Healthbridge CTO Anton Fatti discusses the company’s rollout of Nora AI and shares practical tips for implementing AI with purpose.

South African health-tech company, Healthbridge announced its partnership with Nora AI, an ambient AI medical scribe that is designed to help clinicians reduce the burden of documentation related to consultations and compliance.

Healthbridge’s rollout of Nora AI shows how ambient AI is working to rebalance clinician burnout, not by replacing professionals, but by taking administrative work off their shoulders. The impact has been measurable, with nearly 300 clinicians using Nora AI across close to 50,000 consultations, reporting time savings of up to three hours per day according to Anton.

“Instead of typing or writing notes during or after a consultation, the AI handles it automatically. This eliminates what one leader calls the grunt work from their day, freeing them up for higher value tasks,” he continues.

Clinicians describe being more present during consultations, less distracted by paperwork, and better able to focus on the patient in front of them. As Anton notes, “By removing the need for clinicians to be tethered to a keyboard, Nora AI has transformed the dynamic of the consultation room. Clinicians can be fully present with the patient and are no longer burdened or distracted with note-taking.”

Driving AI safety

The technology is designed around safeguards that make it usable in a clinical environment. Every note generated by the AI requires final review and approval by the clinician. “The system is designed as an assistant, not a replacement,” says Anton.

“The AI-generated notes are always subject to the clinician’s final review and approval. This ensures that a qualified medical professional validates the accuracy and clinical appropriateness of every record before it is finalised.”

Security and compliance are equally central. Each patient’s data is processed in a ringfenced environment and encrypted end to end. Consent protocols are built to align with Popia.

“The AI’s ability to provide deep patient insights is almost like a customised ChatGPT for a specific patient, completely ringfenced and secure. This ringfenced architecture means that each patient’s data is kept in a secure, isolated environment,” says Anton.

Healthbridge is also looking beyond documentation by extending patient communication channels through WhatsApp. At present, clinicians can share AI-generated visit summaries and medical test results in plain language, always with clinician oversight.

According to Anton, the future is a shift from informational updates to transactional support. “The agent will act on patient instructions to book, reschedule or cancel appointments and, down the line, facilitate outstanding payments directly from the familiar WhatsApp interface.”

The CIO playbook

The strategic lesson for CIOs lies in how Healthbridge approached the partnership. Rather than building from scratch, they embedded an external innovation into their platform while putting the right guardrails in place.

Anton summarises the philosophy as “AI with purpose”. He explains that the goal is not disruption for its own sake but rather building tools that work in the background to make people’s lives better.

For CIOs in any sector, three themes stand out when seeking to implement purpose-driven AI. First, CIOs need to target the right problem, rather than chasing novelty. Then they must build compliance and oversight into the design from the outset and partner where possible to shorten time to value.

In an era where AI adoption is often driven by hype, Healthbridge’s work with Nora AI shows the impact of embedding technology directly into workflows. The result is not a flashy new interface but more time for patients, less strain on clinicians and greater operational efficiency.

Author: Grace Pelo-Sithole
Grace Pelo-Sithole is the senior writer at CIO South Africa. She has a solid background in community journalism, digital content editing and business writing – and is passionate about transforming complex information into clear, engaging stories. When not writing, Grace enjoys hiking and immersing herself in African fiction and biographies.

This article was first published on CIO South Africa.

Healthbridge CTO Anton Fatti delves into purpose-driven AI