Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies (DIGITAL) is investing $10.5 million across four projects from Canadian startups working on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare.
The projects aim to use AI to speed up clinical trials, improve connecting patients to doctors, improve file management for home care workers, and improve wound treatment. Private sector partner investments alongside DIGITAL’s contribution bring the value of the projects up to approximately $26 million.
The federally-funded innovation clusters like DIGITAL were created in 2017 to co-invest with industry partners to develop digital innovations through collaborative research and development.
“Our government is committed to helping businesses and researchers have the tools they need to harness the power of AI, while ensuring the technology is safe and benefits Canadians,” François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said in a statement. “This is why we are proud to support DIGITAL as it works to leverage AI to make significant advances in creating cutting-edge healthcare innovations that benefit all Canadians.”
DIGITAL’s largest contribution is going to Swift Medical’s $9-million wound treatment project, half of which is supported by the innovation cluster’s funding. The Toronto-based firm is looking to drive the adoption, evaluation, and commercialization of its AI-powered wound assessment, decision support, and predictive care technologies. The technology uses AI to identify wound types, determine if they are healing or deteriorating, and create a 3D model of the wound’s visible depth to eliminate the pain caused by manual measurements.
Swift raised an $8-million USD round of financing led by BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund in January.
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DIGITAL also backed Vancouver-based RxPx, which currently provides patients with personalized information and disease management tools. The $10.5-million project, of which DIGITAL contributed $3.4 million, is looking to develop an integrated “AI Clinical Buddy System” to help clinical trials with patient recruitment, adherence, engagement, and monitoring through personalized onboarding and engagement features.
Canadian-founded, San Francisco-based Power also recently raised $16.3 million CAD ($12 million USD) in Series A funding for its own platform meant to help connect more patients to relevant clinical trials.
DIGITAL contributed $1.5 million to Toronto’s Gotcare, which connects patients with in-home and virtual care based on proximity, specialization, language and cultural understanding. Its $3.1-million project is looking to bring AI enhancements to its patient matching service and virtual support, as well as develop its concept for a predictive health monitoring product.
The final project will see Montréal-based AlayaCare receive $1.1 million from DIGITAL as it looks to integrate AI into its health record platform, which it claims is currently used by over 700 home care service providers across North America and Australia. The $3.2-million project aims to include natural language summarization, conversational abilities, risk dashboards, and decision support to clinical supervisors and caregivers.
Image source Unsplash. Photo by National Cancer Institute.
