Prime Highlights
- Te Whatu Ora partners with UCLPartners to strengthen its HealthX programme, drawing on international expertise to guide AI adoption in emergency care.
- The collaboration supports evidence based decisions as AI scribes expand across New Zealand’s emergency departments.
Key Facts
- UCLPartners works with the UK’s National Health Service and brings horizon scanning insight to Te Whatu Ora’s AI scribe rollout.
- Around 1,250 emergency doctors and frontline workers now use the endorsed AI scribe tools.
Background
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand has partnered with UCLPartners, a London based health innovation network linked to the UK’s National Health Service, to support its digital and AI transformation efforts. The health body approached UCLPartners directly to draw on its international experience.
Sonny Taite, director of Digital Innovation and AI at Te Whatu Ora, said the partnership brings access to independent expertise, lessons learned and evidence from a health system facing similar challenges. He said horizon scanning support from UCLPartners added confidence as AI scribes rolled out across emergency departments.
Taite clarified the agreement does not commit Te Whatu Ora to purchasing or adopting any specific products or technologies. The evidence and learning partnership instead helps the organisation make informed choices backed by clinical leadership and strong governance. HealthX trials and rollouts will continue to follow established clinical governance, safety and equity frameworks.
UCLPartners Chief Executive Chris Laing said the two organisations share many healthcare and health inequality challenges, adding there is much to gain from collaborating on shared approaches.
HealthX, Te Whatu Ora’s national programme for testing and scaling digital and AI innovation, began with the nationwide rollout of AI scribes across public emergency departments, later expanding into emergency mental health. The tools are now used by roughly 1,250 emergency doctors and frontline workers.
Taite said HealthX projects must improve health targets, scale across sites, and address workforce pressure and unequal access. The programme is also exploring cardiology, radiology, dermatology, virtual care and mental health diagnostics.
Healthcare systems worldwide face similar pressures, Taite said, and HealthX believes in learning from others rather than solving every challenge alone.
