Dr. William W.L. Wong is developing AI-driven tools to improve hepatitis C screening to support Canada's elimination goals
Dr. William W.L. Wong, Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, has received over $852,000 in funding, over the course of four years, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to develop new tools for identifying people living with undiagnosed hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C is a viral liver infection caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that is often asymptomatic, with many individuals unaware of their infection and undiagnosed for years or even decades. Hepatitis C can lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. The Government of Canada has pledged to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. Wong’s research will also evaluate how machine learning approaches can enhance screening efficiency and support Canada’s hepatitis C elimination goals.
“This research has the potential to improve people’s lives by identifying hepatitis C earlier, before it progresses to the more serious conditions,” Wong says. “Earlier diagnosis and treatment can prevent avoidable illness and mortality, improve quality of life, and ensure more Canadians benefit from curative therapies.”
As hepatitis C becomes less common, thanks to advances in prevention, screening and curative antiviral therapies, it becomes more challenging to find the people who remain undiagnosed because they often have fewer obvious risk factors and less contact with the healthcare system. Wong’s research team is well positioned to address these challenges through access to robust health datasets, strong collaborations across Canada and extensive experience in hepatitis C research and modeling.
The project will develop and validate predictive models using population-level health data from multiple provinces. Researchers will assess how accurately these approaches identify undiagnosed hepatitis C, whether they perform consistently across populations, ensuring data-driven approaches are accurate and work fairy across provinces, and how they can improve existing screening approaches.
While the project introduces new predictive methods, it builds on research platforms already used to inform public health decision-making. Wong’s current hepatitis C prevalence estimation framework has informed national burden estimates used by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C Blueprint. His agent‑based modeling framework has also been used to evaluate hepatitis C interventions for Alberta Health.
"Our research will generate evidence to inform hepatitis C screening policy and help decision-makers strengthen screening programs across Canada," says Wong.
Beyond hepatitis C, the project could support broader applications of artificial intelligence in population health. The methods and data infrastructure developed through this research can be adapted for other infectious diseases and cancer screening programs.
Wong currently holds the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in HIV and STBBI Research.
“This project brings my research journey full circle. My PhD focused on machine learning, and I am excited to apply those skills to improve population health,” he adds.