Terry Fox Research Institute Funds 14 AI Health Projects
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
A $25 million commitment aims to accelerate precision medicine through a new national data-sharing platform.
As BetaKit first reported, the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) has committed $25 million to 14 Canadian projects focused on AI-powered health innovations and cancer detection. Announced Wednesday at the ALL IN conference in Montréal, the funding is distributed through the Digital Health Innovation Fund (DHIF), which is backed by federal funding via the Strategic Response Fund.
The initiative involves 55 partners, including healthcare organizations, academic institutions, and businesses, with a total project value nearing $41 million. According to BetaKit, the projects target conditions such as diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, ophthalmology, and cancer. Specific examples include:
* **Qalam Health Solutions** (Montréal): An AI-powered imaging platform for bone cancer detection. * **Onco-Innovations** (Calgary): A project utilizing AI and Canadian healthcare data to enhance cancer treatments. * **MetaOptima Technology** (Vancouver): The creation of a secure skin-health dataset to assist doctors in early high-risk case identification.
These efforts are built upon TFRI’s Digital Health and Discovery Platform (DHDP). TFRI states the platform allows researchers to analyze complex health data across various institutions without relocating the data, a process intended to maintain privacy while utilizing machine learning.
TFRI President Dr. Jim Woodgett stated that these collaborations merge research and enterprise to accelerate clinical care and personalized treatment. AI Minister Evan Solomon added that data-sharing collaboration is vital for ensuring precision medicine advancements reach patients nationwide. TFRI reported receiving more than 200 expressions of interest following the March 2025 application opening, with a second call for applications scheduled for this fall.