Health NZ is threatening health workers with disciplinary action for using AI tools like ChatGPT to write notes. But the PSA says the real question is why staff are turning to free tools in the first place.

A Health NZ senior manager has sent a memo to all Mental Health and Addiction Services staff in the Rotorua Lakes district, telling them they will face disciplinary action if they use free tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to write clinical notes on patients.

"Health workers are turning to AI tools because they are under enormous pressure and looking for ways to manage their workloads," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"A memo that opens by threatening formal disciplinary action is not a training programme. It’s a warning shot that will make staff afraid to ask questions or seek help."

The PSA does not dispute that the use of AI in health settings must be carefully regulated. Patient privacy and data security are serious obligations. But proper regulation requires training, approved tools, and a culture where concerns can be raised without livelihoods being threatened.

"Health NZ needs to invest in proper training and approved tools, not threaten workers with Code of Conduct breaches," said Fitzsimons.

"Let’s not forget that the Government has forced Health NZ to cut the very teams responsible for digital systems and IT support, cuts that have impacted every hospital in New Zealand. If staff are improvising with free tools, Health NZ needs to examine why that is the case."

Threatening disciplinary action will not lead to honest conversations about AI use. It will simply drive the practice underground.

"The stakes are high for patients, for staff, and for the health system. The answer is clear guidance, proper resourcing, and supported professional development. Not threats."

Source: PSA media release

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Whaikaha is using its own workforce as a real-world testing ground for accessible implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), with around half of staff identifying as disabled.

The Ministry of Disabled People’s approach involves testing AI tools with employees in their everyday work environments. Deputy chief executive strategy and enablement Ginny Baddeley says this internal testing provides insights into both barriers and benefits.

"We felt that to be able to have that conversation about AI from a disability perspective, we had to have our own test case and 50 percent of our staff are disabled or identify as having a disability,” she explains.

This real-world testing approach provides valuable data on how AI tools perform across different accessibility needs and work styles, enabling Whaikaha to provide evidence-based guidance about accessible AI implementation.

Whaikaha is mainly using Microsoft Copilot, but Baddeley says the specific technology matters less than whether it genuinely helps people work more effectively. 

Staff involvement from the early stages has kept use cases practical and focused on solving real problems rather than implementing technology for its own sake.

Baddeley says Whaikaha treats AI implementation as a behavioural change initiative rather than a technical project and says the main challenges are about confidence and judgement rather than technical skills.

"We consistently talked about AI as supporting thinking rather than replacing it, and reinforced that people remain accountable for decisions and outputs," she says. 

"As leaders, we set the tone by visibly using AI in our own work and talking openly about how and where we use it, and where we do not."

She says this leadership approach has helped normalise appropriate AI use and build confidence among staff members leading to steady uptake, particularly in writing, analysis and briefing roles.

“Our focus is on common tasks that take time but do not require unique judgement every time, such as drafting, summarising, and navigating internal guidance,” Baddeley says. 

“Reducing friction in these areas frees people to focus on work that benefits most from human insight, while improving consistency and accessibility.

“AI can assist, but people remain responsible. Building capability alongside clear guardrails has been more effective for us than relying on rules alone,” she explains.

Baddeley and Whaikaha chief executive Paula Tesoriero will share their learnings on building accessible responsible AI at an upcoming HiNZ event on March 31 in Auckland.

Register for – From IT to Digital and AI in Health – today.

Image: Deputy chief executive strategy and enablement Ginny Baddeley

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An AI-powered scribe is live in every Emergency Department (ED) nationwide with 1250 clinicians using it and another 1000 licenses being added to support mental health teams.

Health Minister Simeon Brown announced in October that the scribe would be rolled out to 1,000 doctors and frontline staff working in EDs across New Zealand.

That number of users was extended to 1250 and Health New Zealand is now progressing approval of more than 1000 additional licences, predominantly for use by mental health teams.

The Minister says, “this places New Zealand among the fastest health systems in the world to move from pilot to nationwide frontline AI use in emergency departments, helping clinicians spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.”

A pilot at Hawke's Bay ED last year involved 10 clinicians across two months using the Heidi AI scribe and showed significant productivity gains alongside improvements in staff wellbeing. 

Results showed doctors using the AI tool were able to see, on average, one additional patient per shift as a result of time saved on documentation.

Chief medical officer at Hawke’s Bay Benjamin Pearson and ED clinical director Simon Harger presented on the pilot at Digital Health Week NZ in November 26, 2025. 

Its use there as expanded to the entire ED including all senior medical officers, resident medical officers, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, plus medical registrars.

Pearson said staff have reported a reduction in burnout in both ED and outpatient settings from an average of six out of 10 before the tool was introduced, down to three out of 10 and it has been particularly beneficial for nursing staff who previously hand wrote their notes.

The national roll-out was delivered by HealthX – a programme of monthly delivery of digital solutions focused on addressing the five health targets plus mental health pressures and led by director of digital innovation and AI, Sonny Taite.

Brown says that after one month of use at Middlemore Emergency Department, 80 per cent of surveyed staff said the AI scribe improved productivity or efficiency, and 84 per cent said it had a positive impact on their overall experience and wellbeing during a shift.

Brown says AI will never replace the skills of doctors, but has a role to play in supporting them so they can focus on putting patients first. 

“We will continue investing in digital technology that puts patients at the centre of the healthcare system, improving access to care, and delivering better health outcomes for New Zealanders,” he says.

Image: Health Minister Simeon Brown

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Christchurch company Streamliners has partnered with Heidi Health to integrate AI-powered assistance with localised clinical guidance.

The partnership will link Heidi Health's AI-powered clinician assistance with HealthPathways localised clinical guidance across Streamliners' global network of more than 50 health systems.

"Clinicians use both HealthPathways and Heidi extensively in their daily practice, from GP clinics to hospital wards, and in allied health settings," says Mike Weiss, Streamliners CEO.

"We are excited to be partnering with Heidi Health as a global leader in AI integration. Linking the clinical evidence-based benefits of HealthPathways with the Heidi user experience is a natural fit for us."

Where local HealthPathways guidance is available, clinicians using Heidi will be able to access an assistive, clinician-led documentation and workflow experience. 

Kieran Holland, Streamliners clinical director of research, says the partnership will help accelerate evidence and policy into clinical practice.

"AI scribes and evidence products are rapidly becoming part of routine clinical workflows, and clinicians want those tools to reflect local pathways and agreed models of care," he says.

"Safely and securely integrating HealthPathways with AI with appropriate safeguards will ensure patients get the best local care, save time for clinicians, and deliver system level benefits through improved patient flow."

The partnership announcement coincides with Heidi Health's launch of a new platform called 'Evidence'.

The company says this provides point-of-care medical evidence with citations designed to support clinical reasoning in real world settings and is one of the only global evidence tools that is ad-free.

Heidi’s AI-powered scribe is currently being rolled out across New Zealand's Emergency Departments (EDs).

Health New Zealand director of digital innovation and AI Sonny Taite says the organisation is pleased with the positive feedback provided by clinicians involved in the early use of the AI scribe.

“Clinicians have consistently reported that the use of the AI scribe reduces the time and cognitive load associated with clinical documentation, allowing them to focus more on patient care,” he says.  

“Early qualitative feedback from senior medical officers indicates this has helped ease documentation pressure during busy shifts, and there has been no reported resistance from patients to its use in emergency settings.” 

Taite says Health NZ is continuing with the rollout of Heidi across the country’s EDs and he expects to provide a further update towards the end of the month.

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MoleMap's artificial intelligence (AI) software Kahu is processing around 50,000 dermoscopic images per month across New Zealand, with patient acceptance reaching 94 percent over the past year.

Speaking at Digital Health Week in November 2025, chief information officer MoleMap Australia and New Zealand Johan Vendrig said about a quarter of those images are being forwarded to dermatologists for diagnosis.

The AI tool has been operating across New Zealand clinics since January 2024, acting as decision support for melanographers to help them determine which lesions need specialist review.

"The AI is not giving any diagnosis, it is purely decision support used by the nurse to decide ‘should I image this lesion and send it to the dermatologist or should I not do that?’," he explained.

The system gives five possible outcomes for each lesion: malignant, premalignant, actinic keratosis, likely benign, and no result or poor image, to help in consistent decision-making.

Clinical Lead at MoleMap Australia and New Zealand, Lara Wild, said patient acceptance of AI-assisted skin checks has been strong, with only six percent expressing concern about the involvement of artificial intelligence.

“Patients value that a melanographer is conducting their skin examination, and they appreciate that AI supports clinical decision-making by providing an additional layer of reassurance,” Wild said. 

She also highlighted the critical shortage of dermatologists in New Zealand.

“We have a limited number of dermatologists, and it takes a minimum of 12 years to train one. The question is whether we can realistically train enough specialists to manage every skin cancer diagnosed across New Zealand and Australia,” she said.

Wild explained that Kahu also functions as a training and quality assurance tool. It enables supervisors to audit not only which lesions melanographers refer to dermatologists, but also those they decide not to refer.

“While we have always been able to assess how melanographers perform in clinic, we have not previously had visibility over the lesions that were not selected for further review,” she said, adding that routine auditing remains essential to ensure balanced clinical judgement. 

“We have considered that some melanographers may become overly reliant on AI, so it is important that these audits form part of our standard assessment and quality assurance processes.”

Vendrig told the conference that the system continues to be refined using images collected from MoleMap’s clinic network across Australia and New Zealand.

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Heidi, the leading healthcare AI platform, today announced major milestones in its mission to redefine how healthcare is delivered: the launch of Heidi Evidence and the acquisition of UK-based clinical AI pioneer Automedica. This comes alongside the launch of Heidi Comms, an AI partner for healthcare teams to coordinate patient communications across calls, bookings, reminders and follow-ups.

These moves mark Heidi’s evolution from an AI scribe into a comprehensive AI Care Partner, bridging the gap between clinical documentation and real-time clinical reasoning. Clinical evidence  underpins everyday decisions in patient care, from confirming diagnoses and selecting treatments to determining dosages, follow-up plans, and safety considerations.

"We believe that for AI to be a true care partner, the integrity of its evidence must be non-negotiable," said Dr. Thomas Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Heidi.  "As we see more general-purpose AI platforms like OpenAI move toward ad-supported models, consumers are rightly concerned about hidden influence.

In a healthcare setting, that concern becomes paramount. Bringing transparent, clinical-grade insights into the room makes it easier to deliver quality care, but that information must be free from the ambiguity of commercial influence. By committing to Evidence being ad-free and independent, we ensure clinicians can stay present with their patients, knowing their decision-making is built on pure clinical rigor, not a business model."

Heidi Evidence: Bridging the "Knowledge Gap" at the Point of Care

Medical knowledge now doubles every 73 days, making it impossible for clinicians to stay updated with new methods and research. While many have turned to general-purpose AI, these tools lack transparency and local clinical context. This "search engine" approach often erodes the perceived authority of the encounter, leading to a profound lack of patient comfort when they feel their symptoms are being researched via the same tools they use at home.

Heidi Evidence solves this by providing a clinical-grade research tool integrated directly into the Heidi platform. Key features include:

• Authoritative Sourcing: Built in partnership with EMGuidance and NICE Guidelines, amongst others, to ensure guidance reflects regional standards and formularies.
• Ad-Free Integrity: A permanent commitment to non-commercial, auditable data, ensuring clinical decisions are never influenced by advertising.
• Seamless Integration: Available as a standalone tool or alongside Heidi’s AI Scribe, which has already supported over 100 million clinical interactions globally.
• Traceable Intelligence: Provides concise summaries with transparent citations and verbatim excerpts, allowing clinicians to verify every insight.
• Ethical Accessibility: Heidi Evidence is free for individual clinicians, ensuring high-quality medical knowledge isn’t a privilege of wealth. While consumer AI monetizes via ads and data, Heidi uses enterprise revenue to subsidize access for practitioners in resource-constrained or fragmented markets. This provides a professional, bias-freealternative to ad-supported search engines that prioritize profit over clinical accuracy.
  

Strategic Acquisition of Automedica

Automedica's evidence-led AI framework and strong relationship with UK national regulators will underpin Heidi's Evidence capabilities. The strategic acquisition accelerates Heidi's technical and regulatory capabilities and access to the MHRA AI Airlock, a prestigious regulatory sandbox for healthcare AI. This will extend Heidi's footprint in the UK, reinforcing its commitment to being a regulator-aligned partner for global health systems.

A New Standard for Healthcare AI

Heidi Evidence is in part built on Claude, Anthropic’s AI models, to deliver real-time clinical insights at the point of care. Claude’s strength in interpreting complex, unstructured clinical conversations, synthesizing dense medical literature, and generating accurate, grounded outputs makes it particularly well suited to high-stakes healthcare environments, where precision and reliability are critical. This reflects the evidence-based, safety-first approach that underpins both Anthropic’s model development philosophy and Heidi’s market position.

This alignment on clinical integrity is what distinguishes Heidi’s market position from the "growth-at-any-cost" models prevalent in consumer AI.

“Heidi is tackling one of the hardest problems in healthcare AI: how to scale capability without compromising trust,” said Michael Tolo, General Partner at Blackbird. “By treating evidence as core infrastructure, not content monetised through ads or influence, Heidi is building the kind of defensible, globally relevant platform healthcare systems are demanding.”

Source: Heidi media release

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Kiwi GPs can now benefit from an artificial intelligence tool providing context-aware patient summaries and automated clinical documentation fully integrated with Medtech Evolution. 

Medtech Global has launched Medtech AI in New Zealand, a comprehensive AI platform that integrates directly with its Medtech Evolution practice management software (PMS). 

Unlike standalone transcription tools that treat each consultation as an isolated episode, Medtech AI synthesises a patient's medical history from the PMS to provide clinicians with a complete view before, during and after consultations, addressing the issue of ‘information overload’ in healthcare settings. 

Keeping clinicians in control 

GP Tim Ross says, “paperwork is frustrating for most clinicians, spending too much time on documentation, too much time searching for information and not enough time just face to face engaging with the patient.  

“This functionality puts the information you need in front of you while you can get on with consulting.” 

The new platform generates structured consultation notes, referral letters, and clinical correspondence. 

Chrissie Patterson, Medtech general manager product, says Medtech AI keeps clinicians in control by supporting clinical judgment rather than replacing it.  

“We wanted to enhance efficiency and care quality by using AI to intelligently surface the relevant information at the right time, streamline documentation, and support clinical workflows in real time,” she says. 

“Every output is reviewed and approved by the clinician to ensure accuracy, accountability, and trust.” 

Patterson says reduced documentation time is estimated to save between six to eight minutes per consultation, helping to prevent clinician burnout. 

A complete patient view 

Lawrence Peterson, Medtech general manager integration and infrastructure, says, "direct integration into the patient record ensures that data is not extracted from the PMS or stored elsewhere, but is processed in line at the time of consultation with patient consent.  

“Updates are then recorded directly back into the PMS. Nothing sensitive is stored externally, and all consultation data, including the patient details, consultation summary, and transcription is deleted from the partner product at the conclusion of the consultation." 

The integration with Medtech Evolution allows the platform to provide a central dashboard displaying a patient’s recent consultation notes, current medications, conditions, allergies, immunisations, and screenings.  

For patients with extensive medical histories, the system synthesises information within around 20 seconds, presenting top-level summaries while maintaining access to detailed records. 

“It works on both web browsers and mobile applications, allowing clinicians to conduct consultations away from their computers while maintaining full integration with the Medtech Evolution PMS,” says Peterson. 

“A time-poor clinician does not want to be reading through 20 pages of notes to get a snapshot of what has happened with this patient.” 

Clinicians review and approve all AI-generated content before it writes back to the PMS and the platform includes custom prompts and templates organised by medical specialty. 

Better patient understanding 

Medtech AI provides patient insights including health literacy levels, sentiment analysis, and emotional engagement during consultations.  

“It turns clinical conversations into structured information, actionable insights, and even patient sentiment is being recorded and captured so you understand how much your patient may have understood their interaction with you today,” Patterson explains. 

These metrics help determine how consultation summaries should be written for individual patients, with the system automatically adjusting the language it uses based on assessed health literacy. 

“We know patients do not always remember what they are told in a consult due to a variety of reasons, including being sick, health anxiety, lack of health literacy, or that they are not good auditory learners,” she says. 

The system can send health literacy-adjusted consultation summaries to patients via email, including calendar links for follow-up appointments and access to New Zealand health resources through Healthify sites. 

Evolving and innovating 

Medtech Global chief executive Jeremy van de Klundert says the company has taken a measured approach to AI integration, prioritising data security and clinical accuracy by embedding AI capabilities directly into the Medtech Evolution PMS. 

He emphasises that Medtech AI supports rather than replaces clinical judgement. 

The rapidly evolving AI landscape is both challenging and promising.  

“It is an incredibly fast-changing world and we believe 2026 will see huge advancements in this area.” 

Medtech Global will host a live webinar on 5 March 2026 at 1 pm, showcasing a real-time demonstration of Medtech AI and its capabilities – Register here

If you have any questions re the above feature article, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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Alcidion today announces that Miya Precision Concept Detection has been included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG – #522634) as a Class 1 Medical Device. The capability has also been successfully registered as a Class 1 Medical Device with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom.

Concept Detection is an AI-assisted feature within the Miya Noting module of Alcidion’s Miya Precision platform. It analyses clinicians’ free-text notes to identify medical concepts and suggest associated SNOMED CT codes (coding system for standardising medical terminology), supporting structured clinical documentation, workflow efficiency and improved data quality. 

The software is designed to support clinical decision-making by reducing cognitive load and enhancing documentation workflows, helping busy clinicians spend less time manually searching for and selecting clinical concepts. Importantly, all detected concepts require clinician oversight and validation before being added to the patient's record.

As healthcare systems increasingly look to technology to ease the pressures on their workforce, demonstrating that these tools meet regulatory standards is essential. Registration as a medical device in both Australia and the United Kingdom provides healthcare organisations with assurance that Miya Precision Concept Detection has been developed and assessed in line with the safety, quality and performance requirements expected of software used in clinical settings.

This milestone advances Alcidion’s AI strategy and strengthens its offering to health systems across multiple markets. With healthcare providers in both regions increasingly mandating SaMD certification for AI enabled tools, Alcidion is now positioned to offer Concept Detection to its existing Miya Precision customers as well as to new health systems seeking compliant, clinician-supportive AI Capabilities.

To support the Concept Detection and future AI-enabled capabilities, Alcidion has developed a proprietary Miya AI Service module that provides a secure and controlled architecture for deploying AI functionality within healthcare environments. The Miya AI Service is specifically designed to enable accelerated adoption of AI functionality supporting Miya Precision customers to take advantage of the latest developments in AI for Healthcare.

Alcidion Managing Director and CEO Kate Quirke said:

“Achieving regulatory registration in both Australia and the United Kingdom is an important milestone that clears the path for commercial deployment of our AI assisted clinical documentation capabilities across our two largest markets. Healthcare organisations increasingly require certified medical software before adoption, and this registration allows us to deliver this capability across our existing customer base and to new customers in regulated environments.

With this foundation in place, we can now extend these capabilities across our existing Miya Precision customers and to new health systems seeking dependable, AI enabled workflows.”

Source: Alcidion media release

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Health New Zealand has issued a Request for Information seeking AI solutions for its national breast screening programme as it grapples with a critical shortage of qualified breast radiologists and increased demand.

BreastScreen Aotearoa screens around 270,000 women annually and extended its age range for women from 69 to 74 years-old in October 2025, “exacerbating existing workforce and capacity challenges”, the RFI says.

Forecasts show 30,600 women will receive breast screening in 2025/26, rising to over 54,000 women in 2028/29.

"BSA faces similar challenges to breast screening programmes in other jurisdictions. In particular, there is a national and international shortage of qualified breast radiologists," the documents say.

The organisation is looking for AI reading capabilities for screening mammograms that integrate with its existing infrastructure.

The RFI says any AI system must demonstrate "non-inferior cancer detection performance compared with BSA radiologists" and show "demonstrated diagnostic accuracy for Māori and Pacific ethnicities."

Health Minister Simeon Brown says Health NZ will draw on advice from the health technology sector, engage with the breast screening workforce, and assess international examples of AI use in medical imaging.

"This work is focused on future-proofing breast screening so services remain accessible, patient-centred, and responsive to the needs of women," he says.

“AI is already being used internationally to assist with medical imaging. Exploring how it could complement the work of radiologists in New Zealand is an important step toward strengthening early detection and ensuring the long-term sustainability of screening services,."

Any AI solution must integrate with BreastScreen Aotearoa's custom-developed IT system, Te Puna, which has been in use since June 2025. The system includes screening register, patient administration, clinical record, and radiology information system components built on the Pinga platform.

BSA radiologists currently use either Sectra or Intelerad PACS for reading, with all images archived in a separate, national Sectra PACS. 

The AI solution must comply with New Zealand privacy legislation including the Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information Privacy Code 2020 and New Zealand or Australia data storage is preferred.

"Any AI solution must support New Zealand's data protection and sovereignty requirements by guaranteeing that breast image data is securely stored, transmitted and processed," the RFI states. 

Health New Zealand is also requesting information about breast density reporting, which BSA is looking at incorporating into breast screening.

Also, AI solutions for image quality assistance at the point of acquisition, radiologist reporting for recalled cases, and breast cancer risk prediction and stratification to support future tailored screening approaches.

Health New Zealand recently issued a RFI in October 2025 for Radiology AI Orchestrator and Application Marketplace services, aiming to move from point AI solutions toward an integrated platform for consistent, scalable AI adoption across radiology services nationwide.

The RFI says any breast screening AI solution must be capable of integration with orchestration and application marketplace services when they become available.

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The New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science has developed a digital twin that simulates New Zealand’s entire population and has been used to study the country’s resilience to measles outbreaks.

Data science & AI lead Alvaro Orsi presented on the platform, called ALMA (Aotearoa Large-scale Multi-agent Platform) at Digital Health Week NZ in November 2025.

He said the twin creates what researchers call 'virtual Kiwis', built from aggregated census and government data. This twin population enables researchers to model public health scenarios without tracking real people, which can then inform public policy decisions and emergency planning.

Using artificial intelligence and predictive modelling, the platform can simulate disease spread by monitoring interactions between virtual kiwis across households, schools, supermarkets, and other places.

Health authorities can then assess the impact of various response strategies, such as vaccination campaigns or social distancing measures.

The research team has already collaborated with public health agencies to study New Zealand's resilience to measles outbreaks within the interactive 3D model of Aotearoa.

The ‘virtual kiwis’ are created with data from Statistics New Zealand, particularly census data and information from the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Researchers assign households, occupations, and daily activities based on real-world patterns extracted from workforce surveys, time use surveys, and consumer datasets.

"The goal is that the attributes and the activities that we assign to these virtual individuals will resemble those of real people," Orsi explained.

Users of the platform can explore specific suburbs and facilities and look at infection rates at locations such as cafes.

Orsi said an embedded AI assistant allows users to navigate and interrogate ALMA with natural language queries.

The PHF Science research team has also created a digital twin for Tonga to study climate change resilience. 

Image: Pic from PHF Science website

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Orchestral is a health-native AI orchestrator data platform designed to support clinical judgement by giving clinicians better information, without taking decision-making out of their hands.

It seamlessly connects diverse data sources with AI agents, workflows, and algorithms – enabling scalable, governed AI deployment across healthcare systems.  

By bringing together information from multiple sources to create clear, comprehensive patient summaries, it reduces the time clinicians spend searching through fragmented records before seeing patients.

"Most information technology in healthcare falls into two camps: either a big, dumb bucket of cloud data or isolated pockets of AI cleverness," said Ian McCrae, founder of McCrae Tech. "We have created something vastly different that reshapes healthcare as we know it." 

Orchestral integrates three core components:

• Health Information Platform (HIP): Ingests data from any source and delivers trusted, structured, standardized, and compliant health data.
• Health Agent Library (HAL): Provides a governed registry of AI building blocks for the entire health system.
• Health AI Tooling (HAT): Empowers data analysts and scientists to build agentic workflows, business intelligence reports, and more.

"Simply swamping clinicians with more data is not the answer to improve healthcare. Extra data may contain useful insights, but these are needles in a haystack without the necessary AI tooling to extract them into human-understandable observations. 

“Orchestral delivers exactly that, enabling healthcare providers to harness AI's full potential. Its potential impact on global health is comparable to the transformative shifts brought about by antibiotics, modern hygiene, and other breakthrough public health innovations,” says McCrae. 

Lucy Porter, CEO of Orchestral, highlighted the unsustainable pressures on U.S. and global health systems, including rising costs, workforce burnout, and error risks. 

"Right now, up to 15% of diagnoses globally are estimated to be inaccurate, delayed or wrong . This has huge implications for patients and is estimated to create a financial burden equivalent to 17.5% of total healthcare expenditure in OECD nations .

“Everyone is turning to AI to solve these issues. But what we see today is unworkable AI chaos – pilots and point solutions with no clear path to safe, widespread deployment. 

"Without a dedicated health AI orchestrator, rapidly scaling AI remains virtually impossible. Orchestral fills this critical gap, serving as the trusted source of truth for models, tools, and data connections that teams rely on to deliver better care.

“We’re building the foundation that lets entire health ecosystems learn, adapt, and thrive in the age of agentic AI. We’re here to turn the world’s scattered health data into life-saving insight that’s trusted, explainable, and ready when it matters most,” says Porter.  

Orchestral has been built upon decades of clinical data storage engineering, initially within Orion Health and then, more recently, spun out into McCrae Tech as a standalone company because of the magnitude of this project.

What has emerged is a genuinely world-first product, defining a new category in health technology. 

Source: McCrae Tech media release

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New Zealanders seeking mental health support will soon have a better understanding of what services are available to them, thanks to government funding for Whakarongorau to develop a mental health AI navigation platform, Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey says.

“Not knowing where to go or who to talk to has been reported as the reason for unmet mental health needs in one third of children and more than a quarter of adults. This new platform will help remove those barriers and guide people to the right support,” Mr Doocey says.

“People will be able to see what support is available in their area and in some instances, even book with them directly. Online tools will also be available to those reaching out on the platform, allowing us to intervene early and prevent problems from escalating.

“The platform will enhance visibility of the current range of telehealth services as well as in-person options, such as mental health practitioners in GP practices or Gumboot Friday councillors making it clear that support is available no matter where you are in New Zealand.

"Often, the first step in seeking support is the hardest. Many people don’t know where to start, and it can feel overwhelming. With a digital front door, Kiwis can access a tool that helps triage and guide them where to go and what to do.

“As I’ve said previously, the mental health system is too fragmented and needs to be more joined up. Most people would be surprised by how much support exists. Which is why this platform aims to increase New Zealanders knowledge of what support is available.

“This initiative is a good example of the answers to the issues we have in mental health are already in the sector but just need the opportunity to be backed.

“We are clear that access to support should never be a barrier. Digital tools provide faster, 24/7 access, when and where people need it.

“We are focused on delivering faster access to support, more frontline workers, and a better crisis response, digital tools can help make this happen.”

Source: Hon Matt Doocey, Minister for Mental Health media release

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SECTOR UPDATE - Health Accelerator 

Health Accelerator’s ACC claiming digital assistant has reached a major milestone, submitting and securing more than $180,000 in paid claims for general practices in just four months. 

Currently used by 20 Indici-based practices, the assistant is helping unlock revenue that would otherwise go unclaimed – money that practices can now reinvest directly into patient care.

Paul Roseman, Chief Executive of Health Accelerator says: “This milestone is a powerful example of how automation can deliver real financial impact for general practices. Practices are often unaware of claims that have been missed by busy clinicians and teams – our digital assistant takes care of that, ensuring they receive the funding they’re entitled to.”

The digital assistant works by scanning the practice management system (PMS) for unclaimed ACC visits and automatically submitting valid claims. 

“With a 100% success rate in claim validity and payment, it’s not only saving time but also ensuring practices are fairly compensated for the work they’ve already done. The assistant can look back over the past 12 months – the maximum claim window allowed by ACC – capturing historic claims that practices may have missed,” continues Roseman.

The current assistant is designed for Indici users, but Health Accelerator is actively working with MedTech to develop similar solutions for its practices. Additional digital assistants are already in use for inbox filing and cardiovascular risk assessments (CVDRAs), with more expected to launch soon.

“This is about more than just technology – it’s about advocacy. Practices deserve to be paid for the care they provide patients. By helping them access this funding, we’re supporting the sustainability of primary care and enabling clinicians to focus on what matters most: their patients,” concludes Roseman.

For more information, visit https://www.healthaccelerator.co.nz/digital-assistant-case-study

Source: Health Accelerator media release

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InterSystems, a creative data technology provider powering more than 1 billion health records worldwide, today announced the launch of InterSystems HealthShare AI Assistant, a new generative AI capability designed to assist clinicians, case managers and administrators in accessing and understanding patient information faster and more intuitively.

Built on the trusted foundation of InterSystems HealthShare Unified Care Record (UCR), HealthShare AI Assistant introduces a conversational interface that enables users to securely query, summarise and navigate complex longitudinal health records using natural language prompts.

The AI Assistant queries records from thousands of diverse clinical data sources and leverages Generative AI to surface relevant insights and present information using industry-standard displays – empowering users with faster, more intuitive access to comprehensive patient data and key insights.

Some key capabilities of HealthShare AI Assistant include:

• Conversational Chat Interface – Empowers users to ask clinical questions or request patient summaries in plain language, delivering concise, context-aware insights instantly.
• Pre-Built and Custom Prompts – Provides clinically curated starter prompts and enables organisations to build tailored, role-based configurations.
• Source Traceability – Connects every AI-generated response to its verified record source, promoting transparency and clinical trust.
• Seamless Integration – Operates within the HealthShare Clinical Viewer and Navigation Application keeping the assistant embedded in the user's natural workflow.
• Comprehensive Governance – Implements configurable data profiles, role-based access controls, and full audit tracking to support safe, responsible AI use.

“AI in healthcare must be grounded in trust, interoperability and reliable data,” said Don Woodlock, head of global healthcare solutions at InterSystems. “With HealthShare AI Assistant, we’re giving healthcare professionals a faster and safer way to access the information they need, right from within their existing workflows. It’s about reducing cognitive burden, improving efficiency, and letting clinicians focus on caring for patients.”

HealthShare AI Assistant is part of the broader InterSystems HealthShare suite, which powers data interoperability and connected care across more than 80 countries. The new AI capability is available immediately to HealthShare users in supported regions.

For more information, visit www.InterSystems.com/HealthShare.

Source: InterSystems media release

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New Zealand researchers are launching a study to assess the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) stroke imaging technology, aiming to reduce treatment delays and improve intervention rates for stroke patients. 

The project, funded by the Health Research Council, will evaluate whether AI based imaging tools can speed up the stroke assessment workflow and provide better access to treatment. 

Consultant neurologist at Wellington Hospital Anna Ranta is leading the research and says that delays in stroke treatment occur most often when patients present at smaller hospitals. 

"Currently, if a patient comes into smaller hospital, an ED doctor needs to decide, is it possibly a stroke, is it not a stroke? Then they need to make imaging decisions, then the imaging gets interpreted, then somebody is called from a tertiary centre to discuss the films to make a treatment decision," Ranta says. 

The project will trial imaging technology to provide a rapid initial assessment to trigger specialist calls earlier. Similar tools are in wide clinical use, including in New Zealand, but most smaller hospitals are still missing out. 

“Instead of waiting for, often overseas, radiologists who might take an hour to do the initial interpretation, and then calling the tertiary specialist to make a treatment decision, this will give the doctor in ED the confidence to call a specialist much faster," she explains. 

Ranta, who is also medical director of the Stroke Aotearoa, says treatment delays affect a patient’s eligibility for intervention, as brain tissue becomes less salvageable over time. 

"The longer you go, the less brain recovery potential brain there is, so some people do not just have less effective treatment, they actually become ineligible for treatment," she says. 

In this case, AI relates to the use of machine learning during the development of the computational algorithm used for image display and decision support. The tool provides an initial preliminary read that triggers an expert referral, but all final interpretations and treatment decisions will be made by NZ clinical experts.  

“These tools do not incorporate new data to continuously learn and no New Zealand patient data will be used for this purpose as part of this project or planned future application,” she explains.  

A similar tool introduced by the NHS has been shown to reduce the time between someone presenting at a hospital with a stroke and receiving treatment by more than 60 minutes – potentially tripling the likelihood of recovery without a disability. 

Ranta says the potential cost savings for New Zealand’s health system are significant and estimated to be on the order of $20-40 million per annum when considering both short-term healthcare and long-term societal costs. 

The research will compare door-to-treatment times and intervention rates using existing data collection systems, including the national stroke register where all patients receiving reperfusion treatment are recorded. 

The study aims to achieve regional network-level rollout of the imaging tool for stroke, allowing neurologists and stroke physicians on call to use a single tool across multiple hospitals. 

"The idea of having clinicians use the same tool across an entire network or even the country is also really exciting because we will all talk all the same language and communication will be improved further speeding up treatment decisions," Ranta says. 

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The HealthX team within Health New Zealand is expanding with clinical champions driving implementation on the frontline.

The programme aims to deliver monthly roll-outs of digital solutions focused on addressing the five health targets plus mental health pressures.

Sonny Taite, director of digital innovation and AI, says the innovations must also be able to scale to more than one location and preferably more than one region.

A core cross-functional team of around 10 people is being built to do the early triage, assessment and validation of initiatives.

The next step is to develop a clinical advisory group to review tools specific to their area of expertise.

“We are developing a repeatable streamlined innovation process,” he tells eHealthNews. 

A third team is focused on delivery and will involve clinical champions such as chief medical officers and other clinicians on the frontline.

Taite says clinicians will drive all of the HealthX initiatives and are highly engaged in the project already.

"Our clinicians know the pressures that they face, they know the workforce pressures that impact them in their specialist area and they often have had the solutions for some time," he says.

"Clinicians are all quite innovative folk, so they make our job easier with their passion and their mindset.”

The programme's first major initiative involves rolling out AI scribe technology across emergency departments nationwide, building on successful trials at Hawke's Bay and Whanganui. 

Taite says the programme includes 100 licences for mental health crisis teams within EDs, with discussions about expanding to wider mental health teams where approximately a quarter of their workload involves administrative tasks.

Future ideas being considered include cardiology-focused digital innovations, diagnostics and imaging solutions, and dermatology applications to address workforce pressures in that specialty area.

Virtual care models are also a potential area for 2026, with HealthX looking at examples from NHS England and Australia, including virtual emergency departments and virtual hospital initiatives.

"We are starting to explore how virtual care could help manage patient flow and improve access to timely care, while reducing the need for hospital visits where appropriate," says Taite.

He says each monthly initiative undergoes its own business case approval process, with funding sourced through reprioritised investments rather than massive budget allocations. 

HealthX also identifies opportunities where funding already exists within specialist service areas but needs some coordination and focus, Taite says.

Image: Sonny Taite speaking at the Tech Users Summit

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An artificial intelligence medical scribe is being rolled out to 1,000 doctors and frontline staff working in emergency departments across New Zealand.

The AI -powered technology securely records consultations and automatically creates draft clinical notes, referral letters, and follow-up summaries, which doctors then review and confirm.

Health Minister Simeon Brown says the tool allows doctors to spend more time interacting directly with patients while it captures consultation details, helping to ensure nothing important is missed, and leading to more consistent follow-up care.

"Too many doctors have told me that paperwork and documentation take up too much of their day,” the Minister says.

A successful pilot programme in Hawke's Bay and Whanganui demonstrated the benefits of the technology for both doctors and patients. 

“Doctors using the AI tool were able to see, on average, one additional patient per shift because of the time saved. That means faster care for patients and less waiting time in emergency departments,” Brown says.

“Based on this success, Health New Zealand has purchased an initial 1000 licences for frontline staff in emergency departments, enabling its nationwide rollout.”

The Hawke's Bay emergency department pilot involved 10 clinicians across two months using the Heidi AI scribe and showed significant productivity gains alongside improvements in staff wellbeing. 

Chief medical officer Benjamin Pearson told eHealthNews the results exceeded expectations.

"We have seen a significant improvement with on average, an extra patient per shift seen by each clinician," Pearson said. 

"Particularly the resident medical officers and our nurse practitioners, who in some cases are seeing an extra three or four per shift.”

Nurse practitioners reported being able to take proper tea room breaks for the first time and the AI tool improved documentation in resuscitation situations, where it records timestamps and captures all conversations happening during critical care.

"The average medical registrar, when they come to ED, takes 40 minutes to see a patient and then another 30 - 40 minutes to write the plan. Heidi potentially could zap that right down to 5-10 minutes," said Pearson.

Brown says Health New Zealand will continue exploring other ways AI and digital technology can help improve care and make the health system work better for patients.

"We need to embrace AI as a way to maximise our health workforce, giving clinicians tools that save time, reduce pressure, and allow them to spend more time with patients," Brown says.

As part of this drive, Health NZ 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.

Brown says the AI scribe tool is tailored to New Zealand's clinical language and systems, meets all privacy requirements, and includes strong security protections to keep patient information safe. 

Heidi is already being used successfully in some primary care settings, so patients may have experienced it during appointments with their GP.

Pearson and emergency department clinical director Simon Harger will present the full results of the Hawke’s Bay AI scribe pilot at Digital Health Week 2025 in Ōtautahi Christchurch from 24-27 November 2025. 

Image: Minister of Health Simeon Brown

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Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is looking to develop an integrated platform for scalable artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across the country's radiology services.

The national organisation has issued a Request for Information for providers to design and deliver a national Radiology AI Orchestrator and Application Marketplace.

The RFI documents say the aim is to address significant challenges facing radiology services, including workforce shortages, increasing demand with 7 percent annual growth, and regional variability in wait times.

"We now seek a national approach to radiology AI, moving from individual apps toward an integrated orchestration platform," the RFI says.

Health New Zealand is already trialling AI solutions in some areas including stroke detection, bone age assessment, and chest X-ray triage, but adoption remains fragmented and not scalable without orchestration, the RFI says.

The new platform would integrate AI applications into radiology workflows and minimise disruption for clinicians, while improving productivity and delivering equitable access across all regions.

Key functions include rules-based routing of imaging studies to appropriate AI models, intelligent prioritisation and triage of studies, and seamless integration of AI results into PACS, worklists, and diagnostic viewers.

Health NZ is looking for providers with demonstrated experience in AI orchestration platforms that can integrate with PACS/RIS and radiology workflows across multiple regions, along with vendor-neutral app marketplaces .

The AI orchestrator and marketplace would improve patient outcomes by reducing time to actionable reports and prioritising reporting capacity through intelligent triage and prioritisation.

The platform would also support radiologists by automating repetitive tasks and providing second-read and peer review capabilities.

"This initiative aims to move from point AI solutions toward an integrated platform that enables consistent, scalable, and future-proof AI adoption across radiology services nationwide," the documents say.

Responses must be submitted by 28 October 2025.

Listen to this episode of eHealth Talk NZ to learn more about how Health NZ is exploring the use of AI in Radiology, with Sharyn MacDonald, chief of radiology at Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury.

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SECTOR UPDATE - NZTech & AI Forum New Zealand

New Zealand is about to take a major step forward in AI. In September, Minister Dr Shane Reti announced the launch of the NZIAT Artificial Intelligence Research Platform – a Government investment of up to $70 million over seven years to support world-class AI research in Aotearoa.

The goal is bold:

• Back ambitious AI research that pushes the boundaries.
• Build a “centre of gravity” for AI in New Zealand.
• Create globally competitive, knowledge-intensive companies at the technology frontier.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to connect researchers, startups, established tech companies, and investors — and to shape the future of AI research in New Zealand.

Our Role

The AI Forum NZ and NZTech aren’t managing applications or funding decisions — that sits with MBIE and the NZIAT.

Our role is to:
✅ Share information through our channels
✅ Connect people through our networks and platforms
✅ Support the ecosystem to prepare and collaborate

What To Do Now

The application process opens 23 October 2025 and closes 20 November 2025 – a very short window.

To get ready, we’ve set up the NZIAT AI Platform Info Hub within our ecosystem engagement platform. This space is administered by AI Forum NZ and NZTech and it's where we’ll:

• Post updates, timelines, and FAQs
• Share resources and application information from MBIE
• Run webinars and q&a sessions for interested parties
• Help facilitate connections for consortia

👉 Join the Info Hub here

What’s Next

From next week:

📅 Application guidance documents & criteria will be released (via MBIE and the Info Hub)
📅 Webinars and Q&A sessions will be begin

We encourage anyone interested in being part of this opportunity to join the Info Hub today and start connecting. 

Join the Info Hub

Source: NZTech & AI Forum New Zealand media release

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SECTOR UPDATE - General Practice New Zealand

The GPNZ dashboard continues to grow in reach and capability. It now includes 17 PHOs  representing 64 per cent of all GPNZ members, 89 per cent of North Island PHOs, and covering 3.7 million patients (72.4 per cent of all enrolled patients).

Over the past month, our priority has been progressing discussions on the future funding and sustainability of the dashboard. Positive conversations have been held with Te Whatu Ora leaders, including Chair Professor Lester Levy, CEO Dr Dale Bramley, and Director of Living Well, Martin Hefford. These discussions recognised the dashboard’s potential and value to the sector, and a formal proposal has now been submitted to Te Whatu Ora to confirm its role and sustainability beyond 2025. Amanda Webb will continue to support the dashboard mahi part-time until December, while future funding and capacity needs are determined.

A major milestone has also been reached with the launch of our first clinical indicator report – diabetes – providing collated metrics and activity not previously available at a national level. The respiratory report is in beta testing and expected to go live by the end of the month, while the cardiovascular disease report is under review by the Clinical Advisory Group. Planning is also underway to prioritise the roadmap of reports for the next six months.

Improving data validation remains a key focus. While automated data feeds are in place for all participating PHOs, each new clinical report requires data mapping and validation before publication. A new approval process, being developed with the Technical Advisory Group, will streamline this work, reduce reliance on PHO teams, and speed up report publication.

Embedding a strong and authentic approach to Māori engagement and data governance has also been a priority throughout 2025. Recent advances include:

• participation of Hauora Māori PHOs Hauraki and National Hauora Coalition
• partnering with Robyn Kamira (Paua Interface) to develop a Māori data governance framework and wider engagement approach
• regular collaboration with HQSC, with direct input from its Māori data governance lead
• expanding the Steering Committee to include Māori/IMPB representatives from both islands, plus Hauraki PHO and National Hauora Coalition
• updating the Steering Committee Terms of Reference to embed Māori data governance commitments
• co-developing an agreement with Māori partners to share dashboard insights (quantitative and qualitative) with IMPBs and Māori organisations.

Together, these activities continue to strengthen the dashboard’s foundations and demonstrate its growing value. The priority now is to secure long-term sustainability and maximise the momentum built to date.

Source: General Practice New Zealand media release

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Hato Hone St John has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can clinically audit and triage its patient care records.

The proof of concept, developed in partnership with Spectrum, IBM, and KPMG, finished in early 2025 and Hato Hone St John is now working to rebuild the model in-house. 

The organisations involved say the AI-powered clinical audit system is a world-first in pre-hospital care.

The ambulance service generates around 430,000 electronic patient care records annually from face-to-face patient contacts.

Kirsty Reekers, Hato Hone St John clinical review and assurance manager, says the organisation must audit 5-20 percent of these cases to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

Around 250 volunteers spend 7,500 hours annually completing these, plus one and a half full-time employees.

"It is a huge personnel burden and a huge staff burden at the moment just to keep up with our regulatory compliance requirements," she explains.

The AI system does an initial audit of all patient care records, then triages cases that need urgent assessment by clinicians.

The proof of concept focused on falls patients because they are one of the highest-risk groups, often involving older people and longer ambulance response times.

Reekers says data security was critical when developing the system because of the sensitive nature of patient information. It uses sovereign AI technology, operating within a completely controlled environment without exposing data externally.

The AI system was trained on St John's clinical practice guidelines and treatment protocols using IBM's InstructLab platform, helping it to learn whether care provided was safe and reasonable, rather than simply checking compliance.

"We needed a large language model that could process all of our electronic patient care records, like how clinicians would be able to review them," she says. 

Training involved creating de-identified, synthetic patient care records based on real cases, then staff giving peer review assessments to teach the AI how to make decisions. 

Reekers says an AI system could also potentially be used for speech-to-text integration to audit telephone consultations, real-time decision support prompts, and identifying trends in clinician practice.

"Audit and quality assurance is prevalent across every single healthcare provider worldwide,” she says. 

“This is hopefully going to be a bit of a game changer and pivotal to how we do our quality assurance activities in the future."

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New Zealand is building a world-class health intelligence system that is changing how we think about public health. 

This transformation within the National Public Health Service (NPHS) is not about better spreadsheets, it is about fundamentally changing how we keep people healthy. 

The problem  

Currently, a woman participating in breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, and bowel screening appears in our data systems as effectively three different people.  

Her holistic health needs, including those outside screening, such as vaccination, support for smoking cessation, follow up care, are scattered across separate databases that do not talk to each other. 

This fragmented approach means missed opportunities, inefficient and less effective care, and makes us reactive rather than proactive in supporting people's health. 

The solution 

The new NPHS data warehouse means the health system will be able to see ‘whole’ people with connected health journeys, leveraging from the recent investments in data capture and technology. 

For example, the Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR), launched in 2023, captures vaccinations across the life course, including those administered overseas, and integrates seamlessly with the National Health Index (NHI).  

This allows for precise, population-level insights and targeted interventions as we can see where the gaps are, who is missing out, and act quickly. 

Having near real-time, individual-level immunisation data, with information about personal characteristics, mapped to neighbourhoods, and linked to a national health identifier that works across the system, is rare globally. 

The integration of AIR with the Whaihua platform - a digital interface that allows health providers to view information held in Health New Zealand registers, the Book My Vaccine tool and also record newborn enrolments.

This means that for the first time we can actually see the process of immunisation care across multiple parts of the health system and multiple players.  

We can track which children are with which outreach provider, how long it is taking to reach them, and see what works best for each child and family. 

That means the system can focus on looking ahead, letting providers know in advance when a child is due for vaccination, and working with whānau.  

We all want them to have a positive experience, and for these tamariki to be protected from preventable diseases by vaccination at the age they need it. 

The future  

Looking ahead, the next phase of the data warehouse programme involves linking datasets across different health programmes and looking holistically at whānau and households, so that the data can recognise family relationships rather than seeing everyone as isolated individuals. 

At the moment, in our central health registers, we are not seeing siblings as related, and even miss links between a mother and her pēpi.   

Linking this data will also help us more rapidly explore and understand the relationships between (for example) HPV vaccination, HPV screening for cervical cancer, and the likelihood of developing the disease. using our intelligence to support and accelerate an elimination strategy for this cancer would be incredible. 

NPHS is also planning the migration of its data warehouse into the Health Data Platform (HDP), a move that supports better linkage with data sets like hospitalisation, outpatient appointments, and Emergency Department presentations.  

World-class 

While other countries are still conducting phone surveys to track immunisation rates, New Zealand is building something genuinely innovative.  

The new system can look backwards for analysis, forwards for planning and intervention modelling, as well as provide near real-time actionable insights for those delivering care on the ground.

We are no longer just reporting numbers, we are enabling action to help children and families in a very real way, and the opportunities to promote health and prevent illness before it starts are pretty magical. 

Read more about the modern data warehouse built by NPHS in this story in eHealthNews and hear NPHS Intelligence national manager improvement and performance Becky Cassie speak about it at Digital Health Week this November 24-27, 2025 at Te Pae in Ōtautahi Christchurch. 

Register to attend here. 

If you want to contact eHealthNews.nz regarding this View, please email the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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SECTOR UPDATE - Collaborative Aotearoa 

The Collaborative Aotearoa AI in Primary Care Working Group has released findings from its Phase 3 national survey, offering the clearest view yet of how artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being used across New Zealand’s primary healthcare sector.

The results confirm what many in the sector already know: AI is no longer a future consideration it is already well embedded in everyday general practice. With this shift comes a responsibility to ensure governance, training, and equity remain at the forefront of adoption.

Conducted in August 2025, the survey captured responses from 87 participants across a range of roles, including general practitioners, nurses, practice managers, allied health professionals, and clinical pharmacists. General practitioners made up the largest group of current AI users (64%).

Almost half of respondents (48%) reported using AI tools daily, an 8% increase from the previous survey. The most common applications were administrative and communication automation, alongside clinical transcription and documentation, with 52% reporting use of a free transcription tool. While these tools provide immediate efficiencies, reliance on free AI scribes carries risks around data privacy, patient confidentiality, and the accuracy of clinical records.

Kalolo Haufano, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Hendrix Health, emphasised the importance of caution:

“Free AI tools might seem convenient, but without safeguards they risk compromising patient privacy and the accuracy of records. Any adoption must prioritise privacy, clinical and cultural safety, and above all, maintain the trust of whānau.”

Although still emerging, uptake of AI-powered diagnostics and virtual assistants indicates innovation is now moving beyond back-office functions. One survey participant shared that, alongside using ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, and Heidi Health, they also used Open Evidence to search academic journals to answer queries patients have regarding their diseases.

Survey participants were experienced practitioners, with more than a third (36%) having over 20 years in primary care. This demonstrates that AI adoption is not limited to early-career clinicians but is increasingly being embraced across a seasoned workforce.

When asked what is needed to support safe and effective AI use, respondents pointed to key areas for improvement: clear policies and audits, staff training, and consistent processes for patient consent. While intent around governance and consent is strong, the findings show an urgent need for workforce development and sector-wide policy frameworks.

Jess Morgan-French, CEO of Collaborative Aotearoa and member of the AI in PrimaryCare Working Group, said collaboration will be critical:

“AI has the potential to ease pressure in general practice and improve patient care, but safe adoption requires a whole-of-sector approach. We need strong governance, clear policy, and equitable access so that all whānau benefit.”

The full survey infographic is available alongside today’s release, providing a visual snapshot of adoption trends, technologies in use, and safe practice measures.

Source: Collaborative Aotearoa media release

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a positive disruptor in the health system and New Zealand needs to embrace it to support better productivity, the Minister of Health says.

"The power of AI is going to going to be incredibly disruptive in the health system in a positive way,” Simeon Brown told the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospitals Association Conference on September 18.

While there are a number of really important factors that need to be considered around patient safety and patient information, “the power of AI in care is something which we need to embrace in order to support that productivity equation”, the Minister said.

He told attendees that technology adoption can boost productivity, and that while health funding has doubled over the past decade, productivity has not kept up.

"We need to be fast in our decision making, utilise what the rest of the world is doing, embrace it and adopt it here so that we can take advantage of the productivity-enhancing tools and technologies that are available,” said Brown.

Director general of health Audrey Sorenson also told the conference that the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora are working on bringing AI tools into healthcare, with the aim of enhancing patient care and easing the burden on staff. 

"We are working to ensure AI tools are safe, effective, and deliver for patients," Sorenson said. 

"The focus is simple: use technology where it improves care and reduces pressure on staff, without compromising safety, privacy, and trust.

“New technology can also help with more simple tasks, like triaging and prioritising surgical waitlists as well as capital investment.”

Sorenson said that improving productivity through capital investment needs to include investment in digital infrastructure and technologies and private hospitals are often further ahead in this area.

“There will be opportunities to learn and collaborate, sharing best practice and technological advantages to benefit the entire health sector,” she said.

Health NZ has appointed Sonny Taite as digital director innovation and AI and created a new programme called HealthX, to identify and implement AI-driven solutions to healthcare challenges across the motu. 

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.

At the NZPSHA conference, the Minister also said he had been "surprised" to discover Health NZ was developing its own AI app to take patient notes, when you can buy these tools off the shelf, and that the country should use and embrace what the rest of the world is doing.

Taite says that building an ambient scribe taught the organisation a lot.

"It showed us what clinicians value, what works in busy real-world settings, and where the gaps are. Those lessons have shaped our current approach, and we will carry them forward should we decide to build our own solutions again in future," he says.

Health NZ is now trialling a panel of endorsed AI scribe providers, including Heidi and iMedX, endorsed by the National AI and Algorithm Expert Advisory Group (NAIAEAG) following rigorous privacy and security reviews.

"These tools are now being tested in clinical settings to help reduce cognitive load, improve documentation quality, and most importantly, give clinicians back time to focus on their patients," he says.

"This shift in approach is deliberate to give us flexibility, scalability, and access to solutions already proven in other health systems. We are rolling them out with strong governance, local oversight, and a clear focus on patient safety and clinician experience."

Taite says the health system is not adopting AI for its own sake, but "doing it to improve care - for clinicians and the people they serve".

Hear more from the minister of health at Digital Health Week 2025 this November 24-27 in Christchurch. Register today.

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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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