Alberta offers funding to enable AI in healthcare

EDMONTON – Alberta Innovates, via its Enabling Better Health through Artificial Intelligence (AI-Better Health) Program, will provide up to $8 million to applicants who can explore how breaking down barriers will help realize the benefits of artificial intelligence within Alberta’s health system.

“New advances in artificial intelligence are unlocking exciting innovations in every industry, including healthcare. The AI-Better Health program will accelerate the development of new technologies to strengthen our healthcare system so that we can ensure every Albertan has access to world-class healthcare when and where they need it,” said Nate Glubish (pictured), provincial minister of Technology and Innovation.

The technical power of artificial intelligence is here today, but the pathway to practical use is stacked with challenges such as policy and regulatory issues, ethics and governance, evaluation, and adoption.

When it comes to responsibly deploying artificial intelligence for better health, there is a significant gap between the technology potential and the implementation of the solution. Adopting innovative solutions can be delayed, negatively impacting patient care and health system efficiency.

The program will support demonstration projects to better understand the environment needed to narrow the gap between the promise and reality of better health using artificial intelligence.

The objectives of the AI-Better Health program are to enable better health by:

• Understanding the innovation required to address data quality, access, and privacy issues facing the implementation of artificial intelligence technology.
• Recognizing the technical enablers and human factors, including policy, reimbursement, accountability enablers and barriers for the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence.
• Identifying the ethical, regulatory, legal, and societal implications to be addressed for intelligently designing artificial intelligence solutions.
• Defining factors and elements, such as stakeholder requirements for development, adoption, implementation, and/or commercialization of artificial intelligence technologies.

Applicants from academia, industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and government entities are encouraged to apply. Visit the AI-Better Health web page for complete details about the program.

Funding decisions will be made in January 2024 and projects must begin by March 2024.

Visit Albertainnovates.ca for more information.