By: CIFAR
1 Jul, 2020
July 2020
From the report:
Canadian scientists have been pioneers in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), and the AI field in Canada has benefited from substantial new public and private investment in the last three years.
AI-powered technologies have particular promise in the health realm, broadly defined.
In particular, responsible use of AI could:
Canada has lagged behind many peer nations in its pace of uptake of digital healthcare innovations. This situation is impeding the development and scaling of AI applications in healthcare delivery and research
Many other nations have also made strategic investments in AI, and Canada’s strongly competitive position in the field is at risk.
The time is now for Canada to make strategic investments in a national AI for health strategy to leverage all of our strengths, foster collaboration and coordination across sectors and jurisdictions, and deliver better health for Canadians and the world.
Government action relevant to AI for Health (AI4H) is urgently needed on three broad fronts.