In March, Maclean’s partnered with McKesson Canada to host the first Patient Innovation Summit, convening leaders from across the health care ecosystem to explore how the field’s newest frontier—artificial intelligence—is reshaping care and accelerating access for patients.

“Our vision was simple but ambitious,” said Dimitris Polygenis, President of McKesson Canada, in his opening remarks. “To bring leaders together who have the ability to shape where health care goes next, and how we act on it now.” He urged participants to see the current moment as an opportunity for collaboration across the health care system, noting, “Every person here has the power to make a difference.”

Maclean’s Publisher Jason Maghanoy reinforced that call. “AI has the potential to reshape the relationship between patients and the health care system,” he said. “But technology alone won’t determine that future, the leaders in this room will.”

With that challenge set, the evening moved into the opening keynotes.

Keynotes: Decisions That Shape What Comes Next

The Summit’s three opening keynotes shared a common theme: while organizations may be at different stages of adoption, the choices made today about data, governance, and deployment will determine whether AI scales or stays at the margins.

Dr. Helia Mohammadi, Chief Research and Technology Officer at City of Hope—one of the U.S.’ largest cancer centres—grounded the discussion in infrastructure. She emphasized that strong, integrated data foundations are a prerequisite for meaningful progress. At many hospitals, she said, finding the right patients for clinical trials is a challenge. At City of Hope, the solution came in the form of an AI model which analyzes patients’ health data to match them with trials they’d benefit from. “It allows us not only to match patients at the point of care, but also to deploy trials more strategically, based on where the data suggests more patients will have access to innovative therapies.”

Dr. Muhammed Mamdani, Clinical Lead for AI at Ontario Health and director of the University of Toronto’s Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM), shifted the focus to execution. Drawing from his experience with hospital settings, he described a system that uses AI to continuously monitor patient demographics, labs, and vital signs, leading to fewer unexpected deaths, and challenged the assumption that technologies must be fully explainable to earn trust. In medicine, he noted, reliability and demonstrated outcomes often matter most.

Dr. Zayna Khayat, Chief Program Officer at AMS Healthcare and Adjunct Faculty at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management offered a broader perspective, comparing innovation in health care to a stage production. AI, she said, has been operating behind the scenes. Now, it’s time to bring it to centre stage, where patients are already waiting. She said that with AI tools in their hands, patients are becoming drivers of innovation themselves, rather than just passive recipients.

Panel: Accelerating Innovation from the Edges to the Core

The panel discussion which followed explored what it takes to scale AI responsibly, bringing perspectives from pharmacy, digital health, pharma and care delivery. Panelists agreed patient expectations around AI are already reshaping the system.

Dr. Jeff Nagge, associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy, said patients are already arriving armed with AI-generated insights, which is changing the nature of clinical conversations. From the technology side, Dialogue CEO Cherif Habib said his company has had a decade long focus on using digital tools to reduce friction around care, which has freed clinicians to spend more time with patients. With AI accelerating, Habib was clear that the human relationship between patient and physician remains central, though nearly everything around that interaction is now a candidate for AI transformation.

Manasi Kulkarni, Senior Vice President of Specialty Health and Manufacturer Partnerships at McKesson Canada, pointed to several areas where AI, technology, and data could help simplify the patient experience. One focus, she said, is by automating administrative steps and reducing handoffs, streamlining the patient experience. She also highlighted adherence as an emerging area, where data can help identify patients at risk of dropping off therapy and enable earlier, more targeted support.

That conversation naturally turned to trust and regulation. Roger Tam, Director and General Counsel at Roche Canada argued that regulation, when done well, enables innovation rather than slowing it down. “How many of you would get into a car without brakes? You need to have some element of control,” he said, suggesting that brakes actually help you get around the track faster.

The summit concluded with thoughts from panelists on what can be done to bring AI closer to their operations right now. Kulkarni and Nagge agreed AI can be brought into all kinds of everyday work. Habib echoed this, adding that a work culture open to AI is crucial. “I think that really gives people permission to innovate,” he said.