Canada’s federally funded Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies (DIGITAL) is investing $15.3 million into Health Compass II, the continuation of an artificial intelligence (AI) integration project from a consortium of Canadian healthtech companies.
DIGITAL backed the first phase of the Health Compass project with $3.1 million in 2022.
The $44-million project is led by Richmond, BC-based clinic management software firm ORX Surgical with collaboration from Tali AI, Healwell AI, Phelix AI, WELL Health, and Simon Fraser University (SFU). The amounts companies are receiving vary from $6.8 million, which is being invested in Well Health, down to $1.7 million, which is going to Healwell. Individual partner contributions make up $29 million of the total.
Health Compass II consists of four modules meant to engage with patients, automate administrative tasks, assist with healthcare documentation, and inform clinical decisions.
Each partner is working on a different part of Health Compass II. Healwell AI, which Well Health is closely associated with, is creating a clinical decision support module that aims to identify opportunities for earlier diagnoses. ORX is working on the patient-facing component, a virtual agent that helps patients find care providers. Meanwhile, Phelix is looking to help automate administrative tasks using AI algorithms. Tali is making the AI voice assistant for the project, which will capture medical information from recorded patient-doctor interactions.
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Meanwhile, Well Health will act as the commercialization partner and first customer, as all four of the Health Compass II partner projects will be integrated into its platform. Well Health says that its platform supports more than 3,400 clinics and 34,000 healthcare providers that use its tools, alongside a network of more than 175 of its own clinics.
“Canada has a significant opportunity and imperative to leverage our global leadership in AI research into accelerated commercialization of that research into Canadian AI applications and tools,” DIGITAL CEO Sue Paish said in a statement. “These tools will help solve some of the world’s biggest challenges while accelerating the growth of Canadian companies.”
DIGITAL, which was created to co-invest with industry partners to develop digital innovations, backed the first phase of the Health Compass project with $3.1 million in 2022. At that point, ORX, Tali, and SFU were working on applying AI to existing electronic medical records and used Well Health’s platform and clinical network to pilot the project.
François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, attended the funding announcement at Well Health’s Vancouver office, continuing the minister’s tour supporting federal investment in BC’s healthtech industry this week.
Of DIGITAL has committed $255 million to date, with $200 million being invested in AI-enabled technology solutions. The innovation cluster last invested $10.5 million in AI healthtech projects in May, which included projects looking to use AI to assess wounds and recruit for clinical trials.
Image source Unsplash. Photo by National Cancer Institute.
IThis story has been updated to clarify which partners are receiving investment funds from DIGITAL.
