Canadian Cancer Society grant to fund AI-enabled healthcare

Author Sharlene Gandhi

An AI-based conversational chatbot will soon be rolled out to participants in a national cancer research project. 

AskEllyn, a chatbot that is designed to support people diagnosed with breast cancer, will support the research led by Brock University, funded by a Canadian Cancer Society Disruptive Innovation Grant. 

The chatbot will complement the healthcare provided by professionals, said Amina Silva, assistant professor of nursing at Brock University. The research will aim to collect evidence on the efficiency of an AI-based chatbot like AskEllyn, to see if it can be rolled out to support people with other types of cancers as well, she said. 

Ellyn Winters-Robinson, founder of AskEllyn, was one of the first clients of Gambit, a technology and AI solutions company in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Gambit has subsequently launched an AI for Good service line to support changemakers. 

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  • Sharlene Gandhi is the Future of Good editorial fellow on digital transformation.

    Sharlene has been reporting on responsible business, environmental sustainability and technology in the UK and Canada since 2018. She has worked with various organizations during this time, including the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, AIGA Eye on Design, Social Enterprise UK and Nature is a Human Right. Sharlene moved to Toronto in early 2023 to join the Future of Good team, where she has been reporting at the intersections of technology, data and social purpose work. Her reporting has spanned several subject areas, including AI policy, cybersecurity, ethical data collection, and technology partnerships between the private, public and third sectors.

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