GRH launches AI-powered clinical decision support system

KITCHENER, Ont. – Recently, Grand River Hospital deployed Signal 1’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered clinical decision support system. The launch follows months of collaboration between Signal 1 and clinical teams at Grand River Hospital to adapt and fine-tune Signal 1’s offering for Grand River Hospital’s patient population and clinical routines. This work is supported by the CAN Health Network.

Canada’s healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges. Staffing shortages, population growth, patients with higher acuity, and increased volumes following the pandemic have created significant capacity challenges for many hospitals.

Signal 1’s solution supports clinician decision-making and proactive planning designed to support patient flow at hospitals. The company’s system analyzes data that exist within electronic health records and uses AI to predict changes in patients’ care needs. Based on these predictions, the solution identifies patients who are improving and may be nearing discharge and patients who are at-risk of deteriorating and may require additional care. These predictions are communicated to care teams through reports using categorization schemes developed with clinicians and are automatically updated as new data becomes available, creating no extra work for staff.

“What the healthcare system needs right now is real innovation and novel solutions,” says Ron Gagnon, president and CEO of Grand River Hospital. “We are proud to be joining forces with Signal 1, to trial this solution. We strongly support new innovations in healthcare and believe that this work will lead to better patient outcomes and a better experience for patients and staff.”

Launched in April 2022 out of a collaboration with Unity Health Toronto hospital network and TD Bank Group (TD), Signal 1 brings together the clinical AI expertise developed at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health with an award-winning AI technology platform and a team who are highly experienced in deploying enterprise-grade AI systems.

“Hospitals have spent years investing in digitization which has been further accelerated by COVID-19. They have all of the data they need for AI to provide highly accurate patient insights to their clinical teams,” says Tomi Poutanen (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Signal 1. “What’s been missing is a scalable and reliable enterprise-grade platform for doing this. That’s where we come in. The Signal 1 platform is based on technology developed at TD’s award-winning AI division, Layer 6, and provides hospitals with a secure cloud-based clinical AI solution not available anywhere else in the world. We are excited to be launching our solution today at Grand River Hospital, one of Canada’s most innovative hospitals.”

Signal 1’s technology is a secure cloud-based offering built on Microsoft Azure and easily connects with hospitals’ on-premise data and IT systems. “We believe that the cloud holds great potential for the healthcare industry. It provides a foundation for innovation and enables highly innovative companies like Signal 1 to rapidly and responsibly bring game-changing solutions to the market. We are excited to be collaborating with Signal 1 as they build out their clinical decision support system,” says Peter Jones, Microsoft Canada’s healthcare industry lead.

“Signal 1 is an incredible Canadian company whose AI technology has the potential to transform healthcare not only across Canada, but globally,” says Dr. Dante Morra, chair, CAN Health Network. “We are proud to be supporting this collaboration between Signal 1 and Grand River Hospital, and look forward to its success.”

About Signal 1
Signal 1, launched in April 2022, is a health start-up that helps hospitals enhance patient care with an AI-powered clinical decision support system. Signal 1’s system delivers real-time insights on changes in patients’ conditions and care needs, monitoring patients from the time of admission right through discharge. Signal 1 is committed to delivering responsibly deployed AI solutions that are designed with clinician feedback at every stage. For more information, visit https://signal1.ai/

About Grand River Hospital
Grand River Hospital is one of Ontario’s largest community hospitals with an outstanding team of 5,000 dedicated healthcare workers and volunteers. We provide services and support to more than 840,000 residents at our two campuses and satellite locations in Waterloo Region and Guelph Wellington. We take pride in the ways we collaborate with our health system partners, our region’s academic and innovation communities, and diverse community stakeholders as we work toward providing a world class experience for patients, families and team members. For more information, visit www.grhosp.on.ca.

About CAN Health Network
The CAN Health Network is a Canada-first approach to technology adoption. It helps break down barriers to scaling in the health-care system and provides an environment for companies to scale to their full potential. Currently operating in Ontario, Western and Atlantic Canada, the CAN Health Network was recently awarded $30 million by the Government of Canada as part of Budget 2022 to expand into Quebec, the Territories and with Indigenous Communities. For more information, visit https://canhealthnetwork.ca/