Health information is among the most personal data people have. Questions about how it is collected, shared and protected are increasingly tied to whether people trust the health system — and whether they are comfortable with AI playing a role in their care.

For Gerry Fairweather (BScE’94, MEng’03), that responsibility has never been abstract. Ensuring the secure, ethical handling of health information has been a driving force of his work for decades. Earlier in his career, it was written directly into his role. During his time as chief information officer for the Government of New Brunswick, Gerry was directly responsible for privacy oversight across provincial systems. “I was accountable for the privacy legislation, RTIPPA, the Right to Information Protection of Privacy Act. So, I was sort of the business owner for that.” 

Gerry explains that one of the hardest parts of applying AI in health care is balancing access to data with the responsibility to protect it. “Rightfully so, privacy can be a barrier to that.” But rather than seeing privacy as an obstacle, Gerry views it as a necessary guardrail — one that forces better design and more trustworthy systems.

Systems people rely on

Long before AI entered everyday conversation, Gerry was focused on the foundational systems people rely on. Now he’s the chief information officer at VeroSource, a New Brunswick–based digital health technology company that builds secure software to help people, clinicians, and health systems access and use health information safely and effectively.

“Do you know what MyHealthNB is?” he asks inquisitively. “We built that. And if you look even deeper into the app, you can see things like wait times for emergency departments, medical imaging and surgical access.” MyHealthNB gives New Brunswick residents digital access to their health information alongside real-time system data. To Gerry, it reflects years of foundational work — building the electronic health record systems and integration layers required long before a public-facing app was possible.

Those foundations were built during his time with the New Brunswick Department of Health, where he spent more than a decade working in enterprise architecture and digital health. He later served as the province’s chief digital officer and then as chief information officer, with responsibility for cybersecurity, privacy legislation, and provincewide digital transformation.

Where AI can and can’t help

Gerry is careful to separate hype from reality. While he acknowledges the risks that come with emerging technology, he also sees enormous potential when AI is used thoughtfully with a clear understanding of its limits. “There are a lot of things you can do with AI that you couldn’t do otherwise. It can help us do so much more than we could before.”

VeroSource brings together scattered health information and helps people access their records, while AI and advanced analytics supports care teams with a full view of each patient, enabling more personalized approaches to care. It can also reveal patterns that improve planning and guide decisions when the system is under strain. The goal isn’t automation for its own sake, but clarity that helps people focus where it matters most.

But that potential comes with risk.

“We still need the human side to make sure that we don’t get lost in the technology.”

For Gerry, that means remembering that technology should support care, not define it. AI can surface insights, but it can’t replace judgement, compassion or context.

A pivotal return to UNB

Gerry’s path into digital health was not direct. After earning a bachelor of science
in survey engineering from UNB in 1994, he began his career building highways and working on projects like the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline. It was steady, practical work, but it wasn’t where he saw himself long term. Nearly a decade later, an offhand comment changed everything.

“The guy sitting behind me said, ‘If I were younger and didn’t have a family, I’d go back to school and do something else.’ And I remember thinking, I am younger, and I don’t have a family. I’m going to go do something else.”

Returning to UNB to pursue a master of engineering in electrical engineering meant changing disciplines and relearning how to be a student after years in the workforce. It wasn’t easy, and not everyone was convinced it would work. “I had to see the dean of graduate studies, and he told me there was no way anyone would take me. I was a surveyor and had been out of university for a while. I told him I already had a supervisor.”

That supervisor was Prof. Mary Kaye (BScE’75). “She really cared about students.” Once she agreed to supervise him during his master’s in engineering, the path forward became possible.

To prove he could handle the shift, Gerry completed several qualifying courses in electrical engineering. In doing so, he found his way into information technology, setting
the foundation for a career spent designing complex, human-centred digital systems.

The people behind the success

When Gerry talks about UNB, he talks about people. He remembers Prof. Kaye’s course, where students built a computer from scratch, as a turning point during a difficult time. “She was such a great instructor. She inspired you to want to keep going.”

Another faculty member, Dr. Maryhelen Stevenson, introduced him to artificial neural networks years before AI became common language. “She’d arranged for me to get data from Sikorsky helicopters to be able to help predict component failure for a helicopter using artificial neural networks. I mean, what are the chances of that, right?”

Dr. Kevin Englehart (BScE’89, MScE92, PhD’99), who taught random variables and stochastic processes, helped Gerry rebuild confidence after a decade away from formal mathematics. “It was the hardest course I’ve ever taken. He didn’t do me any special favours or anything, but he made sure I understood what I was doing. Engineering isn’t solo work. You get through hard things because people have your back.”

Pride, nostalgia and staying connected

That belief continues to guide him, and it’s one he shares with his leadership team. Every member of VeroSource’s executive team is a UNB graduate, united by a common experience that continues to shape how the company leads, builds and gives back. Gerry speaks about UNB with easy pride. “All of this happened because of UNB. It set the course for everything that came after.”

Today, Gerry remains closely connected to UNB, hiring co-op students, collaborating with faculty and returning to campus for talks. If he could speak to his younger self arriving on campus, his message would be simple. “This is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. It’s hard, but it opens doors you don’t even know exist yet.”

From highways to health systems, Gerry’s career reflects engineering at its most human, grounded in responsibility and shaped by trust and dedicated to building systems people depend on, often without ever seeing them.