Canada faces several challenges.  A strained health care system, concerns over sovereignty and an economy that is confronted by a new geo-political reality. Breakthroughs in AI offer solutions to these challenges and Canada has a health data advantage due to our universal system and diverse population that positions us to lead the new health AI economy.

Our mission is to support the transformation of Canada’s health system with legal and policy guidance combined with leading data assets and expertise to improve care—while ensuring safety, equity, and accountability, growing the domestic healthcare economy and maintaining sovereignty over our health system and data.

Dedicated to health AI with built-in policy and governance expertise, HALO aims to bridge the gap between academia, hospitals, government and innovators to support responsible AI for health, built on data, law and discovery. 

HALO – Health AI and Law in Ottawa – bridges the gap across disciplines to better support Canada’s health innovation. Based at the University of Ottawa, HALO unites the Faculty of Medicine’s strengths in big data, clinical trials, and knowledge translation with the Faculty of Law’s expertise in AI governance, privacy, ethics, and data sovereignty – in addition to leading expertise on health data and responsible technology design in the Faculty of Arts and the Telfer School of Management.  

At HALO, policy guidance and governance frameworks learn from and leverage the groundbreaking theoretical and applied research led by the research institutes in the medical organisations in Ottawa and across Canada. 

HALO brings together leading research and policy institutions at the heart of Canada’s capital to lead transformative research.