Comment on Health NZ scraps in-house AI tool in favour of private sector by Hera Cook

['Marc Daalder', 'More Marc Daalder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Comments for Newsroom 2025-09-23 00:00:00

Health NZ has launched a new trial of third-party AI tools to transcribe and summarise recordings of patient consultations after it shuttered an in-house tool. Tuhi, the te reo word for ‘write’, was developed by Health NZ for $150,000 in 2024 and had been trialled since November. The official briefing discussed plans to scale its use within Health NZ and potentially opening it up to external users like GPs, aged-care providers and midwives. While doctors have long-used AI tools to transcribe their consultations, recent developments in large language models and generative AI, like ChatGPT, enabled the creation of tools which can summarise these transcripts. More might also emerge as usage expanded – one of the difficulties with the rapid uptake of AI tools was there had been less attention paid to potential downsides.