Grant and Funding Programs Offered by AMS Healthcare (AMS)

AMS Healthcare is a Canadian charitable foundation dedicated to advancing a compassionate healthcare system that harnesses innovation, digital technology, and insights from the history of healthcare. It occupies a unique niche at the intersection of health services, ethics, and humanities by funding research, training, and leadership development in two core domains: compassionate healthcare technology and the history of healthcare. Through a portfolio of grants, fellowships, awards, and endowed academic chairs, AMS helps shape practice, policy, and scholarship across Canada.

AMS supports work in compassionate, technology-enabled care by funding early- and mid-career clinicians, educators, and researchers whose projects explore how digital tools and artificial intelligence can enhance, rather than erode, human connection in care. Key mechanisms include the AMS Healthcare Fellowship in Compassion and Artificial Intelligence, small grants in Compassion and AI, and specialized opportunities such as the AMS/OMSA Technology and Compassionate Care Medical Student Education Research Grant. These programs provide one-year fellowships and project grants with clearly defined budgets, eligibility criteria, and application timelines, often administered in partnership with organizations like the Ontario SPOR Support Unit and the Ontario Medical Students Association.

In parallel, AMS is a major national funder in the history of healthcare. It supports Hannah Studentships for undergraduate and master’s students, project grants for small-budget historical research, postdoctoral fellowships, and doctoral research awards. The foundation also endows multiple Hannah Chairs in the History of Medicine and related fields at universities across Canada, including a Chair in Indigenous Health and Indigenous Traditional Medicine. Collectively, these programs foster a vibrant community of historians and interdisciplinary scholars whose work informs contemporary debates about health, policy, and equity.

Across its programs, AMS emphasizes projects that link compassion, equity, and human-centered care to emerging health technologies, or that deepen understanding of historical practices, policies, and ideas in health and medicine. Calls for proposals typically specify eligibility (such as Canadian citizenship or residency, early- or mid-career status, or student level), require institutional support, and ask for detailed research plans, budgets, and letters of endorsement. Many awards expect tangible outputs within a year, such as conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, or public-facing knowledge mobilization.

AMS funding primarily supports healthcare practitioners, system leaders, educators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and academic researchers across Canada. By investing in individuals and small teams, the foundation builds a network of fellows, grantees, and endowed chairholders whose projects address issues like digital health equity, AI ethics, provider burnout, historical injustices, and the evolution of health systems. AMS also convenes events, podcasts, and resources to extend the impact of this work, positioning itself as both a funder and a thought leader on compassion and technology in healthcare.

AMS actively collaborates with institutional partners to administer competitions and disseminate findings. These partners include provincial research support units, medical student associations, and scholarly societies in the history of medicine. Beyond funding, AMS curates resources, podcasts, and public events that showcase funded projects and support broader dialogue about the future of healthcare, ensuring its grants contribute to both academic knowledge and real-world system change.