Patients and clinicians ready to embrace AI to improve healthcare delivery

Canada’s healthcare system is at a tipping point, and we have a true moment in time to revolutionize patient outcomes for the better, while reducing the burden on the front lines of our healthcare system.

Right now, healthcare providers and patients are stuck in a growing backlog within a well-intentioned health system. Complex inefficiencies and a lack of system-wide interoperability has resulted in administrative silos that take frontline healthcare providers away from patients who truly cannot afford to wait.

Innovative technologies have the power to enhance healthcare solutions, including more efficiencies, personalization, and health data portability. The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare solutions has rapidly become a focal point in the journey to enhance proactive care.

Indeed, when harnessed appropriately, AI can be a powerful tool to address the challenges that Canada’s healthcare system is currently grappling with.

The real promise of AI lies in its ability to empower care providers with important data that can enable a more proactive approach to care. This marks a significant step towards personalized and proactive medicine, where treatment plans and electronic medical records can be dynamically adjusted based on real-time health data and used to identify health conditions preemptively. When applied appropriately, the implications of AI can be life-changing, offering a pathway to more proactive, effective, and targeted interventions.

Pending publication, Canada Health Infoway’s 2023 Digital Health Survey results suggest that 9 in 10 Canadians feel it is important that healthcare providers develop and implement technology innovation plans to improve healthcare outcomes. As well, 85 percent feel it is important that Canada does not fall behind other countries in adopting healthcare technology.

Looking to international examples, like Sweden and Finland, AI solutions are being deployed to aid healthcare providers in the early detection of cancer. These applications leverage AI algorithms to analyze medical imaging data, such as mammograms or CT scans.

By detecting subtle patterns, these AI-driven tools assist healthcare professionals in identifying potential cancer cases at an earlier and more treatable phase. This not only enhances the efficiency of cancer diagnosis but also improves patient outcomes and survival rates.

In addressing the Health Human Resource (HHR) shortage, AI can serve as a force multiplier – not replacer – increasing the capacity of healthcare professionals. In finding synergies between human skills and AI functionalities, we have the potential to bridge the gap of rising healthcare demands and the limited workforce, ensuring that quality care remains accessible to all Canadians. Ultimately, these interventions allow care providers to spend more time with patients.

Healthcare providers are also invested in the ongoing dialogue about the integration and possibilities of innovative technologies, like AI, across our health system.

We’ll be sharing data and insights from nurses on the use of innovative technologies, including AI, via Canada Health Infoway’s 2023 Canadian Nurses Survey, in partnership with the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and the Canadian Nursing Informatics Association (CNIA).

After an early preview, it’s clear that healthcare providers are eager to explore how AI and other innovative technologies can enhance patient care and streamline healthcare delivery. Uncharted territory and limited domestic precedent adds a layer of complexity for stakeholders across the health system, which can cause mistrust and fear when using such powerful tools.

Establishing a strong policy and a regulatory framework for innovative technologies, like AI in healthcare, is no small feat and is more top of mind than ever before.

Effort is underway to establish comprehensive legislation and regulations to govern the safety of AI tools, as well as address algorithmic opacity, enable strong privacy and trust frameworks, and fill regulatory gaps for emerging technologies.

Equally important is the establishment of robust safeguards and national standards for data sharing, which allow for seamless and secure transfer of health information to the patient, between providers, across systems. This will ensure the security of patient health data, but also build trust in the implementation of innovative technologies, including AI.

Recent studies show that, when responsible safeguards are in place, over seven in 10 Canadians are comfortable with using AI in healthcare to track epidemics and optimize workflow.

Additionally, three in five say they are comfortable in its use when it comes to decision-support for healthcare practitioners.

Work is already in place to foster innovations such as AI across Canada’s healthcare system, in a responsible way. For example, organizations who are wanting to implement AI applications while ensuring safeguards are in place can leverage Infoway’s Toolkit for Implementers of AI in Health Care.

This refreshed toolkit equips organizations with the framework to adopt AI responsibly while minimizing risks for all stakeholders involved.

As our system grapples with meeting the evolving healthcare needs of Canadian care providers and patients, we must identify opportunities to embrace new technology that will maximize system capacity. AI is an opportunity to improve the system, if used properly.

Michael Green is President and CEO of Canada Health Infoway, a leader in interoperable solutions to transform Canada’s health system.