VITAL: Canada’s Largest Hospital Data Network for Research and Innovation

Advancing clinical trials, AI, and a continuously improving health system

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What is VITAL?

VITAL is a new collaborative health data platform that will connect more than 100 hospitals across Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec, serving over 15 million Canadians.

VITAL will enable secure, near real-time access to hospital data from electronic health records for authorized research and innovation by responsibly harnessing one of Canada’s most important national resources – its highly diverse and comprehensive health data. All data will be de-identified and protected to ensure patient privacy.

  • 100 +Hospitals connected
  • 15 MillionCanadians represented
  • 3Provinces collaborating
  • $30MFederal investment
  • <24hr lagNear real-time data

Federal Investment

Commencing April 2025, VITAL received a $30 million three-year launch investment from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), to begin building the VITAL infrastructure connecting Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec’s electronic health records for research and innovation.

By 2028, VITAL will:

  • Create the largest hospital data network in Canada, and one of the world’s premier datasets for innovation
  • Enable secure near real-time access to health data for research, clinical trials, AI innovation, and healthcare improvement
  • Ensure provinces maintain full control of their data, while enabling secure analysis across jurisdictions  
  • Advance Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous primary health service access to hospital data about Indigenous patients through development of an exemplar Indigenous community controlled Indigenous primary care organization – hospital data linkage in Ontario that builds in Indigenous ownership, control, access and application of Indigenous hospital data

Why VITAL Matters

VITAL enables Canadian researchers, clinicians, and AI developers to work with real-world health data to:

  • Accelerate clinical trials, enhancing access for Canadians to cutting-edge therapeutics and medical devices
  • Advance medical AI through responsible use of health data from Canada’s diverse population to create AI tailored for Canadians and relevant globally
  • Improve care delivery and outcomes for patients by using data to advance best practices across the system

The VITAL Team brings over a decade of experience managing Canada’s largest health data repositories, collaborating with patient partners, scientists, hospitals, and government, alongside leading legal experts in health privacy and data governance, to improve the health of Canadians.

VITAL is committed to the security of patients’ health data, with each province maintaining ownership and oversight of its hospital data. Data will be de-identified and managed under strict governance frameworks that comply with federal and provincial standards for health data protection.

Indigenous data will be governed by Indigenous health service and governing organizations that will adhere to Indigenous principles and frameworks of privacy, data security, and Indigenous data governance.

AI is critical for Canada’s healthcare future. VITAL will safeguard Canada’s healthcare sovereignty by providing national-scale health datasets needed for AI innovation, owned and governed by Canadian not-for-profit academic and healthcare organizations. This will ensure that AI tools are developed, governed and commercialized in Canada for Canadians, and will generate long-term value by:

  • Creating homegrown AI tools tested on Canadian data
  • Driving commercialization in the life sciences sector
  • Reducing healthcare costs through smarter, data-driven care

VITAL will empower healthcare professionals to study, prevent, and treat diseases faster and more effectively, leading to better patient outcomes. The health information provided by VITAL will help healthcare providers understand health trends and improve the delivery of care.

VITAL is committed to including data from hospitals in both rural and urban centres, and under-serviced communities, ensuring that all Canadians benefit from participation in research and access to cutting-edge healthcare innovations.

Indigenous health data generated by the VITAL platform will be collectively governed by Indigenous health service and governing organizations representing the Indigenous people in the datasets. The initial focus will be the development of an exemplar Indigenous specific, Indigenous governed data platform in Ontario.

Linked research will be led by community-controlled Indigenous primary healthcare services and the Indigenous research team at Well Living House, and will uphold the highest standard of Indigenous data governance. Tangible benefits include improved Indigenous primary care agency support and hospital accountability to Indigenous community for the care of Indigenous peoples in Ontario hospitals.

VITAL is being developed in partnership with Canada’s national digital infrastructure, including the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, the national AI institutes, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Canada Health Infoway, alongside strong collaborations with provincial partners.

It is a collaborative, multi-provincial initiative, in which platform leads in each province contribute and benefit equally. Unity Health Toronto is coordinating the development of VITAL, working closely with its partners across three provinces:

Ontario: Building on the GEMINI platform in Ontario, which consists of 40 hospitals across all Ontario Health regions

Alberta: Alberta Health Services, the University of Alberta , and the University of Calgary

Quebec: Université de Montréal, Université Laval, McGill University, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) and McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)

VITAL Team

Contact the VITAL Team: vital@unityhealth.to

VITAL is an initiative funded by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and supported by provincial partners in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec.