Ottawa, Canada – The Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI), with support from the Standards Council of Canada, are pleased to announce the initiation of work on a new National Standard of Canada focused on Patient-Visible and Accountable Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Clinical Decision Support.
This new standards development effort responds to the growing use of AI-driven tools in healthcare settings and the need to ensure that clinical decision support systems are transparent, explainable, accountable, and patient-centred. The standard will focus on enabling patients to better understand how AI influences health decisions that affect their care, while supporting healthcare providers and organizations in implementing AI responsibly.
Advancing Trust, Transparency, and Accountability in Healthcare AI
AI-powered clinical decision support systems are increasingly used to inform diagnosis, treatment planning, and care pathways. While these technologies offer significant benefits, they also raise critical questions around explainability, bias, accountability, and patient trust.
The proposed standard will seek to translate federal AI principles and ethical commitments into practical, implementable requirements that ensure AI systems used in clinical contexts are visible and understandable to patients, and that clear accountability mechanisms are in place.
“Our work will center around making AI accountable and explainable for everyday Canadians,” said Atif Malik, Chief AI Officer at Zarori.
“We will achieve this by turning federal AI principles into practical tools that help patients understand health decisions in explainable language, clarify AI’s role in them, and become active partners in their own care through bias checks, appeals, and transparent summaries.” M. Malik added
The CAIO ended by stating that this work “Also ensures bilingual support in English and French, with aims to extend visibility to Indigenous and community languages for diverse Canadians.”
A Patient-Centred Approach to Clinical AI Governance
The standard will address key considerations such as:
- Patient visibility into AI-supported clinical decisions
- Explainability of AI outputs in plain, accessible language
- Accountability and oversight mechanisms for AI use in care delivery
- Processes for bias identification, review, and appeal
- Transparency requirements for AI-assisted decision-making
- Alignment with Canada’s healthcare, regulatory, and data governance contexts
By centring patient understanding and participation, the standard aims to strengthen public confidence in healthcare AI while supporting innovation that aligns with Canadian values.
Next Steps and Stakeholder Participation
With work now underway, DGSI will convene experts and stakeholders from healthcare, AI development, patient advocacy, academia, government, and civil society to support the development of the standard.
Organizations and individuals interested in contributing to this work are encouraged to express their interest in participating and help shape a national framework for accountable and patient-visible AI in healthcare. The work typically is conducted in English at this stage however, please let us know if your preference is in French as we will plan to accommodate to ensure you may participate in the language of choice.
To consult the current work item, visit Patient-Visible and Accountable AI in Clinical Decision Support
To get involved, please contact:
📧 info@dgc-cgn.org
About the Digital Governance Standards Institute
The Digital Governance Standards Institute develops digital technology governance standards fit for global use. The Institute works with experts, as well as national and global partners and the public to develop national standards that reduce risk to Canadians and Canadian organizations adopting and using innovative digital technologies in today’s digital economy. The Institute is an independent division of the Digital Governance Council. To learn more about the organization and its initiatives, visit www.dgc-cgn.org or contact info@dgc-cgn.org.