Message from the Chair of HiNZ-NMI
With this being our final newsletter of the year, I wish you all a very happy holiday season. I hope the weeks ahead provide time to rest, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most to you. If you are working through this time, thank you for your commitment to the health of NZers, and hope you get some time away at a later date.
This year has been an exceptionally successful one for our nursing and midwifery digital health community. Together, we have strengthened connections, shared knowledge, and continued to grow our collective influence across Aotearoa New Zealand. A highlight was our outstanding one-day digital health workshop, which brought together 100 nurses and midwives from across the country. The energy, expertise, and generosity of ideas on the day clearly demonstrated the depth of leadership within our profession.
Thank you to all our members for your valuable input, active participation, and ongoing commitment. Your engagement shapes our direction and ensures our work remains relevant and impactful.
Looking ahead to 2026, we are excited to welcome a new-look executive and consider new initiatives focused on further strengthening nurses’ and midwives’ leadership in digital health across New Zealand. We look forward to continuing this journey with you and to adding even greater value in the year ahead.
See you all soon
Carey Campbell (@Carey)
Chair
HiNZ-NMI Updates and News
“Solving wicked problems in health” workshop
Our one day digital health workshop for nurses and midwives held in Christchurch on 27 November was a huge success with 100 attendees and 24 superb presenters. The last session of the day “Tabletalk” required attendees to hold professional action-focused discussions around the role and opportunities for nurses and midwives to provide active leadership in solving wicked problems in health.
Contented AI was used to provide a summary of the discussions - the concise summary is attached. This provides suggested actions for nurses and midwives to enact within their practice and key ideas for the exec to guide activities in 2026.
A huge thank you to all who took part which has provided these valuable insights.
Health Informatics New Zealand_Contented Meeting_12_19_2025 (2).pdf (64.3 KB)
AGM 2025
This was held virtually on 17 December at midday. Minutes are attached.
Minutes NMI AGM 2025.pdf (71.1 KB)
AI Scribes
AI scribes are now well in place within healthcare workplaces. From the GP office, the private orthopaedic surgeon, the physiotherapist, to ED, AI scribes are helping to make clinicians lives easier and create more efficiency. AI scribes was a strong theme that came through at the recent HiNZ Digital health week conference – the good and the bad. The National Artificial Intelligence and Algorithm Expert Advisory group (NAIAEAG) of Health NZ spoke at the conference of the work that they have done to ensure that AI scribe tools have been adequately evaluated, especially in regards to security and privacy, before endorsement. As a result of this process, Health NZ endorsed Heidi AI scribes for use within Health NZ. They make a note to say that it is the enterprise version that has been endorsed, not the free version, which reminded me of something that Lara Hopley said at the conference: “If it is free, you are the product”. Something to think about when we engage with free AI tools. NAIAEAG are currently reviewing a number of other ambient AI scribe tools.
In considering the good and the bad of AI scribe tools, I came across this article by a group of nurse researchers and academics. This article presents information about the rapid scale of implementation of AI scribe tools and asks us to be considerate and mindful of the limitations that these tools can present. The article attached by Topaz, Peltonen and Zhang (2025) state that implementation of these tools must be thoughtful, and we need to constantly consider patient safety and clinical integrity. A worthy read.
Disclaimer: No AI was used to write this piece 
Article reference:
Topaz, M., Peltonen, L.M. & Zhang, Z. Beyond human ears: navigating the uncharted risks of AI scribes in clinical practice. npj Digit. Med. 8, 569 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-01895-6
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-025-01895-6#citeas
AI scribes article.pdf (376.5 KB)
New Publications from Nursing & Midwifery Informatics
Latest edition of the IMIA NI Newsletter.
IMIA NI acknowledges the passing of the Chair, Nick Hardiker.
Nick was very well respected in the nursing informatics international community and was a genuinely nice person. Nicks passing is a huge loss to this community and all of us here in the New Zealand nursing informatics community send our thoughts to his family and friends.
December IMIA NI Newsletter
IMIA NI NEWSLETTER December 2025.pdf (721.8 KB)
If you haven’t already, you can request to join their LinkedIn group here.
About HiNZ-NMI
The HiNZ nursing & midwifery informatics special interest group (HiNZ-NMI) supports the development of nursing and midwifery informatics in New Zealand. HiNZ-NMI meets on the eHealth Forum and publishes a free eNewsletter with digital health updates of relevance to nurses.
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What is nursing and midwifery informatics?
Nursing and Midwifery Informatics science and practice integrates nursing and midwifery, its information and knowledge and their management with information and communication technologies to promote the health of people, families and communities world-wide.