Digital strategy on phiz

The Future of Public Health: AI, Automation & What's Next

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Join Ontario public health leaders in Guelph on November 20, 2026, for a first annual symposium exploring AI, automation, research, and public health practice.

Year 1 of an AI Governance Program at a Medium-Sized Local Public Health Unit

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

AI governance has to work within the organization that actually exists. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is a medium-sized local public health unit in Ontario, with approximately 200 staff serving about 350,000 people. Most of our staff work in public health nursing, inspection, health promotion, and other program areas.

We began formalizing governance while staff were already experimenting with AI and several projects were moving into production. Our first year focused on making governance workable in this environment: setting strategic direction before adding rules, extending processes the organization already trusted, and using an established framework while keeping our own values and obligations at the centre.

This article is adapted from a presentation delivered on July 21st in Montreal at the 2026 AI4PH Summer Institute.

Phiz: Designing the Future of Public Health - Together

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Public health is powerful, but it deserves systems that match its purpose.

What if public health wasn’t defined by its constraints, but by its potential?

Across Ontario and beyond, public health teams do extraordinary work under extraordinary pressure. They manage complexity, navigate uncertainty, and protect communities using systems that weren’t built for the pace or demands of today’s world.

But what if that could change?

What if we chose to reimagine everything?

Phiz was created as a bold answer to that question.

Phiz is a public health innovation zone dedicated to weaving emerging data practices, human-centred design, modern technology, and collective creativity into the daily work of public health. We exist to help every community, large or small, experience the benefits of a stronger, smarter, more modernized public health system.

Not someday.

Not hypothetically.

But now.