Using Artificial Intelligence to understand resource allocation needs at children’s treatment centres in Ontario: A pilot study

What is this project about?

In 2021, the Government of Ontario introduced SmartStart Hubs as a new mode of intake for the 20 Children’s Treatment Centres (CTCs) across Ontario, with the objective to provide access to services based on the functional needs for children with disabilities and their families. For this purpose, the CTCs are utilizing a tool developed at McMaster called “About My Child” (AMC) to gather information from families about the strengths and challenges faced by their children.

The AMC collects data structured according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). While the tool is very useful to determine the needs of individual children and their families, it is a challenge to obtain aggregated data from the responses, as much of the tool is free‐text or semi‐structured questions.

Our project aims to harness artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the data collected by the AMC. By using an algorithm to identify relevant ICF codes, we will capture the number and types of needs of children with disabilities and their families. This approach will reveal a more granular picture of those needs of the participating CTCs and enable them to be more effective in planning and resource allocation.