AI Minister Evan Solomon, shown at news conference in Vancouver on May 11, announced details of health data project Vital on Monday.Rich Lam/The Canadian Press
The federal government’s artificial intelligence strategy will include up to $100-million in funding to expand an Ontario-based health data project called Vital across the country.
Vital and its predecessor program Gemini have already helped researchers glean insights to improve patient outcomes, while saving the health care system money and freeing up hospital beds in Ontario.
The rollout across eight more provinces, which has already started in Quebec and Alberta, is meant to address long-standing concerns that Canada has fallen behind in mining its health care data for system improvements and economic benefit. The project uses an approach called federated AI, meaning the underlying information remains within each province or territory’s borders so as not to compromise jurisdictional constraints.
“Better health care depends on better use of data,” AI Minister Evan Solomon said in a statement. Vital, he added, can turn clinical data now fragmented across institutions, provinces and territories “into modern, secure health infrastructure that can support better research, stronger innovation and improved care.”
The government is expected to unveil its AI strategy this week, more than five months later than it was originally promised.
In the spring economic update, the government listed six pillars of the coming strategy, including building public trust with updated privacy and online safety laws, AI skills training, and increasing adoption. The government also wants to stimulate the construction of data centres to boost digital sovereignty, help domestic AI companies grow and partner with like-minded nations.
More to come