Learning Objectives
| Learn about how health data is used in Canada |
| Understand how you can use health data |
| Gain insight into how Artificial Intelligence can be used with health data |
In the previous lesson, we learned how and why health data is collected. In this lesson, we’ll focus on how health data can be used.
How Can You Learn to Use Health Data?
- You have a right to your own health information. You can request your information from the health care provider or organization, and in some provinces, you may have access to an online patient portal.
- You can use personal health apps and tools to empower you to monitor and be active to improve your own health.
- You can access national health information on websites such as Health Infobase.
- You can participate in national surveys and disease tracking to help public health agencies such as the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to shape public health programs.
How is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impacting Health Data?
First of all, what is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a type of computer technology that helps machines think and learn like humans. It allows computers to perform tasks that usually need human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing pictures, or making decisions. For example, AI can help voice assistants like Siri or Alexa answer questions, or it can help health care providers analyze medical images. AI is designed to make our lives easier by doing jobs faster and more accurately, often helping us solve problems and make better choices.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making a big difference in health care by helping us manage and understand health data. AI looks at large amounts of health data to predict things like how well patients might recover or if there might be a disease outbreak. This helps health care providers and policy makers make better decisions.
Remember, AI technology is just another tool health care providers can use to help improve care and health outcomes. It is changing quickly and becoming more advanced. As technology grows, AI will play a bigger role in keeping people healthy and providing better care.
Examples of How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Used with Health Data
| Supporting Clinical Decision-Making | Understanding Medical Notes: AI can read and understand notes from health care providers to find important data about patients. | Assisting with Diagnoses: AI can help health care providers identify health issues by analyzing patient data and suggesting possible diagnoses, like looking at medical images to find problems. | Personalized Treatment Suggestions: AI can recommend treatments based on medical guidelines and individual patient data, helping health care providers choose the best options. |
| Advancing Research and Development | Accelerating Drug Discovery: AI helps researchers find new drugs faster by analyzing biological data and predicting how different compounds might work in the body. | Enhancing Clinical Trials: AI can improve how clinical trials are designed and managed, ensuring the right patients are included and tracking progress in real time. | |
| Engaging Patients and Monitoring Health | Virtual Health Assistants: AI chatbots can answer patients’ questions, help book appointments, and remind them to take their medications, improving patient engagement. | Monitoring Patients Remotely: AI can analyze data from wearable devices and health apps to keep track of patients’ vital signs, sending alerts if something seems wrong. | |
| Improving Efficiency in Health Care | Streamlining Administrative Tasks: AI can help with scheduling, billing, and patient flow, making it easier for health care staff to do their jobs. Streamlining patient charting: Tools called AI scribes can record a provider-patient interaction, reducing administrative burden for health professionals and allowing them to focus more on direct patient care. | Optimizing Resources: AI can predict how many patients will come in, helping hospitals manage their staff and resources better. | Combining Data Sources: AI helps bring together data from different places, like electronic health records and wearable devices, to give a full picture of a patient’s health. |
| Improving Quality of Care | Monitoring Health Care Quality: AI can track health care practices and outcomes to find areas that need improvement, helping to ensure high standards of care. | Enhancing Patient Safety: AI tools can alert health care providers to potential safety issues, such as medication errors, by analyzing patient data. |
While AI is a helpful tool in health care, it’s important to remember that it should always be used with the knowledge and experience of health care professionals. Depending only on AI without expert help can lead to mistakes or missing important data about your health. Your health needs careful and personal attention from real experts.
Journey Video: Virtual Care
This video provides an example of challenges for older adults in rural Canada. Concepts include virtual care, eReferral, and how data sharing can improve access.
The course was developed in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada.