Medical device decision drags on as Minister encourages use of AI

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

The government’s prolonged decision regarding procurement of medical devices will definitely be made this year, says associate health minister (Pharmac) David Seymour.

He has also empowered Pharmac and Medsafe to explore using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up their processes. 

Seymour told the MTANZ conference in June last year that contracting for medical devices will either be “all in or all out” of Pharmac within a year, but now hopes to have the decision made within the next month.

Seymour favours Pharmac over Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for device purchasing. Talking to conference attendees in Auckland in June 2025, he said that while either entity could perform well, "Pharmac would be a little bit better."

Seymour said the decision on which agency will handle this will end an 18-month review process in which both Health NZ and Pharmac made cases for why they should do device procurement.

"Has that taken longer than I would like? Absolutely. Will we get to a decision this year? Certainly," he said.

The Minister described the government's goal of making New Zealand a "sandbox for technology in the world" and emphasised the need for the medical device industry to thrive domestically.

"Our aspiration is that this country … should be a place where people who want to invent and innovate and do things better through human creativity, should feel welcome," Seymour said.

In a press release issued on July 1, he says that technology absorption greatly increases productivity and he wants to see Al playing a role in a more efficient Pharmac and Medsafe.

“Finding efficiencies in medicine assessment processes means patients can access the treatments they need faster,” Seymour says.

“I wrote to Medsafe about the adoption of AI in their processes to speed up assessments. I wanted to see if the use of AI could mean spending less time on tedious, repetitive tasks that often slow down the assessment process.”

He says Medsafe and Pharmac have both welcomed the idea and potential uses for Medsafe include; streamlining assessment report generation; assisting with side effect profiles and trend assessments; and assisting with large information dossier assessments.

“I have also offered my support to Pharmac in empowering it to use Al in its work,” Seymour says. 

“I see this being a matter of priority in Pharmac's new data and digital strategy. I have requested information on where some of the potential future uses of Al in Pharmac.” 

Image: Minister David Seymour

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