The University of Ottawa inaugurated the Ottawa Medical Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (OMARI) to centralize medical-AI research, led by Dr. Khaled El Emam, Canada Research Chair in Medical AI. OMARI aims to accelerate AI-driven healthcare tools, education and cross-sector partnerships by combining academic expertise with clinical data resources. Leaders said the institute will prioritize clinically relevant AI validation, privacy-preserving methods and regulatory-aligned evidence generation. The move reflects growing institutional investment in translating large-language models, imaging AI and decision‑support systems into clinical workflows. OMARI will likely shape regional collaborations with hospitals, health ministries and industry partners focused on validation studies, algorithmic audit trails and clinician-facing deployment frameworks.