Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare in Canada: Contrasting Advances and Challenges

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools are transforming healthcare, offering potential benefits such as alleviating administrative burdens, optimizing workflows and supporting diagnostics and personalized treatment for improved patient outcomes. With the increasing availability of AI-enabled tools, it is important to consider the potential for both benefit and harm and what is needed to support generalizable and beneficial, equitable progress. This paper provides a brief history of AI advancements leading to the current state in Canada, reviews trends in applications and research, and discusses the balancing act between achieving positive and negative outcomes. Woven throughout are high-level overviews of concepts and references to key initiatives, regulations and guidelines relevant to the Canadian context as well as more in-depth, contrasting examples to highlight how the apparent explosion of AI is happening at varied paces across applications, specialties and regions. The piece includes system- and population-level perspectives on suspected future implications and needs as the number and type of AI-enabled tools used in healthcare increases.