Swedish delegation visits AI leaders in Canadian healthcare
A Swedish delegation, spearheaded by AI Sweden and representatives from Karolinska University Hospital, Skåne University Hospital, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, concluded an intensive, week-long exchange in Toronto, Canada. The visit was part of a strategic, international, collaboration project funded by Vinnova. The overarching purpose is to learn from organizations successful in the adoption of AI in healthcare and significantly increasing AI maturity in Swedish healthcare to accelerate its use.
The delegation visited several leading organizations during the week, including Unity Health Toronto - a global leader with over 50 deployed AI solutions - as well as SickKids, University Health Network (UHN), MaRS Discovery District, TIAP, Vector, and CIFAR, where they met with Elissa Strome, who has led the pan-Canadian AI Strategy effort.
A key takeaway and common denominator observed across all organizations was the systematic approach to AI adoption.
Fireside chat with Altaf Stationwala, CEO, Damian Jankowicz, CAIO, and Muhammad Mamdani, VP Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto.
The week's program centered on the four strategic themes:
- Working collaboratively and across silos in healthcare
- AI governance
- Specific AI use cases
- Defining the value of AI in healthcare
The successful organizations visited all emphasized structural and cultural elements - beyond just technology - as the true drivers of success, including strong leadership, an ecosystem-thinking mindset, a focus on change management, and the importance of multidisciplinary teams.
Espen Sigvartsen, Project Manager at Karolinska University Hospital, details the organizational structures and technological necessities that underpin these successes:
A key takeaway was their well-structured governance model, which includes active hospital leadership. They successfully bridge the technology-to-practice gap by integrating clinical professionals into their AI teams and they also require a committed clinical champion before starting any new implementation. Additionally, their technical environment supports streaming data, enabling real-time insights. Additionally, their technical environment supports streaming data, enabling real-time insights.
Espen Sigvartsen
Project Manager at Karolinska University Hospital
Lorna Bartram from AI Sweden and Michael Page from Unity Health Toronto at St. Michael's Hospital.
Lorna Bartram, AI Transformation Strategist at AI Sweden, highlights the key learnings and the path forward for the collaboration:
“Toronto has a vibrant AI and health ecosystem, with hospitals successfully bridging the difficult gap from research to implementation. Their success factors include engaged leadership, well-organized structures, a systematic approach, and a focused commitment to change management and clinical champions. There is strong enthusiasm for continuing knowledge transfer in leadership and skills development, which will be valuable for accelerating AI adoption in Swedish healthcare.”
Magnus Kjellberg, Head of the Center of Excellence for AI at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, offered a comparison and a forward-looking perspective on the Swedish context:
One reflection I made was that we in Sweden, on the whole, are not that far behind. It was also interesting to see how Canadian hospitals have chosen different approaches to AI, with varying emphasis on research or implementation. What we saw in Toronto will be a solid foundation for the action plan for AI in healthcare that we are developing. There were also many interesting projects and contacts that we hope to exchange with going forward.
Magnus Kjellberg
Head of the Center of Excellence for AI at Sahlgrenska University Hospital
Ulrika Pahlm, Chief Medical Officer for Digitalization, IT and Medical Technology at Region Skåne, concludes the summary of lessons with a highly practical takeaway on collaboration:
Experiences from both Sweden and Canada confirm that successful AI implementation demands broad, entrenched commitment across the entire organization. The partners we visited mobilized interest from all levels - clinical operations, IT, and hospital management. For successful implementation, a key takeaway for me is that it is essential that IT spends time within the clinical environment - ideally 3 to 4 weeks - to gain a deep understanding of workflows, existing solutions, and any workarounds in place. This lays the foundation for shared understanding and effective collaboration throughout the project.
Ulrika Pahlm
Chief Medical Officer for Digitalization, IT and Medical Technology at Region Skåne
The intensive week provided the Swedish delegation with validated best practices in governance, team structure, and implementation strategies, which will influence the different hospitals' action plans aimed at accelerating AI maturity. The collaboration will continue with active knowledge exchange and shared learning to ensure these structural and cultural lessons are successfully integrated into the Swedish healthcare system.
Organizations visited
- Unity Health Toronto - A healthcare network in Toronto comprising three facilities: St. Joseph’s Health Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare. Unity Health Toronto is a leader in Canada at developing hospital-based AI solutions, launching more than 50 artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics tools into practice.
- SickKids - The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country. SickKids Artificial Intelligence (SKAI) brings together clinicians, scientists and staff to explore and implement AI systems that improve care, enhance discovery, and support AI literacy and knowledge sharing.
- University Health Network (UHN) - University Health Network is a health care and medical research organization in Toronto with 10 sites. The UHN AI Hub's goal is to establish UHN as an AI-enabled institution across all areas, including patient care, research, education, and operations.
- MaRS Discovery District - MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity, provides direct support for startups, builds communities of innovators and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues
- TIAP - TIAP identifies, funds, and develops transformative, member-sourced, early-stage innovation into Canadian companies. Their portfolio consists solely of technologies in therapeutics, medical devices and digital health.
- CIFAR - The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a Canadian-based global research organization that brings together teams of researchers from around the world to address important and complex questions. In 2017, CIFAR was asked by the Government of Canada to develop and lead the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
- Vector - The Vector Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation located in Toronto. Vector works with institutions, industry, start-ups, incubators and accelerators to advance AI research and drive its application, adoption and commercialization across Canada. Vector Institute, along with Amii and Mila, are the three national AI institutes that implement the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy lead by CIFAR.
Ongoing healthcare projects
Advancing Healthcare with AI: A Swedish-Canadian Collaboration
Regional collaboration on the development of AI tools in healthcare
Responsible Use of AI in breast cancer screening
Training packages, Healthcare
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