In cancer care, delays in diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death.

For patients battling aggressive diseases like triple-negative breast cancer, the manual review of pathology reports causes delays in treatment—sometimes up to six months.

“Right now, we rely on healthcare professionals to manually read through lab tests, imaging reports and pathology results,” explains Dr. Raymond Ng, founding director of UBC’s Data Science Institute. This process is time-consuming and prone to bottlenecks as specialists are tasked with sorting through complex medical information.

“There’s no reason for patients to wait that long,” he says. “Artificial intelligence can expedite the process, ensuring critical cases are fast-tracked to treatment, saving time and potentially lives.”

When applied thoughtfully, AI has the potential to be a powerful tool for good—by radically improving healthcare outcomes for everyone. Dr. Ng says that collaboration with public authorities is key to ensuring the technology is used responsibly: “Our work at the Data Science Institute has a strong partnership with BC Provincial Health Services Authority,” he explains.

Working with BC Cancer, Dr. Ng and his team have used Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automate the reading of clinical documents, enabling them to rapidly process vast amounts of cancer patient data.

“With NLP, we can extract information accurately and efficiently, allowing doctors to make better, more comprehensive diagnoses,” says Dr. Ng.

This automation could be a game changer, especially for high-risk cancer cases where timely intervention is crucial. Dr. Ng believes philanthropy can play a key role in scaling up this research. “Building the tools is just one part. With donor funding, we could rapidly expand our work, improving healthcare efficiency and patient outcomes on a larger scale.”

The Data Science Institute’s research exemplifies FORWARD, the campaign for UBC’s dedication to advancing healthy lives. Dr. Ng believes the university’s resources and commitment to health research have been crucial: “UBC certainly has all the right people on campus—so that we could form the right teams together, for this interdisciplinary kind of work.”

Dr. Ng’s vision goes beyond just faster diagnostics; he also sees AI improving long-term patient engagement. His team is exploring how user-generated data, like text messages or patient surveys, can help monitor conditions remotely.

“We want to develop systems that check in with patients regularly, monitoring their health and flagging when they need early intervention,” he says. “This kind of connectivity could significantly enhance patient care, especially for those managing chronic illnesses.”

While the future of AI in healthcare holds great promise, Dr. Ng still underscores the importance of human oversight.

“AI isn’t replacing doctors—it’s helping them work more efficiently and make better decisions,” he says.

“That’s the future we’re working toward: where AI supports healthcare professionals in delivering the best possible care.”