How can we regulate the use of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare to harness its benefits while avoiding the pitfalls?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will rapidly transform our healthcare system. Already AI devices and applications are being used to support patients in prevention and health promotion, track patient data, triage care, scan medical images, diagnose disease, and make treatment decisions. Across the continuum of care, AI is predicted to assist and potentially substitute for human caregivers, medical service providers, diagnosticians and expert decision-makers. This stands to radically improve healthcare by improving efficiency and timeliness of care. At the same, there is great uncertainty as to whether Canada’s legal and governance structures are equipped to address the diverse concerns raised by AI health technologies. These include concerns related to product safety and efficacy, algorithmic bias, privacy, informed consent to care involving AI, and impact on the provider-patient relationship.

This projects seeks to create a set of policy options for the optimal governance of AI technologies in healthcare in Canada. Through a series of case studies and comparative legal studies (collaborating with scholars in the U.S.A., U.K., France, New Zealand, and Hong Kong), we will analyze existing legal governance of AI in health care and develop proposals to clarify, harmonize, and reform laws as needed. The project is a collaboration between leading scholars, innovators, decision-makers, and medical personnel.

 

Recent Events

  • The Crisis in Primary Care: Is Artificial Intelligence the Cure? - As many in Kingston and across Canada know, there is a crisis in access to primary care services.  Come out to hear leading experts in health and artificial intelligence discuss the opportunities and challenges for artificial intelligence to help address this crisis.  Issues covered will include generative AI, safety, privacy, labour law and policy, and more. Watch the panel discussion.

Recent Publications

Machine MD: Law and Ethics of Health-Related AI Case Studies
Les machines au service de la médecine - Études de cas no 4 sur le droit et l’éthique en IA au service de la santé
CIFAR 2023

  1. Machine MD: Law and Ethics of Health-Related A.I. Case Study 5: The Intelligent Powered Wheelchair S. Nunnelley, A. Goldenberg, C. Régis, C. M. Flood, T. Scassa, F. Ferland, K. Dahlia, A. Panchea, C. T. Sheldon, L. Hardcastle, and the workshop participants, (Toronto: CIFAR, 2023). (EN / FR)
  2. The OR Black Box (EN / FR)
  3. Suicide Artificial Intelligence Prediction Heuristic (EN / FR)
  4. Digital Twins / Les jumeaux numériques
  5. Cardiac Arrest Prediction / Prédiction des arrêts cardiaques
  6. Regulating the Safety of Health-Related Artificial Intelligence. Michael Da Silva, Colleen M. Flood, Anna Goldenberg and Devin Singh. 17(4) Longwoods Healthcare Policy 2022.
  7. Legal Concerns in Health-Related Artificial Intelligence: A Scoping Review Protocol. Michael Da Silva, Tanya Horsley, Devin Singh, Emily Da Silva, Valentina Ly, Bryan Thomas, Ryan C. Daniel, Karni A Chagal-Feferkorn, Samantha Iantomasi, Kelli White, Arianne Kent and Colleen M. Flood. Systematic Reviews 2022.
  8. AI in Canadian Healthcare: Algorithmic Bias and Discrimination. Bradley Henderson, Colleen M. Flood & Teresa Scassa. Canadian Jnl. Of Law & Technology 2022.
  9. Regulation of Health-Related Artificial Intelligence in Medical Devices: The Canadian Story. Michael Da Silva, Colleen M. Flood, and Matthew Herder. 55(3) University of British Columbia Law Review 2022.
  10. AI and Health Law. In Florian Martin-Bariteau & Teresa Scassa, eds., Artificial Intelligence and the Law in Canada (Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2021). SSRN 2021.
  11. AI and Healthcare: A Fusion of Law and Science – An Introduction to the Issues. Toronto: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. 2021. (EN / FR)
  12. AI and Healthcare: A Fusion of Law and Science – Regulation of Medical Devices. Toronto: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. 2021. (EN / FR)
  13. Artificial Intelligence in Canadian Healthcare: Will the Law Protect Us from Algorithmic Bias Resulting in Discrimination? Bradley Henderson, Colleen M. Flood, and Teresa Scassa. 2021.

 


Resources


 


Team Leads

Colleen M. Flood

Colleen M. Flood

Dean - Faculty of Law - Queen's University

Colleen M. Flood began her five-year term as Dean of the Faculty of Law on July 1, 2023. Dean Flood is recognized as one of Canada’s leading scholars in the area of health law and policy, and is an accomplished leader, author, and commentator.

She has made a significant impact on the policies and areas of research informing health services and care delivery sectors and public health, both in Canada and around the world. Her comparative research has been incorporated into national and global debates over privatization, health system design, accountability, and governance, pandemic preparedness and response and the role of courts in defending rights in health care. Her latest work focuses on the governance of health-related artificial intelligence.
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Anna Goldenberg

Anna Goldenberg

Senior Scientist, Genetics and Genome Biology - SickKids Research Institute

Dr Goldenberg is a Senior Scientist in Genetics and Genome Biology program at SickKids Research Institute. In 2018 she was appointed as the first Varma Family Chair in Biomedical Informatics and Artificial Intelligence. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, faculty member and an Associate Research Director, Health at Vector Institute and a fellow and AI Chair at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Child and Brain Development group. Dr Goldenberg trained in machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, with a post-doctoral focus in computational biology and medicine. The current focus of her lab is on developing machine learning methods that capture heterogeneity and identify disease mechanisms in complex human diseases as well as developing risk prediction and early warning clinical systems.
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Sophie Nunnelley

Sophie Nunnelley

Senior Research Associate - Project Manager

Sophie Nunnelley researches and writes on issues of health and disability law, legal capacity and decision-making, human rights law, and legal theory. She previously served as a Fulbright Scholar, Vanier Canada Scholar, CIHR Fellow in Health Law, Ethics and Policy, and Lupina Fellow in Comparative Health & Society. She also practiced law for roughly a decade, most recently as a constitutional and human rights lawyer with the Ministry of the Attorney General for Ontario. Sophie holds degrees in Law from Yale University and the University of Toronto, and has served as clerk to the Hon. Mr. Justice Charles Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Catherine Regis

Catherine Regis

Canada Research Chair in Collaborative Culture in Health Law and Policy - Université de Montréal

Catherine Regis is a full professor at the University of Montreal Law Faculty, holder of a Canada Research Chair in health law and policy and an expert for the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).  She is a researcher at Mila (Quebec Institute in Artificial Intelligence), the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center (CRCHUM) and the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technology (OBVIA). Catherine participated in the creation of the Montreal Declaration for a responsible development of artificial intelligence and currently leads the Digital Innovation & AI Lab for the U7+, an international alliance regrouping more than 50 universities around the world. Her research focuses on the regulation of AI in health care and of digital innovation more broadly.
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Teresa Scassa

Teresa Scassa

Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy - University of Ottawa

Dr. Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is a co-editor of the books AI and the Law in Canada and Law and the Sharing Economy, and is the author of Canadian Trademark Law. She is co-author of Digital Commerce in Canada, and Canadian Intellectual Property Law. She currently serves on the Canadian Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence. She is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, where she is part of the Scotiabank AI & Society Initiative. Her research interests include: privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, law and artificial intelligence, and smart cities.
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Devin Singh

Dr. Devin Singh

Physician (Emergency Medicine) - Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Co-Founder & CEO, Hero AI

Hero AI is a healthcare technology company dedicated to empowering patients and providers with AI. We were founded in 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by Dr. Devin Singh alongside a team of incredibly talented computer scientists and industry experts. Dr. Singh is one of Canada's first physicians to specialize in clinical artificial intelligence. He is an emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and holds a Masters in Computer Science degree from the University of Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in both the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Division of Computer Science and is an emerging scholar helping to innovate the regulatory, privacy, and ethical landscape for AI in Canada and beyond.
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Team

  • Fernando Aith - Professor of Health law at the University of São Paulo.
  • Sylvain Bédard - Patient Coordinator - Centre of Excellence on Partnership with Patients and the Public - Université de Montréal
  • Jennifer Chandler - Professor of Law - University of Ottawa
  • Nathan Cortez - Professor - Dedman School of Law, U.S.A.
  • Michael Da Silva - Lecturer - University of Southampton (U.K.)
  • Abdulmotaleb El Saddik - Professor - School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - University of Ottawa
  • Colin Gavaghan - Director - Centre for Law and Policy in Emerging Technologies - University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Jennifer Gibson - Director - University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
  • Vanessa Gruben - Professor of Law - University of Ottawa
  • Lorian Hardcastle - Professor - Faculty of Law - University of Calgary
  • Matthew Herder - Professor - Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.
  • Calvin Ho – Professor, Monash Law School
  • Tanya Horsley - Associate Director, Research Unit - Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
  • Florian Martin-Bariteau - Director - Centre for Law, Technology and Society - University of Ottawa
  • Jason Millar - Canada Research Chair in the Ethical Engineering of Robotics and AI - University of Ottawa
  • Jake Okechukwa Effoduh, Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law.
  • Bryan Thomas - Research Associate - Faculty of Law – Queen’s University
  • Kumanan Wilson - Physician - Department of Medicine - The Ottawa Hospital / Bruyère

 


Research Sponsors