Health New Zealand has formally gone to market for its Radiology Digital Modernisation Programme, seeking suppliers for four national capabilities designed to replace fragmented regional imaging systems with a single connected radiology service.
The request for proposals (RFP) covers an Integrated Reporting Environment (IRE), national Image Archive and Enterprise Viewer, Enterprise Imaging Integration Layer and Imaging AI Orchestrator. Responses close on November 19.
In August, Health NZ signalled plans to spend between $50 million and $100 million on the programme under its Health Digital Investment Plan (HDIP), with procurement of the four capabilities expected to begin this year.
The newly released RFP provides more detail on the proposed architecture and procurement process.
Health NZ currently operates six separate RIS and PACS environments across its four regions, each with its own integrations, workflows and data standards. It says this fragmentation limits national interoperability and workforce mobility and contributes to inconsistent clinical workflows and data quality.
The new platform is intended to provide national access to previous images, allow radiology workloads to be balanced across the country, standardise clinical workflows and provide a governed approach to the use of AI.
The IRE will provide exam reporting workflows through a reporting worklist, diagnostic imaging PACS and voice-recognition reporting solution.
The national archive will provide long-term imaging storage and a web-based enterprise viewer, while the integration layer will broker HL7 and DICOM data between systems and normalise data to support consistent workflows.
The Imaging AI Orchestrator will broker imaging data to and from AI applications, allowing AI tools to change over time without being directly integrated into individual regional systems.
Health NZ has deliberately structured the procurement around modular capabilities, allowing suppliers to bid for one, several or all four components. Multi-supplier solutions are also permitted, although one supplier must act as the prime contractor and take responsibility for areas including end-to-end integration, security and privacy compliance and subcontractor performance.
The RFP also confirms that a national Radiology Information System (RIS) remains outside the current procurement and will be acquired separately in future. Physical imaging equipment, end-user devices and replacement of the National Breast Imaging PACS are also excluded.
Implementation of the new platform will be phased by region, with the rollout strategy to be developed with the successful supplier or suppliers.
The procurement is expected to run well into next year. Health NZ plans to shortlist up to three respondents per capability following the initial evaluation, followed by supplier presentations, system demonstrations and client reference interviews.
Preferred suppliers are currently scheduled to be notified on September 2, 2027, with contract negotiations to follow.
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