About Us

GEMINI is a unique big data collaborative supporting cutting-edge quality improvement and research projects.

Purpose

GEMINI’s purpose is to harness hospital data for a “Learning Health System”.

A “learning health system” integrates day-to-day clinical care with research and analytics, so that patients can receive cutting-edge treatments, new knowledge is continuously generated, and healthcare is continuously improving.

GEMINI is a not-for-profit research program based at Unity Health Toronto.

Context

As patient records are digitized, the volume and diversity of electronic health data has grown.

Electronic data is not shared well across the Canadian healthcare system, and it is difficult to access for research and analytics, due to fragmented computer systems and a maze of legal and privacy barriers. Analyzing healthcare data can lead to a much deeper understanding of health, illness, and healthcare delivery and contribute to a better, more sustainable healthcare system. There is a global race to harness electronic health data, and Canada risks being left behind.

Ontario is a globally unique place to study health and healthcare.

With more than 15.5 million people, Ontario is the largest unified health system in North America, with a single public insurance system covering one of the most diverse populations in the world. This makes research in Ontario more inclusive, diverse, and representative of global populations. Research in Ontario can produce globally impactful insights and innovations.

Main Activities

  • Create efficient tools and processes for data quality assurance, standardization, and use
  • Create a user-friendly, secure computational environment
  • Advance and implement robust methods of data governance to ensure ethical use of data and protect patient privacy

  • Cultivate “open science” and advance the responsible sharing of data and research outputs through frameworks like the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable)
  • Provide resources, tools, and customized support to users
  • Convene interdisciplinary communities of researchers and data users, including patients and caregivers, clinicians, and health system decision-makers 

  • Conduct research that advances the understanding of health, illness, and delivery of hospital care
  • Conduct research that enhances the responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence and other data-driven solutions in medicine
  • Conduct research that informs health system planning and policy-making

  • Conduct and support research that advances the science of quality measurement and quality improvement
  • Provide data analytics and quality measurement for the Ontario General Medicine Quality Improvement Network to advance the care for general medicine patients in Ontario, who account for approximately 40% of emergency admissions to hospitals 

Timeline

  1. 2014

    GEMINI is established to study the quality of care in general medicine wards

  2. 2016

    First batch of data is collected from 7 hospitals

  3. 2017

    The initial cohort study is published which showed a dramatic increase in general medicine inpatient volume

  4. 2018

    The Ontario General Medicine Quality Improvement Network (GeMQIN) is established

  5. 2018-19

    First physician quality reports are distributed through GeMQIN

  6. 2020

    GEMINI partners with the Vector Institute to build a health data platform for Artificial Intelligence research

  7. 2020

    The GEMINI COVID-19 Hospital Analytics Laboratory receives funding from CIHR to expand GEMINI to 30 hospitals and study COVID-19

  8. 2021

    GEMINI publishes the first study describing hospitalization for COVID-19 in Canada

  9. 2022

    First hospital quality reports are distributed through GeMQIN

  10. 2023

    GEMINI data are linked at ICES, enabling research about trajectories of health before and after hospitalization