AI innovations in health care: New catalyst grants supported by entrepreneur Alan Grujic turn dreams into reality at U of T

Artificial intelligence is transforming industries and sectors everywhere, including health care. But, as demand for new tools that harness the power of AI in medicine continues to grow, how can we better expedite their development?

Now, thanks to a donation from technology entrepreneur and University of Toronto alumnus Alan Grujic, new catalyst grants at U of T’s Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Education and Research in Medicine (T-CAIREM) are helping more health care AI projects make the leap from promising concept to real-world solution.

"Alan’s support is helping ensure researchers have the essential funding to build and pilot AI tools that will meet the needs of health-care providers on the ground,” says Muhammad Mamdani, director of T-CAIREM and vice president of data science and advanced analytics at Unity Health Toronto.

“These grants are extraordinarily important, especially given the challenging research funding environment for projects that are truly novel and can’t point to prior proofs-of-concept. The Grujic fund is helping us show that AI tools are not only theoretically beneficial in clinical environments — but that they really can make a positive difference.”  

Mamdani explains how T-CAIREM brings together U of T researchers, clinicians and educators from across the fields of medicine, engineering, computer science and statistics to advance health-focused AI education, research and data infrastructure. The Centre is the first of its kind dedicated to the intersection of AI and medicine in Canada and has been recognized as a global leader in this rising field.

“Thanks to support from the Alan Grujic Fund, we were able to make significant progress on our research into improving the outcomes of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF),” says Yu Sun, MD, a professor of mechanical engineering. “We are creating precise, automated improvements in analyzing sperm samples for IVF treatments, which will make this reproductive technology work better.”

Grujic is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering Program and holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia. Having worked in both the engineering-automation and finance-automation spaces, he has successfully helped build multiple companies and now sits on the board of  two AI-focused corporations. He is also heavily involved with Silvertrain AI, the company he co-founded which provides consulting for businesses interested in developing their own customized AI tools.

“AI in medicine is incredibly important and powerful,” says Grujic, who now lives in California. “I don’t have a background in medical sciences, so I got involved with T-CAIREM to contribute to these important developments to the extent I can.”

Among the T-CAIREM projects Grujic says he’s excited about is a product that tracks body movements and biofeedback on individuals with movement concerns (for example, children learning how to walk), as well as technology that could assist researchers analyze the complicated processes in cells that turn a person’s genetic code into functioning proteins in the body.

The success of these projects is a result of the world-class researchers at Temerty Medicine, combined with the unique environment of the Toronto hospital network and community support.

“There are few places in the world that have the expertise and the ecosystem that we have at the University of Toronto,” Mamdani explains. “We have an incredible amount of skillset here – whether that be mathematicians, social workers, doctors or administrators – as well as data from a culturally and economically diverse network of patients. This allows us to develop systems that reflect the nuances and complexity of modern health care.”

For Grujic, the systems that really stand out are the simple, elegant ones that deliver quick outcomes. For example, a confidential transcription app that can record a doctor’s conversation with their patients and deliver a written summary plus key notes from the interaction, freeing up the doctor from having to take notes during an appointment.

 “I love simple solutions that can be repeated over and over, saving people time to do something more important – like focusing on patients,” he says.