Frequently Asked Questions

In 2024, Infoway launched the Centre for Innovation in Digital Health (CIDH), an ambitious Centre that supports Infoway’s ongoing national efforts to advance interoperability and seeks to raise awareness of and encourage the widespread adoption of Connected Care.

Alongside the launch of the CIDH, Infoway launched the Centre’s first initiative, the Connected Care Innovation Grant. The program was highly successful and has returned for 2025.

The 2025 Connected Care Innovation Grant Program, offered by Canada Health Infoway, supports clinical leaders who are driving grassroots initiatives that advance innovative digital health and interoperability-related efforts aligned with the goals of the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap. These grants aim to enable impactful projects that strengthen Connected Care for patients and providers.

The grants were open to clinical leaders across Canada – including clinicians, health provider groups, health organizations, and care providers – interested in driving innovative grassroots initiatives aligned with the strategic goals of the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap. Applicants also needed to demonstrate clear skills and experience in delivering clinical grassroot initiatives. Special consideration was given to applicants whose projects were focused on advancing Connected Care in primary or community care settings.

Applications were open from June 2 to July 18, 2025.

Applications underwent a rigorous, transparent evaluation process designed to ensure fairness, inclusivity, and alignment with the program’s interoperability goals. Projects were assessed against defined criteria to identify those with the greatest potential to drive meaningful impact and innovation.

The Evaluation Committee consisted of individuals that leveraged backgrounds in medicine, pharmacy, social work, nursing, digital health, and health system transformation.

Winners were decided based on the alignment of their proposed projects with the goals of advancing interoperability and Connected Care across Canada's healthcare system. Additional consideration was also made for projects that involve:

• The creation and/or sharing of Patient Summary data with other providers and/or patients to reduce the administrative burden for providers.
• Improving patient access to data and/or services in underserved communities, including Indigenous communities
• Improving patient navigation within the healthcare system through information sharing
• Data standardization initiatives
• Leveraging AI-powered technologies, including AI scribes, as a catalyst to improve the experience of clinicians and patients, with a particular focus on primary or community care settings.

Infoway is pleased to announce it has awarded 18 clinical leaders across Canada up to $40,000 each for the 2025-26 fiscal year, to advance grassroots clinical initiatives that focus on progressing digital health interoperability and improving Connected Care for patients and providers.

The selected projects will help advance a more connected healthcare system by enabling timely access to comprehensive patient information, supporting more informed clinical decision-making, and reducing administrative burden.

By drawing on the expertise of clinical leaders, these projects ensure that digital health solutions are grounded in real-world needs, supporting a skilled and empowered healthcare workforce. In doing so, they contribute to a more resilient, sustainable system that delivers improved health outcomes for Canadians now and in the future.

• Improved Care Coordination and Continuity of Care: All projects focus on streamlining care planning, reducing data fragmentation, and enhancing collaboration across settings.
• Enhanced Access to Data and Services: Many initiatives improve patient access to health information and services, particularly in underserved and Indigenous communities.
• Advancing Interoperability in Primary and Community Care: Several projects place an emphasis on enabling secure data sharing and modernizing workflows in primary care settings to improve system navigation and clinical efficiency.
• AI-Enabled Innovation: A total of 11 projects are leveraging AI-powered tools to enhance impact and improve project efficiency. Of these, five are specifically focused on implementing AI scribes to ease administrative workload and support real-time clinical decision-making.
• Data Standardization: A few projects aim to align standardized data formats and systems to support more integrated, scalable digital health solutions.

Recipients are based in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Projects include those led by organizations serving Indigenous communities and initiatives that contribute meaningfully to the growth and advancement of AI in healthcare.

Recipients work in a range of settings, including hospitals, provincial agencies, universities, clinics, long-term care facilities and non-profit organizations.

At this time, planning for future grants is still underway. However, Canada Health Infoway remains committed to supporting clinical leaders and advancing healthcare transformation across Canada through digital technologies that modernize the healthcare system and empower both providers and patients.

Each recipient is advancing grassroots clinical initiatives focused on progressing digital health interoperability and improving Connected Care. This includes:

• Alderville First Nation (Roseneath, ON)
  • Implementing a modern, cloud-based EMR system to replace legacy EMRs and paper records, enabling secure and complete data migration to improve care delivery.
• Centre CASA (Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, QC)
  • Deploying a paperless patient record application in community care settings, integrating clinical documentation, administrative workflows, and AI-assisted tools to enhance continuity of care and reduce administrative burden.
• Community Advantage Rehabilitation (North York, ON)
  • Implementing a trusted AI scribe, to reduce administrative tasks and enhance interprofessional collaboration, freeing up clinician time and improving patient care.
• Dilico Anishinabek Family Care (Fort William, ON)
  • Expanding the use of Televu smart glasses to enable more timely assessments and interventions, helping to reduce the risk of lower limb amputations in Indigenous communities.
• Dr. Pepe & Dr. C.Lin-Pepe MPC (London, ON)
  • Building on an existing AI scribe solution to enable continuous, AI-driven analysis of clinical and administrative workflows, driving process-level improvements in care delivery.
• Dr. Neil Naik and Amplify Care (Waterloo, ON)
  • Implementing an AI-powered virtual receptionist that automates routine calls, intelligently triages patient needs, integrates with EMRs, and supports multilingual communication.
• Live Well Medical Centre (Richmond, BC)
  • Introducing a Preventative Care Screening AI System integrated with their EMR to review patient charts and generate actionable clinical recommendations, optimizing the value of limited appointment time.
• The Edmonton North Primary Care Network (Edmonton, AB)
  • Transitioning from an operator-based non-urgent telephone advice line to a secure, AI-powered system for specialist input, featuring automated call routing and documentation.
• EssentialMD (Richmond Hill, ON)
  • Developing an AI-powered document processing tool that standardizes scanned medical charts from multiple sources into chronologically ordered, digital patient records.
• The IBD Centre of British Columbia Society (Vancouver, BC)
  • Implementing an AI-powered decision-support system to automate triage and management of referrals from primary care to specialized digestive care.
• Indigenous Diabetes Health Circle (Thorold, ON)
  • Managing and supporting the onboarding of new clinics into an EMR to ensure client records are managed effectively across our programs to support the centre’s full suite of services.
• Isabel & Arthur Meighen Manor (Toronto, ON)
  • Implementing an AI-powered voice documentation tool integrated with electronic health records to support more efficient clinical documentation in long-term care settings.
• The Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia (Dartmouth, NS)
  • Integrating AI Scribes across 46 community pharmacies to generate standardized Patient Summaries aligned with national interoperability standards.
• Plume IA inc. (Brownsburg, QC)
  • Piloting a medical scribe solution at Sainte-Agathe Hospital (CISSS des Laurentides) in both the Emergency Department and Discharge & Resource Planning units to support workflow efficiency.
• Squamish Nation (North Vancouver, BC)
  • Introducing a scalable, Indigenous-led care coordination system to digitize referral processes and improve automated data sharing.
• Tsow-Tun Le Lum Society (Duncun, BC)
  • Expanding an existing digital aftercare app to include a fully integrated Digital Aftercare Repository and Care Coordination Tool, supporting real-time collaboration and streamlined care planning.
• University Health Network (Toronto, ON)
  • Developing an AI-powered solution using large language models (LLMs) to identify social determinants of health (SDoH) from clinical notes, targeting patients eligible for integrated care programs.
• Walpole Island First Nation (Wallaceburg, ON)
  • Adopting Mustimuhw, a community EMR (cEMR) designed specifically for First Nations communities, to connect health and wellness programs and support holistic, integrated care.