NL Health Services builds on work already proven in Ontario to bring Signal 1’s Canadian-built platform to care teams across the province.
Oakville, ON, October 15th, 2026 – Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Health Services is leveraging proven Canadian technology to help bring better service to patients and care teams more quickly and safely.
NL Health Services has entered into a three-year agreement with Canadian health technology company Signal 1 for its AI Management System (AIMS). The Signal 1 platform will support NL Health Services by independently monitoring deployed AI solutions for performance, accuracy and quality. AIMS will also provide a common way to evaluate AI technologies, track cost and impact, and inform decisions about which applications to adopt and scale across the provincial health system. Applications could range from predicting nurse staffing needs to helping patients navigate the health care system, with AIMS helping NL Health Services identify the ones which best suit its needs.
NL Health Services is a CAN Health Network Edge: a health care organization that partners with the network to test and buy new Canadian medical technology. Through this partnership, NL Health Services accesses the Canadian health system’s models of innovation, builds on evidence and experience that already exists, and tailors those solutions to the needs of patients, communities, and care teams across Newfoundland and Labrador.
As a Canadian company based in Toronto, Signal 1 previously worked through a CAN Health Network commercialization project in Ontario to validate its technology in a Canadian health care environment. Following that work, procurement and further adoption across Canadian health systems were made possible. As an Edge, NL Health Services was able to evaluate an established Canadian company and the evidence around its technology to determine whether the technology would be beneficial for the Newfoundland and Labrador health-care environment.
In addition, the Signal 1 agreement was accessed through Mohawk Medbuy, a CAN Health Network strategic procurement partner, which gave NL Health Services an established procurement pathway and further reduced the need to recreate work already completed elsewhere in the system.
The result is a faster path from innovation to implementation.
For a provincial health system serving communities ranging from major urban centres to rural and remote regions, the ability to identify technologies that have demonstrated value elsewhere, adapt them locally and scale them across the province can help get effective technologies into the hands of care teams sooner.
Signal 1 now works with health systems across Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia, as well as major health systems in the United States. Its Canadian growth highlights the opportunity to move proven solutions between jurisdictions and build on lessons learned elsewhere in the health system.
The NL Health Services’ agreement reflects the collaborative approach the CAN Health Network was built for: bringing health-care organizations together so that evidence, experience, and successful Canadian innovation can move across the country rather than stopping at the organization where it started.
Quotes
“I want to congratulate NL Health Services and its leadership for the approach they are taking. They looked across the Canadian health system, saw strong work already underway and made the decision to build on it rather than reinvent the wheel. That is how we need to work as a country. When we share what is working and give health systems the ability to move faster, we can get better tools to the front line sooner and ultimately deliver better care for Canadians.”
– Dante Morra, Founder and CEO, CAN Health Network
“Health systems are being asked to make decisions about a rapidly growing number of AI technologies. NL Health Services is taking an enterprise approach that will allow it to evaluate those technologies consistently, understand the value they are delivering and scale what works across the province. We are excited to work with their team.”
– Tomi Poutanen, CEO, Signal 1
“We are pleased to partner with Signal 1 as we continue to strengthen how we evaluate and implement new technologies across Newfoundland and Labrador. By learning from work already underway elsewhere in Canada and applying those lessons to the needs of our population, we can effectively and quickly offer services that benefit and improve the health outcomes for patients while providing innovations that also improve how staff and physicians offer care.”
– Ron Johnson, CEO (Interim), NL Health Services
“Like many new technologies, AI in healthcare holds great promise to reduce administrative burden, improve care, improve productivity, and support data-driven decisions. NL Health Services’ partnership with Signal 1 will strengthen our overall AI safety position along with evaluating how to best and most responsibly use this new technology for the benefit of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.”
– Honourable Joedy Wall, Minister of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
“Canada’s economic sovereignty relies on empowering our talent and scaling our world-class innovation. Through the CAN Health Network, Canadian innovators like Signal 1 are gaining the opportunity to demonstrate, validate and scale their solutions within health care systems across the country. Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services’ adoption of this advanced AI technology is creating good jobs, strengthening Canadian intellectual property and supporting Canada’s global competitiveness.”
– The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions
“Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services looked at what was already working in other parts of the country and put it to use here. That is the right call for a province where care teams are serving everyone from downtown St. John’s to the most remote communities on the coast of Labrador. Every proven tool we can get into their hands sooner means better care, delivered faster, for people across Newfoundland and Labrador.”
– The Honourable Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries and Minister responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador
“Canada does not have a shortage of promising AI. The challenge is getting Canadian technology adopted and working at scale. Through the federally supported CAN Health Network, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is putting Signal 1’s Canadian-built platform to work to manage and oversee AI responsibly across its system. This is how we strengthen health care delivery while helping Canadian technology grow and scale at home.”
– The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
About Signal 1
A Toronto-based company, Signal 1 is the trusted AI management partner for health care, helping health systems realize greater value from AI, proactively manage enterprise risk, and innovate with confidence. As AI advances from predictive models to generative AI and autonomous agents, we help organizations confidently adopt what’s next and make smarter decisions about their growing AI investments.
Our AI Management System (AIMS) gives health systems a centralized platform to govern and manage their AI portfolio, ensuring AI investments are safe, valuable and aligned with organizational priorities. Purpose-built for healthcare and used by leading health systems including NewYork-Presbyterian, Inova, and Mount Sinai, AIMS provides the visibility and intelligence to make more strategic decisions about AI across the enterprise.
About NL Health Services
Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Health Services is responsible for delivering quality health care to approximately 546,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. The provincial health authority is supported by over 23,000 employees and physicians who together work to improve the health and well-being of every person, in every community. NL Health Services offers a comprehensive range of health-care programs and services through a wide network of facilities, clinics, and community services across five zones: Central, Eastern-Rural, Eastern-Urban, Labrador-Grenfell, and Western.
About CAN Health Network
The Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network is a federally funded, national not-for-profit organization that brings health care operators together to identify challenges, validate Canadian innovations in real-world settings, and support their procurement and scale across Canada and into global markets.
CAN Health is designed to help health care organizations build on one another’s work, reducing duplication and creating faster pathways for proven Canadian technologies to reach patients and care teams.
