Canada’s largest hospital data network for research and innovation
Vital is a sovereign platform enabling secure, near real-time access to hospital data for research and innovation, built on the proven GEMINI infrastructure. Vital's first phase connects 160 hospitals across Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, and is now expanding to additional provinces and territories.
Vital aims to improve healthcare, enhance patients’ access to cutting-edge treatments, and catalyze economic development. Vital has three key areas of research and innovation:
- Clinical trials: Digitizing patient recruitment and data collection so trials are larger, faster, more generalizable and cost efficient.
- AI: A network of "living laboratories" where AI technologies are developed, implemented and evaluated in real-world settings.
- Observational research: Real-world studies on dynamic health system issues, including critical care capacity, trauma, infectious outbreak surveillance.
Vital respects provincial governance while enabling data access across jurisdictions for research and innovation. As a sovereign health data infrastructure, Vital ensures the secure and responsible use of high-quality hospital data to drive a robust life sciences sector and economic development. It also enables larger, more diverse, and more equitable data coverage, helping ensure people across the country benefit from innovation while providing the scale and diversity of data needed for advanced discovery.
Co-Leads
Fahad Razak (Unity Health Toronto)
Amol Verma (Unity Health Toronto)
Collaborating Institutions
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- The Hospital for Sick Children
- McGill University and McGill University Health Centre
- Sinai Health
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences
- Université de Montréal
- Université Laval
- University Health Network
- University of Alberta
- University of Calgary
- University of Ottawa
- University of Toronto
- Well Living House (Unity Health Toronto)
Funding
$100M from Government of Canada's National AI Strategy: AI for All
$30M from Government of Canada's Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED)
$24.6M from Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)