Photo: Sonny Taite/LinkedIn
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand has launched a technology innovation programme that reportedly aims to roll out digital and AI-driven solutions to clinicians each month.
In September, the organisation announced its newest programme, HealthX. At its helm is Sonny Taite, Te Whatu Ora's national CISO, who has been seconded as acting director of innovation and AI.
Over the six months to February 2026, the programme will establish its structure – comprising a core team, a group of clinical advisors, and frontline clinical champions – and explore digital tools aimed at easing workforce pressures, improving access to care, and increasing clinical efficiency.
This period will focus on building momentum and trust with clinicians while testing tools in real settings. HealthX will then prioritise which technologies to take forward after this initial phase.
Minimum criteria
HealthX's first major activity to date is an AI scribe pilot in the Hawke’s Bay emergency department.
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, Taite outlined the minimum criteria for a HealthX project:
- positively impacting health targets;
- scaling to multiple locations and regions; and
- focused on high-priority areas, such as workforce pressures, access inequities, and clinical inefficiencies.
"Each initiative will require different support to scale," he said. "Our first initiative, AI scribe in the ED, is not integrated into other systems, which helped us deploy quickly."
Lean funding, target areas
According to Taite, HealthX taps funding from Te Whatu Ora's capability uplift budget. Last year, funding previously allocated for data and digital capability and innovations, including the stalled Hira project, was redirected to frontline services and healthcare payroll stabilisation.
The tech innovation programme has not set an annual target spend. Taite said the monthly cadence of initiatives creates a "natural constraint" that limits overall expenditure in the first year.
As it plans out its upcoming pipeline, HealthX is also assessing opportunities in cardiology, radiology, and dermatology, Taite confirmed.
"The concept of a virtual hospital, including models such as virtual ED, virtual wards, and hospital-at-home care, is an area we're watching closely," he added. New Zealand has continued to test and adopt virtual care models in the years following the 2020 global pandemic. Most recently, in July, it launched a 24/7 online general practice service to ease pressure on EDs, and Te Whatu Ora in Gisborne trialled a hospital-at-home concept last year.
On AI scribes
For now, HealthX is focused on implementing AI scribes across New Zealand EDs. The Ministry of Health has purchased licenses for the use of AI scribes by about 1,000 public ED doctors and staff. "There's been a lot of demand from our own clinicians to bring in AI scribes to help reduce clinical administration and documentation workloads," Taite shared.
In Hawke’s Bay, clinicians reported saving an average of 11 minutes per consultation, and after-shift documentation time fell from 40 minutes to 20 minutes, enabling staff to finish on time. "That reduction in cognitive load and burnout is a real benefit of AI scribes," Taite added.
HealthX expects around 70% of ED clinicians nationwide to be using AI scribes by year-end.
The National Artificial Intelligence and Algorithm Expert Advisory Group at Te Whatu Ora currently endorses four AI scribes for use in New Zealand's public health system, namely Heidi, iMedX, T-Pro, and IntelliTek, all from international vendors. A number of other ambient AI scribe tools are currently under review, Taite said.
