In July 2023, DIGITAL and the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network announced their partnership to increase opportunities for Canadian companies to lead the health care economy and accelerate the adoption of Canadian technology and innovation. The formal partnership built on DIGITAL and CAN Health’s existing relationship that had already resulted in paving commercial pathways from DIGITAL’s co-investments in health tech product development.
Since the original announcement, DIGITAL and CAN Health continue to support Canadian entrepreneurs and invest in homegrown solutions that make it easier for Canadian companies to bring innovative technology into the Canadian health care system. These companies and their innovations are having real impacts in areas of long-term care, decreasing administrative burden, supporting better training and increasing access for rural communities.
Decreasing Administrative Burden for Frontline Clinicians
DIGITAL’s support of the Health Compass and Health Compass II projects are supporting a revolution of the electronic medical record (EMR) interface, interoperability and functionality for more effective care delivery and decreasing administrative burnout for clinicians. By developing and integrating four AI modules into WELL Health Technologies’ EMR-agnostic mobile application, the resulting platform engages patients, automates administrative tasks, and assists healthcare providers with documentation and enhanced clinical decision-making.
These four AI modules are respectively owned by Canadian SMEs, one of which is Tali. AI Voice Assistant by Tali is a voice command and scribe tool that employs ambient sensing technology to capture medically relevant information from patient conversations without taking provider focus away from their patient, versus a traditional interaction that puts onus of manually documenting and then transcribing the information onto the clinician. Tali’s involvement in the original Health Compass project demonstrated its initial feasibility, saving nearly 12,000 collective hours monthly in clinical documentation by physicians that used their technology.
Tali AI has also joined the CAN Health Network to help clinicians save time on every patient visit. As part of a CAN Health commercialization project, Tali AI is collaborating with HealthOne and the eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) to integrate its voice-powered AI assistant into primary care clinical workflows. This initiative aims to automate administrative tasks, streamline patient information retrieval, and enhance overall efficiency for physicians.
Pioneering Experiential Training for Healthcare Professionals
DIGITAL’s project with Lumeto enhanced Lumeto’s InvolveXR extended reality (XR) platform to include AI patients that are realistic, dynamic and clinically validated. The resulting enhanced AI patients are fully responsive and interact with trainees as they assess, diagnose and treat patients for a variety of medical conditions. The project built on Lumeto’s initial prototype by leveraging high-quality training data and clinician validation from consortium partners Unity Health Toronto and the University of Manitoba. These enhanced training capabilities enable healthcare training programs to scale with greater realism, quality and less cost than traditional, standardized simulation programs. Lumeto additionally piloted its technology with the Canadian Armed Forces Health Services to train medics and reservists.
The CAN Health Network is partnering with Lumeto to revolutionize health care delivery and workforce training through AI-powered virtual reality. Lumeto’s InvolveXR platform seamlessly complements traditional education and training approaches, offering customizable and scalable learning experiences, powered by AI and replicating real-world scenarios, to enhance clinical training. The result is improved confidence, decision-making, and preparedness for health care professionals – leading to better patient outcomes. Through its collaboration with the CAN Health Network, Lumeto is teaming up with The Michener Institute of Education at the University Health Network (UHN) to explore the impact of Lumeto’s AI-powered technology on training for respiratory therapists. This partnership represents a significant step forward in modernizing workforce education and advancing Canada’s health care system through innovation and emerging technologies.
Bridging In-Home Health Care Gaps in Rural Communities
DIGITAL’s project with Gotcare is supporting AI-assisted enhancements to their in-home health care platform, including patient self-management and preventative health promotion programming. This is powered by a network of in-person Health Ambassadors and virtual clinicians. The project’s pilot in the Hastings region of Ontario has expedited hospital discharge by reducing the time to care — with the average time from referral to support being within 24 hours. Gotcare is also now in discussions with other regions to support similar programming, exploring how technology-enabled care platforms can not only reduce strain on the health system but also enhance the ability of patients and family caregivers to self-manage at home.
The additional consortium expertise of the Reach Alliance — in research for digital health adoption and AI-assisted service transformation in rural communities — as well as the hospital and community experience of health care providers in the Hastings region and the Hastings Prince Edward Ontario Health Team, are key contributors to the project’s design and implementation.
Through its partnership with the CAN Health Network, Gotcare ran a commercialization project with Covenant Living to implement a Digital Enhanced Care Platform. This tool is designed to help Resident Attendants improve care and the overall resident experience by addressing unmet needs at the Evanston Summit retirement living site. The platform streamlines processes for Covenant Living staff, modernizing the current paper-based system to ensure timely, personalized, and efficient care. Gotcare’s platform provides custom care plans for each resident, supports fall incident reporting, tracks routine care services, and prompts escalations when necessary. Residents also use the platform to stay connected with loved ones, receive activity notifications, and track how they feel day to day. This allows Covenant Living to support residents in feeling empowered and safe while aging in place.
Automating Administrative Tasks for Mental Health Professionals
DIGITAL’s project with Expeflow supported Expeflow’s development of AI Agents that work alongside mental health professionals by automating time-consuming administrative tasks, protecting patient data and freeing up valuable clinician time. The project collaborated closely with a team of psychologists to identify and prioritize routine documents that mental health professionals regularly review and generate during patient interactions. The resulting informed AI agents then leverage a combination of large language models (LLMs) and personal knowledge models to reduce time spent on document review and preparation between 5-15x.
As part of a CAN Health Network commercialization project, Expeflow teamed up with CASA Mental Health in Alberta to introduce a new digital incident management system. This project was designed to streamline and simplify incident reporting at CASA, enhancing patient safety and quality of care. The previous process for reporting was lengthy and manual, leading to an underreporting of incidents by staff, and no centralized storage or reporting system. As a result of the CAN Health project, Expeflow’s solution simplified the process to report and address incidents, providing staff more time to focus on patient care, and supporting a culture of continuous improvement.
DIGITAL and the CAN Health Network continue to support Canadian companies to bring innovative technologies into the Canadian health care system. These technologies are improving patient care, driving economic growth and building a more sustainable Canadian health care system — positioning Canada as a global leader in health technology.