A hospital data-sharing platform founded by researchers at Unity Health Toronto and the University of Toronto will receive $100 million in new federal investment to expand across Canada.
A "cornerstone" of Canada's national AI strategy , the secure VITAL platform will enable the flow of real-time clinical data - starting with 160 hospitals across Ontario, Quebec and Alberta - so it can be more easily used by clinicians and researchers to improve care, strengthen health services and accelerate medical innovation.
VITAL is built on advances made by GEMINI, an Ontario-focused hospital data-sharing platform created and co-led by Fahad Razak and Amol Verma, both clinician-scientists at Unity Health and U of T faculty members.
Evan Solomon, Canada's minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, said the investment marks "a turning point" in Canadian health data infrastructure.
"When we met [Razak and Verma], we knew instantly that this was a project we need to be part of - because it affects people," Solomon said at a launch event this week at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital. "Their vision… was phenomenal. We walked out of that and said: 'This will be a cornerstone of the [federal government's] AI for All strategy.'"
Solomon added the national AI strategy is "informed foundationally, philosophically and strategically by health care - by the idea that we must serve all, that AI is here to serve Canadians - not the other way around."
Hosted by Unity Health, the launch event was attended by senior leaders from U of T and other academic institutions, affiliated hospitals in the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN), leaders of Indigenous health organizations and representatives of industry and philanthropy groups - a reflection of the broad collaboration behind the initiative.
"I have no doubt that what we've started will produce health-care breakthroughs that are going to benefit Canadians for generations to come," said U of T President Melanie Woodin. "And we're doing so at a time when our country needs, more than ever, to see that we can tackle the big challenges in front of us - that we can meet this moment with confidence according to the values that unite us all."
Verma, an associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said VITAL draws on "the rich information that is generated in the process of delivering health care," including doctors' notes, medical images and medication prescriptions.
He noted the platform uses a federated data model that allows information to exist "securely within each province, respecting provincial authority," while still being accessible through an integrated system.
Razak, an associate professor of medicine at Temerty Medicine, detailed one potential application of these new data-driven insights: preventing and reducing cases of delirium in hospitals , an acute confusional state that can arise during serious illness and significantly affect patient outcomes.
"We are now deploying the largest-ever artificial intelligence randomized trial in Canadian history, identifying delirium with triple the accuracy - using AI - than was historically possible," said Razak, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Data and Analytics. He added that the trial will involve 15,000 patients and 2,000 frontline health-care workers.
Another example of the life-saving power of such data-informed tools is CHARTWatch, an AI-powered early warning system developed at Unity Health that is reducing the risk of unexpected hospital deaths (Solomon was given a demonstration at St. Michael's Hospital prior to the announcement).
The federal government-backed buildout of VITAL tackles the longstanding issue of fragmentation of Canada's health-care networks, said David Naylor, head of VITAL's strategic committee and U of T president emeritus.
"Many health-care researchers of my generation … were starting to wonder if we'd actually be around to see a project like VITAL get off the ground," Naylor said. "It's been a long time coming - but very, very happily, here we are: launching a historic collaboration that will accelerate the development of Canadian health data resources on a scale that has transformative implications for health care and health research."
This week's announcement event drew a range of leaders from across the health and research landscape, including Lisa Robinson, dean of Temerty Medicine, Indigenous health leads, federal parliamentary secretaries, provincial VITAL leads from Alberta and Quebec and officials from national funding agencies.
It was followed by expert panels that discussed how health data can advance Canadian leadership in research and support economic development.
The importance of collaboration across sectors was underscored by Altaf Stationwala, president and CEO of Unity Health Toronto.
"VITAL is a tremendous example of what we can achieve when we come together to find solutions to some of health care's most pressing challenges," Stationwala said. "Hospitals, governments, researchers, industry and innovators each bring different strengths - but together we can accomplish far more than any of us could alone."
