• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
CAR - The Canadian Association of Radiologists
MENUMENU
  • About
    • President’s Message
    • Board and Executive
      • Call for Nominations
    • Strategic Plan
    • Annual Reports
    • History
    • Associates
      • Canada Safe Imaging (CSI)
      • Canadian Radiological Foundation
      • Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology
      • Canadian Heads of Academic Radiology
    • Corporate Partners
    • Policies
      • Disclaimer and Privacy Policy
      • Conflict of Interest Policy
      • Endorsement Policy
      • Communications Policy
      • Social Media Policy
    • Contact us
  • Membership
    • Member Benefits
      • Life and Disability Insurance
      • STATdx
    • RAD Resources
    • Join / Renew
    • CAR Affiliate Societies
      • Canadian Emergency, Trauma and Acute Care Radiology Society
      • Canadian Society of Abdominal Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Pediatric Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Skeletal Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Thoracic Radiology
    • Awards
      • Fellowship of the CAR Award
      • Gold Medal Award
      • Distinguished Career Achievement Award
      • Young Investigator Award
      • Scientific and Educational Awards
    • Career Opportunities
    • Volunteering
      • Working Groups
      • Volunteer Recognition
    • Trainees
      • Medical Student Network (MSN)
      • Resident and Fellow Section (RFS)
      • Canadian Fellowship Opportunities
      • Virtual Trainee Day
  • Advocacy
    • Submissions to Government
    • Day on the Hill
    • Radiology Resilience
    • Value of Radiology
    • Get Involved
    • International Day of Radiology (IDoR)
  • Patient Care
    • Practice Guidelines
    • Referral Guidelines
    • Guides
    • Statements and Advisories
    • Patient Resources
    • CAR Accreditation Programs
    • COVID-19
  • Conference
  • Education
    • RAD Academy
    • Events and Webinars
    • Accreditation of CPD Activities
      • CPD Accreditation Application
    • Peer Learning
  • Journal
  • Innovation
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Suggested Reading on AI
    • Specialty-Specific Resources for AI
  • News

CAR - Canadian Association of Radiologists

The Canadian Association of Radiologists is the national specialty association for radiologists, dedicated to medical imaging excellence in patient care

  • Français
  • Contact
  • RAD Academy
  • Member Login
MENUMENU
  • About
    • President’s Message
    • Board and Executive
      • Call for Nominations
    • Strategic Plan
    • Annual Reports
    • History
    • Associates
      • Canada Safe Imaging (CSI)
      • Canadian Radiological Foundation
      • Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology
      • Canadian Heads of Academic Radiology
    • Corporate Partners
    • Policies
      • Disclaimer and Privacy Policy
      • Conflict of Interest Policy
      • Endorsement Policy
      • Communications Policy
      • Social Media Policy
    • Contact us
  • Membership
    • Member Benefits
      • Life and Disability Insurance
      • STATdx
    • RAD Resources
    • Join / Renew
    • CAR Affiliate Societies
      • Canadian Emergency, Trauma and Acute Care Radiology Society
      • Canadian Society of Abdominal Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Pediatric Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Skeletal Radiology
      • Canadian Society of Thoracic Radiology
    • Awards
      • Fellowship of the CAR Award
      • Gold Medal Award
      • Distinguished Career Achievement Award
      • Young Investigator Award
      • Scientific and Educational Awards
    • Career Opportunities
    • Volunteering
      • Working Groups
      • Volunteer Recognition
    • Trainees
      • Medical Student Network (MSN)
      • Resident and Fellow Section (RFS)
      • Canadian Fellowship Opportunities
      • Virtual Trainee Day
  • Advocacy
    • Submissions to Government
    • Day on the Hill
    • Radiology Resilience
    • Value of Radiology
    • Get Involved
    • International Day of Radiology (IDoR)
  • Patient Care
    • Practice Guidelines
    • Referral Guidelines
    • Guides
    • Statements and Advisories
    • Patient Resources
    • CAR Accreditation Programs
    • COVID-19
  • Conference
  • Education
    • RAD Academy
    • Events and Webinars
    • Accreditation of CPD Activities
      • CPD Accreditation Application
    • Peer Learning
  • Journal
  • Innovation
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Suggested Reading on AI
    • Specialty-Specific Resources for AI
  • News
You are here: Home / News / Improving Access to Medical Imaging for Northern Communities

Improving Access to Medical Imaging for Northern Communities

July 12, 2021

To help improve equality in access to healthcare, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation will be providing funding for an innovative project focused on improving access to healthcare for remote communities. This was made possible through a donation of $1 million from TD Bank Group.

This project, spearheaded by CAR members, Dr. Reza Forghani and Dr. Caroline Reinhold, will use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze emergency medical images that require urgent review, helping to accelerate care and potentially save lives. This new technology will be mainly used for x-rays and CT scans, which are the cornerstones of emergency medical imaging and diagnosis.

The donation to the MUHC Foundation was made through the TD Ready Commitment, the bank’s corporate citizenship platform. The MUHC Foundation’s project is geared to help improve access to radiology which in turn can help improve early diagnosis and detection for the benefit of the health of remote communities in Quebec.

Using AI to Serve Patients

While AI technology is being used in radiology to read medical images and recognize diseases, including detection of conditions that present considerable risk for patients, the MUHC Foundation underlines that this investment will lead to better care, less unnecessary transport for patients and more collaboration between researchers and physicians.

“For remote communities who need hours to reach a specialized health care centre, a fast diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death. By using an AI-driven alert system to address barriers to radiological interpretation of urgent imaging findings, we hope to increase the accessibility and quality of specialized care provided to our remote communities”.

– Dr. Caroline Reinhold

 

Drs. Forghani and Reinhold are Co-Directors of the Augmented Intelligence & Precision Health Laboratory (AIPHL) of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). The aim is to prioritize radiology images revealing potentially fatal medical conditions and transmitting these images directly to the radiology specialist on duty as soon as they are obtained. The radiology specialist can then alert the remote hospital of the conditions that need to be promptly treated, such as a collapsed lung, bowel perforation or even a stroke.


“There has been a lot of excitement about the potential of AI. This project aims to move AI from theory to direct clinical practice, improving specialty level emergency care and health equity for our remote communities. Successful implementation can also provide a model for future AI diagnostic assistant tool deployment across the province.”

– Dr. Reza Forghani

“In remote communities, every second counts when it comes to dispensing urgent care. Knowing that patients who suffer a stroke in rural communities are 30% more likely to die than patients in urban areas, this project developed by our experts has the potential to help save countless lives,” stated Julie Quenneville, President and CEO of the MUHC Foundation.

Thanks to the donation from TD, this initiative will have a positive impact on the entire McGill Réseau Universitaire Intégré de Santé et Services Sociaux (RUISSS) including 200,000 individuals living in the Nord-du-Québec and Abitibi-Témiscamingue regions, for whom the possibility of being transported to the MUHC is very limited. Eventually, this project could considerably impact all 7 million Canadians who currently live in rural communities.

Teleradiology in the North

To further increase access to Northern Indigenous communities, the CAR has partnered with Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) to evaluate the quality of teleradiology services in these populations to improve workflow and to minimize patient transportation in remote healthcare facilities. The project is called Access to Medical Imaging in Nordic and Isolated Communities: Mixed Methods Evaluation of Quality and Cultural Safety of Services in Quebec. The ultimate goal is to better serve patients, minimize displacement for medical imaging procedures and to build the infrastructure that is essential to deliver radiology services.

“This project will evaluate the current situation with regards to use, availability, infrastructure and workflow process of teleradiology service in Northern and isolated communities of Quebec. This information will be very valuable to define the gaps that could be filled by the appropriate use of artificial intelligence. This quality assessment done in collaboration with McGill will be very synergistic with the AI project for Northern populations lead by Dr Reinhold and Forghani.”

– Dr. Gilles Soulez, CAR President

 

Providing direct access through teleradiology is also a cost-effective solution saving thousands in travel for patients. While an initial investment may be necessary, the long-term savings will be significant and more importantly an elevated standard of patient care. The CAR will embark on this project over the course of the next two years, championed by Dr. Gilles Soulez and Dr. Magali Nicolas-Vullierme, Université de Montreal.

“Through a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the current infrastructure’s status, workflow and quality of medical imaging services, we aim to understand whether the development of teleradiology could enhance health security of those communities, but also cultural safety of interested Indigenous communities.”

– Dr. Magali Nicolas-Vullierme

Footer

Mailing Address

The Canadian Association of Radiologists
1120-220 Laurier Ave W
Ottawa, ON K1P 5Z9
Canada

Contact

Tel.: 613 860-3111
email: [email protected]

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Disclaimer

The material provided on this website is only intended for informational purposes. The CAR is committed to maintaining the accuracy, security and confidentiality of your personal information in accordance with applicable legislation. All personal information collected by the CAR via this website or otherwise is done so in accordance with the CAR privacy policy https://car.ca/about/disclaimer-and-privacy-policy.

© Copyright 2025

X