AI innovations in health: New Zealand to roll out AI medical scribe, and Saudi Arabia launches digital health coach
The government of New Zealand plans to use a new artificial intelligence tool to draft clinical notes, referrals and consultation summaries so that doctors and other frontline staff can spend more time with their patients.
The tool will act as a scribe for medical staff, recording and automatically producing records and documents to progress cases through the health system.
The tool will initially be deployed for use by 1,000 staff at various emergency departments across the country, with the expectation that it would be rolled out nationwide thereafter.
Simeon Brown, New Zealand’s health minister, said that the tool would make “a real difference for patients and staff”, saving both parties valuable time and improving national health service delivery.
“Too many doctors have told me that paperwork and documentation take up too much of their day,” he said.
“This tool will help free them up to spend more time with patients – listening, diagnosing, and treating – rather than writing down or typing up notes.”
Brown added that the tool would ensure that “nothing important is missed, leading to more consistent follow-up care”.
As part of the Innovation 2026 event programme, Global Government Forum is bringing together leaders from across the NHS and wider public sector to discuss how to achieve the 10 Year Health Plan. The conference and exhibition takes place on 24 and 25 March 2026 in London. Find out more.
The government stressed that patient privacy would be protected. It said the AI scribe was “tailored to New Zealand’s clinical language and systems”, met all privacy requirements, and would include “strong security protections to keep patient information safe”.
It explained that the tool had “already being used successfully in some primary care settings”, such as in appointments with general practitioners. Brown pointed to two successful pilots – one in Hawke’s Bay (a region on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island) and one in Whanganui (a city in the country’s Manawatū-Whanganui region) – which the government said showed “the practical difference technology can make for both doctors and patients”.
According to Brown, doctors who used the AI tool “were able to see, on average, one additional patient per shift because of the time saved”.
“Doctors and nurses want to focus on the person in front of them. This tool helps them do that – making the consultation more personal, while still capturing all the details needed for ongoing care.”
He said that although AI would never replace the “skill or judgement” of clinicians, it would “support our people to do what they do best – provide timely, quality care to New Zealanders”.
Read more: Transcribing trust: is transcription the use case that shows AI’s transformative power?
Saudi Arabia’s new health coach
In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the government’s Ministry of Health has launched an AI-powered health tool in partnership with Google Cloud and Lean Business Services. Announced during the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh in October, the AI tool is accessible from the national Sehaty app and functions as a personal health coach.
Through ‘live’ voice and video interactions, users are able to speak with the AI interface as they would a human being for quick, personalised medical guidance and advice on healthy daily routines. Like New Zealand’s AI scribe, the tool can also be used to summarise clinical notes, help doctors with documentation and deliver recommendations based on a patient’s medical history.
The government’s aim to create a more connected and human-centric system of care in collaboration with the private and other sectors feeds into the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan. The new health coach uses Google Cloud’s Gemini model, a form of generative AI, and has been developed with the help of Lean Business Services which has expertise in secure health integration and optimising people-facing tech functionality.
Fahad bin Abdulrahman AlJalajel, the Saudi minister for health, called the move “a new step” for the country towards embedding a “preventative, integrated and people-centred model of care” for Saudi nationals.
Read more: New Global Government Forum study calls for a ‘step-change’ to unlock NHS digital transformation
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
Related Posts
