Manitoba targets AI to reduce MR waits

WINNIPEG – A growing number of Manitoba’s MRI machines now use artificial intelligence, with a plan to have more than half using the technology by spring. Using AI allows crisp images and faster scans, said Dr. Abdul Razaq Sokoro (pictured), chief operating officer of provincial diagnostic services for Shared Health.

“The patient will not notice any difference,” Dr. Sokoro told CBC News, but “instead of having a 20-minute scan, it’s now going to be a 10-minute scan.”

All new MRI machines, like the mobile unit first based at Thompson General Hospital, come with AI technology built in, Dr. Sokoro said. A number of other units in the province have been or will be retrofitted to use the technology Manitoba Health is getting from Siemens Healthineers.

While they’re still in the process of finalizing their initial data, Sokoro said they are seeing positive results.

“This technology has been a centre of our strategy to deal with the wait list, the long wait list for MRI,” Dr. Sokoro said.

“It’s not the only answer. It is one of the answers, and that’s why we’re quite grateful government recognized that and gave us the investments to be able to do this. And I am confident without doubt that if we continue to leverage this technology across the province, we will make a significant dent in our wait times for MRI.”

Dr. Sokoro said nine out of the province’s 14 scanners, including machines at Boundary Trails Health Centre, the Pan Am Clinic and in hospitals in Winnipeg, Brandon and Selkirk, will have the AI software by spring 2026.

Adjusting how scans are scheduled, teaching staff how to use the technology and upgrading protocols are key in introducing the new software, he said.

While the AI technology is changing how staff use the machines, it’s not replacing people, he said.

He hasn’t heard any concerns about how it’s working but said it’s still early.

“I can tell you right now is we tried to look at every concern that we can hypothesize before we got into this business.… The biggest one was data security and privacy as well,” he said.

“That’s why we were convinced and confident that we could use this, because this is not a cloud-based system that sits somewhere. It is actually something that is sitting in that physical machine that it’s running on.”

Health minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a statement that “sites using the new AI-enhanced technology are seeing significant gains that are already making a difference for patients.”

“Preliminary data shows Boundary Trails reached an all-time high of 1,051 scans in October 2025. Pan Am has seen a 90 percent increase over the same period, and at HSC, the first full month of AI implementation in October resulted in a 24 percent increase in productivity,” Asagwara said.

The 2025 numbers were compared to the same month in 2022, as “it was the first period after the major pandemic disruptions where MRI volumes had started to stabilize,” their office said.

The upgrades have brought “shorter scan times, fewer repeat exams, and faster answers for patients,” the statement said.

The use of AI is also emerging in other areas of Manitoba’s healthcare system.

The weapons detectors at Health Sciences Centre use it, and there’s a pilot involving note-taking during doctor’s appointments.