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Fax machines standing in way of Quebec health system fully adopting AI: report
MONTREAL — The Quebec health-care system’s reliance on fax machines, handwritten notes and paper files is standing in the way of the province fully harnessing artificial intelligence, according to a recent report.
And the network’s ability to overcome its outdated practices could determine whether it becomes a global leader in health-care AI or languishes behind other jurisdictions, a digital health expert says.
Chief among the obstacles hindering Quebec’s adoption of AI is the prevalence of “outdated or inadequate” tools in health-care facilities, says a commission charged with advising the government on issues related to science and technology.
In a report published last week, the commission pointed to the multitude of independent databases within the health network that lack robust metadata — built-in descriptors that help software navigate and interpret information. Without this data, the province can’t deploy AI at scale because to do so computers would need to pull from vast, interconnected pools of uniform information, the commission said.