AI tools can bolster preventive health care

By Lethbridge Herald on November 28, 2025.

Michel Vallée
Quoi Media

While much of the recent focus on artificial intelligence (AI) has been on its potential to jumpstart the Canadian economy, this transformative technology also offers ground-breaking opportunities in healthcare.

Besides its potential to improve diagnostic accuracy, accelerate new drug discoveries and personalize treatment plans, AI can bolster preventive care and save healthcare dollars.

By using AI-powered tools like conversational assistants, healthcare professionals can make expert medical information more accessible to Canadians – empowering them to take charge of their health.

This is what we are doing at the Quebec Society of Vascular Sciences (QSVS).

We have recently launched a new AI conversational tool called Amelia on our Vascular Health Portal website to raise public awareness about vascular diseases – conditions affecting the veins and arteries, some of which can be life threatening – and to support healthcare professionals in diagnosing and educating patients.

We are among the first non-profit healthcare organizations in Canada to adopt this technology for education purposes, recognizing its potential to better inform and engage patients and their caregivers.

Ensuring better public education about the importance of maintaining healthy veins and arteries as a cornerstone of preventing vascular disease is crucial given Canada’s aging population and the increasing incidence of vascular diseases with advancing age.

The body’s vascular system is like a highway, transporting blood and delivering oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.

Blockages in any part of the network can cause serious – even life-threatening – complications, including high blood pressure, deep vein thrombosis, peripheral artery disease and pulmonary embolism.

Our portal focuses on prevention and education – addressing risk factors such as obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet, hypertension and diabetes.

Amelia builds on this foundation by offering a more accessible and interactive way for people to engage with the portal to navigate vascular health concerns.

Developed in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim Canada, Amelia uses a conversational format to interact with users – similar to customer/client service chatbots in other industries – allowing them to ask questions in English or French without having to worry about whether their queries are perfectly worded.

The answers draw on medical expertise from specialists with the QSVS, ensuring that the information conveyed is accurate and relevant.

Amelia responds to queries in clear and simple language, making it easier for people to understand often complex health conditions.

One of the advantages of using an AI conversational agent is that it can answer questions in real time around the clock – giving people access to information at their convenience.

Receiving a diagnosis of a serious health condition or disease can be overwhelming, with patients sometimes finding it difficult to know what to ask in the moment or even to take in all the information presented during a medical appointment.

Expert-derived AI conversational tools provide a resource that people can turn to for general follow-up questions about their diagnosis if they cannot reach their healthcare provider or just want to learn more about their condition; AmelIA includes a feature that enables users to print conversations or forward them by e-mail for future reference.

Amelia not only saves people the time of searching through multiple links online and potentially coming across harmful advice on vascular health, but its expert-grounded knowledge base also ensures that the information provided is relevant and credible.

While healthcare AI conversational tools should never provide medical diagnoses or replace consultation with healthcare professionals, they can play an important role in helping people make informed decisions about their health – closing gaps in accessibility by ensuring that accurate and vital information is always close at hand.

While concerns about AI often centre around privacy issues, AI conversational assistants like Amelia do not require identifying information to answer queries, alleviating worries that users’ personal details could be compromised.

AI advances are transforming our world. The QSVS is leading the way in harnessing this powerful technology to promote vascular health – providing a model that can be applied across other areas of preventive health.

By embracing AI advances, healthcare professionals can truly empower Canadians to take control of their health, helping them live longer and healthier lives.

Dr. Michel Vallée is a nephrologist at the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont in Montreal and the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal and president of the Quebec Society of Vascular Sciences.

©Quoi Media