INOVAIT releases toolkit for digital innovators

TORONTO – INOVAIT, Canada’s image-guided therapy and artificial intelligence (AI) network, is announcing the publication of its health data licensing tools, the Data Licensing Toolkit (Version 1.0). The Data Licensing Toolkit supports Canadian healthcare institutions in establishing governance processes for responsible and trustworthy sharing of de-identified health data with industry and other partners.

Version 1.0 of the Toolkit includes INOVAIT’s Data Request Evaluation Scorecard. The Scorecard provides a structured methodology for institutions to identify and mitigate risk, capture benefits, and gather the diverse input needed to perform institutional reviews of data-sharing requests for technology development, such as AI.

The Scorecard was validated and is used by the Data Access Committee at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

The Toolkit is free and accessible for hospitals and not-for-profits through a non-exclusive licensing agreement. Healthcare institutions and not-for-profits that access the Toolkit are also joining a growing community of healthcare institutions across Canada that share a common goal of responsibly and ethically fostering innovation.

The agreement ensures that institutions that adopt the Toolkit will share improvements and best practices for the benefit of other organizations using the Toolkit.

“Canadian health data is very valuable, and healthcare institutions in Canada are getting more requests to share data with the private sector for AI development”, said Phil Boyer (pictured), program manager of health data innovation for INOVAIT. “They want to support Canadian healthcare innovation to benefit Canadians, but they’re struggling with how to engage in this kind of data sharing safely and responsibly.”

He added, “Along with the Data Mobilization framework we published last year, Version 1.0 of this Toolkit is the next step in addressing that challenge.”

Interested healthcare institutions and not-for-profits can request access to the Toolkit today through the INOVAIT website at www.inovait.ca/data-licensing-toolkit.

About INOVAIT
INOVAIT is Canada’s image-guided therapy (IGT) and artificial intelligence (AI) network. As a pan-Canadian network, INOVAIT supports companies and academic institutions from coast to coast to commercialize cutting-edge medical technologies that positively impact the healthcare system and create high-quality jobs. The network brings together companies, research institutes, post-secondary institutions, and not-for-profit organizations to collaborate on game-changing projects to transform healthcare. INOVAIT strengthens the Canadian medtech ecosystem by fuelling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare. INOVAIT was established in 2020 by Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada’s Strategic Response Fund.

About Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the over 1 million patients the hospital cares for each year through the dedication of its more than 12,000 staff and volunteers. An internationally recognized leader in research and education and a full affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada’s premier academic health sciences centres. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for high-risk pregnancies, critically ill newborns and adults, offering specialized rehabilitation and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. The hospital also has a unique and national leading program for the care of Canada’s war veterans.