The Reach Alliance partners with Gotcare and Quinte Health to launch AI-enabled health platform
Gotcare and Quinte Health will leverage AI and digital health tools to allow local residents to access health care in their own homes
The Reach Alliance has partnered with Gotcare, a national technology start-up reimaging health services in the home, and Quinte Health, regional health network in Ontario, Canada, to better meet the needs of local patients using the AI-enabled Health Ambassador care platform.
The project launched in March 2024 and implementation will begin with selected hospitals in the Hastings region in July. The findings from stakeholder feedback will be used to improve the digital platform for full-scale launch in four hospital sites in the Hastings Region by May 2025. It will involve installation of AI-enabled triage and health monitoring tools into residents' homes, starting in North Hastings. Eligible people will be matched with a Health Ambassador, a community care provider with digital health skills, who will collaborate with virtual clinicians to respond as frequently as possible in the home setting.
As the research and academic partner for this project, the Reach Alliance recruited a diverse team of four interdisciplinary University of Toronto student researchers who will investigate how this innovative health care interventions can lead to improved health outcomes for geographically remote populations in Ontario.
Amareena Singh-Saleh - "It's amazing to be at the forefront of AI development in an area I've always had a strong policy interest in. The Gotcare project is a blend of both innovation and impactful research, and I’m excited to see how our work will contribute to the changing healthcare landscape. Working alongside individuals from diverse academic backgrounds to collaborate on a multidisciplinary project is a unique experience and I have found it to be incredibly enjoyable and rewarding!”
Arjun Singh Yanglem - “My team’s research with Gotcare is all about changing lives, breaking barriers, and making a profound impact by proving how AI can revolutionize healthcare delivery, creating positive changes in the quality of life for those in underserved regions, fostering stronger, and healthier communities”.
DIGITAL, Canada's Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, has provided $1.5M to support the initiative. Gotcare, Quinte Health, DIGITAL and the Reach Alliance at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy have teamed up to deliver on the shared objective that no resident gets left behind.
The Health Ambassador care platform is intended to bridge gaps in at-home care and primary care for residents who do not have a family doctor. It can also be an effective intervention for patients who require an alternate level of care (ALC), rather than remaining in hospital. Across Canada, approximately 15% of acute-level care beds in hospitals are occupied by ALC patients due to a lack of structural support for care at home.
The Hastings region, where Quinte Health operates, shows longer than usual wait times for primary care and home care, due to a shortage of nurses and other skilled workers.
The Reach Alliance is a consortium of global universities - with partners in Ghana, South Africa, Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore - developing the leaders we need to solve urgent local challenges of the hard to reach – those under-served for geographic, administrative, or social reasons. Since 2015 the Reach Alliance has recruited over 330 students across eight universities to conduct primary research and launch over 80 case studies on a range of important topics around the globe.
Working in interdisciplinary teams, Reach’s globally-minded students use rigorous research methods to identify innovative solutions to climate, public health, and economic challenges. Inspired by the United Nations’ call to eliminate global poverty by 2030 as part of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Reach’s mission is to pursue the full achievement of the SDGs by equipping and empowering the next generation of global leaders to create knowledge and inspire action on reaching the hardest to reach. "Innovative solutions addressing urgent public health challenges faced by last mile populations are a main research focus of the Reach Alliance," said Marin MacLeod, Executive Director of the Reach Alliance. "We recruit diverse and purpose driven student leaders from across all faculties and levels of study at the Mississauga, Scarborough and St. George campuses to conduct this important research and translate actionable insights for impact.”
Reach research is conducted in collaboration with local communities and with guidance from university faculty members. While adhering to all academic rigors, Reach Alliance students are included in and informed by advanced-level academic discourse. What results is rare access to performance coaching that ensures the success of student teams and the development of skills that remain valuable for one’s entire career.
With Gotcare and Quinte Health, the Reach Alliance hopes to reveal how innovative technology can positively impact all stakeholders, including patients and clinicians, as well as how home-based and early interventions create cost-savings for health care systems at large
