Urgences-santé enhances emergency care with AI in Quebec, Sept 2024
- Urgences-santé partnered with Airudi to develop the MODUS platform, an AI solution for optimizing paramedical workforce management.
- The platform analyzes various data sources to predict prehospital service demands, improving staff allocation and emergency response.
- This initiative represents a significant investment in modernizing emergency care in Quebec, benefiting both the population and paramedics.
In September 2024, Urgences-santé, Quebec's leading public organization for pre-hospital emergency services, announced a partnership with Airudi, a Canadian SME specializing in artificial intelligence. This collaboration aims to enhance emergency care through the development of the MODUS platform, an AI-powered solution designed to optimize the prediction, management, and allocation of paramedical staff. The initiative comes in response to increasing demands for prehospital care, with Urgences-santé handling around 1,000 calls daily, which represents 36% of ambulance requests in the province. The MODUS platform utilizes a sophisticated algorithm that analyzes historical data, real-time information, and various factors such as local demographics and weather conditions to predict service demands. This predictive capability is expected to improve workforce planning and ensure optimal deployment of paramedics, ultimately leading to more efficient emergency response services. Amanda Arciero, Co-founder and Vice-President of Operations at Airudi, emphasized the importance of equipping paramedics and managers with advanced tools to enhance service delivery. The project required a total investment of $2.3 million, with $1.5 million funded by SCALE AI, Canada's global AI innovation cluster. The gradual deployment of MODUS is set to take place over the coming months, with Urgences-santé and Airudi committed to sharing insights with other health ecosystem partners across Quebec and Canada. This initiative reflects a broader trend towards modernizing the paramedical sector in Canada, as other organizations express interest in similar AI solutions. By leveraging AI technology, Urgences-santé aims to improve not only the quality of care provided to the population but also the working conditions for paramedics and managers, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of emergency medical services in the region.