AI in Hospitals: Why Canada Needs to Move Beyond the Pilot Stage

Kosta Petrov, Managing Director at P World, talks about why the company is bringing its AI in Hospitals conference to Toronto this September — and why the timing has never been more urgent.

“Every hospital leader we speak to says the same thing: we are running pilots, but we cannot seem to scale them. We heard that enough times that we knew there was a conference that needed to exist.”

That is how Kosta Petrov, managing director at P World, explains the origin of AI in Hospitals: From Hype to Implementation. P World has spent 20 years organising conferences and training programs for senior professionals across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. On September 24 and 25, the company brings its AI in Hospitals conference to the Radisson Blu Toronto Downtown.

You are an event organiser, not a healthcare AI expert. Why are you the one building this conference?

That is exactly the right question, and I think it is actually our strength. We are not here to tell hospital leaders what AI should look like in their organisations. We are here to build the room where the right people can have that conversation with each other.

What P World does — and has done for 20 years across many industries — is identify the moment when a topic moves from emerging to urgent, and bring together the practitioners who are already navigating it. That is what is happening with AI in Canadian hospitals right now. The technology is not new anymore. The pressure to deliver results is real. And the people who have figured out how to move forward deserve a stage.

How did you decide who to put on that stage?
We spent months speaking to people across the Canadian health system — hospital executives, clinical informaticists, innovation leads, policy people. We asked one question: who in Canada has actually moved beyond the pilot stage, and what did it take?

The names that kept coming up became our speaker list. Health Canada, Alberta Health Services, The Mount Sinai Health System, Hamilton Health Sciences, Humber River Health, North York General Hospital, Unity Health, Horizon Health Network, Island Health, the Jewish General Hospital, CIHI, and the University of Toronto. These are not people who are talking about AI in theory. They are people who are doing it — and dealing with the real consequences when it is harder than expected.

What is the single conversation you most want attendees to have at this event?
Honestly? I want the person who has been struggling with a specific problem — clinician resistance, data governance, making the business case to the board — to find the person in the room who has already solved it. That is what a well-designed conference does. It collapses the distance between where you are and where you need to be.

We have structured the two days specifically to make that happen. The sessions are practitioner-led and case-based. Day 2 closes with a half-day workshop where attendees work through their own situation and leave with a concrete action plan. We are not filling a room and hoping for the best.

What has surprised you most in putting this event together?
How candid people are willing to be. I expected speakers to want to present success stories. What I found is that the most respected leaders in this space are the ones most willing to say: here is what we got wrong, here is what cost us six months, here is what we would do differently. That honesty is rare in conference settings, and it is what makes this programme genuinely useful rather than just impressive on paper.

Final question — why Toronto, and why should someone register now?
Toronto because it is the centre of gravity for Canadian healthcare innovation — the density of hospitals, health networks, and technology talent in this city is unmatched anywhere in the country. And the reason we are talking about it now is simple: the Super Early Bird rate expires on Friday, June 19. Canadian Healthcare Technology subscribers get an additional 10% off on top of that with the code CANHEALTH10. Group rates are also available for teams. After June 19 the price goes up — so if you are planning to come, now is the time to register.

The pilots have gone on long enough.

Full programme and registration: thepworld.com/event/ai-in-hospitals-from-hype-to-implementation