Health NZ appoints AI lead to deliver monthly innovations

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora has appointed Sonny Taite as director innovation and AI (acting) and created a new programme called HealthX, to identify and implement AI-driven solutions to healthcare challenges across the motu.

Taite, who has been seconded from his role as chief information security officer (CISO), presented on the new position and programme at the TUANZ and DHA Tech Users Summit 2025 in Auckland on September 10.

He said the programme aims to deliver one project per month starting in September 2025 until February 2026, focusing on existing ideas from frontline healthcare workers rather than developing new concepts.

"The challenge is how do we take that idea, run ideas through a validation pipeline, highlight the connections to our highest priorities, workforce shortages, inequity of access, our clinical inefficiencies, tag funding and then deliver one per month between now and February," Taite told the audience.

He said HealthX will address three key healthcare priorities: workforce shortages, inequity of access, and clinical inefficiencies.

It will also operate through three teams; a core cross-functional team with clinical experts, a clinical expert group, and frontline champions such as chief medical officers.

The programme has already begun pilot testing an AI-powered medical scribe in the Hawke's Bay emergency department with early results showing a reduction administrative burden on healthcare workers.

Taite said he is looking next at critical specialist shortages, particularly in dermatology, as some regions do not have any dermatology specialists, meaning patients have to travel to other locations or go private, creating inequities.

He said the cybersecurity team and infrastructure he put in place as CISO at Te Whatu Ora already uses AI technology, processing around 50 billion signals monthly to identify threats and attacks across the health system.

Taite said it is important that HealthX move successful projects beyond the pilot phase, to scale across the country.

Following this initial phase, he plans to open expressions of interest for expanded core teams and clinical expert groups.

Image: Sonny Taite as director innovation and AI (acting) speaking at the TUANZ and DHA Tech Users Summit 2025 in Auckland on September 10

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