buoy Health Jobs | AngelList
* Buoy Health youtube channel
Category:Companies established in 2014
Category:Health care companies established in 2014
Category:Health care companies based in Massachusetts
Category:Privately held companies based in Massachusetts
Category:Health care companies of the United States
Category:Companies of the United States