Halifax-based Virtual Hallway has launched Asklepius, an artificial intelligence tool designed to help Canadian clinicians find evidence-based answers to clinical questions.

The company said Asklepius combines AI with information from Canadian clinical sources, including more than 500 clinical guidelines, provincial formularies, Health Canada drug monographs and drug information from the Canadian Pharmacists Association. Virtual Hallway announced the launch in a press release on Friday.

The tool is intended for questions that can be answered through clinical evidence, while Virtual Hallway’s existing platform connects clinicians with specialists when a question requires another clinician’s experience or perspective.

"As a physician, you have a question, and the answer lives somewhere, but finding it fast, and trusting what comes back, that's the challenge,” said Virtual Hallway COO and Co-Founder Dr. Daniel Rasic in the statement. “Virtual Hallway has the network of specialists and clinicians who trust each other. Asklepius adds a knowledge layer to the same trusted network resulting in better answers for our health system, developed by people who work inside it.”

Asklepius has been tested in a limited launch over the past six months by 725 physicians and nurse practitioners across Canada. Virtual Hallway said their feedback was used to shape the product before its wider release.

The company cited research published in JAMA Internal Medicine indicating that clinicians raise 57 questions for every 100 patients they see. It said finding answers can take significant clinical time and that unanswered questions can contribute to uncertainty, potentially resulting in referrals or emergency department visits.

Asklepius was developed in Canada by a team that includes practicing physicians and is designed specifically for the Canadian healthcare system. Virtual Hallway said the system’s responses are verifiable and grounded in Canadian sources, and that Canadian specialists continuously review the tool.

The company said Asklepius is intended to support, rather than replace, clinical judgment.

The tool is available at no cost to licensed Canadian physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, registered nurses, physician assistants and resident physicians.

Virtual Hallway was founded by Rasic, Dr. Jacob Cookey, Justin Hartlen and Dr. Luke Napier. The company operates a peer-to-peer consultation platform that connects healthcare professionals with specialists and also provides accredited continuing medical education lectures.

Virtual Hallway is based in Halifax and is 100 per cent Canadian-owned and operated. Its specialist consultation service is currently available in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The company was named CanHealth’s Company of the Year in 2025 and received Digital Health Canada’s 2026 Clinical and Care Delivery Transformation Award and HealthPro’s 2026 Healthcare Innovation Winner award.