Canada urged to lead health tech coalition

The next geopolitical contest may be fought over who controls our data and the artificial intelligence platforms built around it. Health data and AI systems will shape the next generation of medical advances and the future of our health system.

Canada’s Opportunity

For Canada, this presents both a risk and an opportunity. Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned that the global order is fracturing, pushing countries to rethink economic and technological sovereignty.

Health AI belongs squarely in that conversation, but Canada cannot compete head-to-head with the United States or China in a brute-force race for AI dominance.

A Middle-Power Alliance

Instead, Canada should lead the creation of an ecosystem among middle powers for health AI, built on shared data governance and technology platforms.

Canada already possesses one of the world’s most valuable health-data assets, an unexpected byproduct of its single-payer health system and diverse population.

This combination of diversity and comprehensiveness, across 42 million people, matters enormously for health AI.

Many existing AI systems are trained on relatively small and homogeneous populations, raising concerns about bias when applied elsewhere.

Global Relevance

Canada’s diversity means it looks more like the world than nearly any other jurisdiction, making it well-positioned to build health AI that is globally relevant.

The landmark investment in health as “mission one” for Canada’s new AI for All Strategy is an ideal launch-point for reaching this ambition.

But Canada acting alone will not be enough, as the centre of gravity in AI development is consolidating among a small number of American and Chinese technology giants.

Access to cutting-edge AI algorithms can be summarily throttled, and the U.S. government’s decision to suspend access to Fable 5/Mythos 5 models is a case-in-point.

Collaboration and Data Sovereignty

European countries have responded with increasingly aggressive data-sovereignty laws, but this fragmentation comes at a cost, limiting the scale and diversity needed to develop AI systems that perform fairly and reliably.

Middle powers could pool their strengths, share the enormous financial costs of advancing health AI development, and preserve national control over data and algorithms.

Emerging common data standards and “federated analyses” mean data do not need to leave a country to contribute to AI development.

A middle-power consortium could mitigate dependence on either the Americans or Chinese ecosystems and have enormous financial consequences, with the global health AI market projected to exceed US$1-trillion within the next decade.

International health-data collaboration is also essential for better patient care, reducing AI bias and improving fairness.

The infrastructure of 21st-century medicine is being built today, and Canada is a country that historically has exerted influence through coalition building and institution creation.

This is precisely the kind of moment where that identity matters, and Canada should lead a middle-power alliance on health AI to shape the future of medical advances and the health system.