Unlocking the potential in Canada’s universal healthcare system’s rich clinical data is key to fuelling breakthroughs in health outcomes and providing immediate benefits in healthcare access for all Canadians, the federal government noted in its recently launched National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
As a key part of that strategy, the government is backing Vital, a pan-Canadian health data platform, led by St. Mike’s, that connects clinical data from hospitals across provinces for research and innovation. The platform is a valuable, near-real-time data resource for researchers, clinicians and AI developers to access in a responsibly managed way.
One of the platform’s co-founders, Dr. Amol Verma, says linking patient data from different healthcare providers across the country will improve care. With data largely being siloed within individual hospitals or healthcare providers, Dr. Verma noted that “now, being able to pull together all the rich information contained in electronic health record systems—blood pressure and heart rate; laboratory testing; medical imaging—is helpful to understanding illnesses, health and recovery.”
Launched at St. Michael’s in 2015 as GEMINI, the AI-driven platform has already been active in Ontario, collecting detailed clinical data from roughly 40 hospitals. GEMINI is led by St. Mike’s physician-scientists Dr. Verma and Dr. Fahad Razak, and supported by Scotiabank.
The expanded program, Vital, is a collaborative effort between hospitals in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, aiming to serve 20 million Canadians and working with health data and AI to improve triaging, remote monitoring and diagnostics.
It will receive an additional $100 million from the federal government to expand the number of hospitals contributing data as part of the new national AI strategy. According to Ottawa, computing costs needed to build AI solutions are one of the most significant barriers to scaling and commercializing innovative AI projects in Canada. Vital provides an ideal complement to these ongoing national compute investments by providing comprehensive health data at scale for the country.
Dr. Fahad Razak and Dr. Amol Verma, Co-Founders of Vital
Expanding Health Data Collection
Drs. Verma and Razak initially partnered with five Toronto hospital networks comprising seven hospitals to gather information about patient care and improve health outcomes. The GEMINI network now includes more than 40 Ontario hospitals, representing roughly 60 per cent of inpatient care and 70 per cent of pediatric care in the province. The data is collected in a way that protects patient privacy and is guided by strong ethical governance, Dr. Verma said.
“What GEMINI, and by extension Vital, is doing is helping our healthcare system test at large scale,” he said.
Vital is already up and running in Alberta and Quebec. Federal funding will support expansion into more hospitals across multiple provinces, enabling researchers and innovators to leverage clinical data representative of the country to create solutions that reduce mortality rates and build a more sustainable healthcare system.
Healthcare Equity
While federal investment is now accelerating Vital’s national expansion, that momentum was built on years of innovation and philanthropic partnership.
Last year, Scotiabank invested $2 million through ScotiaRISE—the Bank’s 10-year, $500-million community investment initiative focused on building economic resilience by helping individuals and families access opportunities for economic growth—in GEMINI at St. Michael’s Hospital. The investment is primarily supporting 10 smaller, rural hospitals in Ontario to participate in the program, helping ensure solutions are relevant to patients outside large urban centres. It is also funding 10 Health Data Scholarships for students, creating mentorship and career opportunities in healthcare innovation.
By helping broaden participation in GEMINI and ensuring rural communities were represented in the data, Scotiabank’s investment helped lay important groundwork for the platform’s evolution into Vital and its expansion across Canada.
"Through ScotiaRISE, we partner with institutions that strengthen economic resilience and foster sustainable growth for the benefit of society. Our partnership with St. Michael’s Hospital to help strengthen Ontario’s healthcare through responsible AI is a powerful example of this commitment in action,” says Meigan Terry, Executive Vice President & Chief Global Corporate and Public Affairs Officer.
"We are thrilled that our partnership with St. Michael’s Hospital through support of GEMINI has helped pave the way for this national expansion. Congratulations to St. Michael’s Hospital and the entire GEMINI team on the national recognition for your transformative work.”
St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation President and CEO Kevin Goldthorp says Scotiabank’s “leadership and early investment have helped make this pivotal moment possible.”
“Their support has been instrumental in advancing GEMINI, strengthening one of Canada’s leading health data ecosystems and improving access, discovery and care across our health system. We are deeply grateful for this longstanding relationship."
As Vital expands to serve millions of Canadians, Scotiabank’s support demonstrates how philanthropy can help transform promising ideas into solutions with national impact—advancing healthcare innovation, improving equity and helping ensure better care for patients across the country.
Scotiabank’s investment is helping to bring smaller hospitals’ perspectives in rural Ontario into the conversation, which is crucial to ensuring the tools and solutions being developed are relevant for all Canadians, Dr. Razak explained.
“If you think about how science is driven, one big factor for what kinds of tools and solutions are developed is the kinds of questions that are asked. So, if you only include large hospitals, then you only ask questions that are relevant to large hospitals.”
Global Implications
While ensuring all Canadians are represented, the program also has broader implications for Canada’s ability to contribute to global health research and medicine. Ontario, where most of the data has been collected to date, is home to more than 16 million people and has one of the most diverse populations in the world. It also boasts the largest unified, publicly insured health system in North America.
“Ontario’s population looks like the world’s population. That's really important for global science because the findings in scientific studies and artificial intelligence are driven by the data, and the representation in that data really matters,” Dr. Verma said.
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