Dr Alec Price-Forbes, national chief clinical information officer for England (Credit: Jordan Sollof)
NHS England is launching a national ambient voice technologies (AVT) self-certified registry for suppliers to show evidence of compliance, England’s national chief clinical information officer announced.
Speaking at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) 2025 event in London, Dr Alec Price-Forbes described the AI software, used to transcribe patient consultations into clinical notes, as “an exciting and transformative innovation in healthcare”.
He added: “It isn’t just another tool, we see it as a strategic enabler for the NHS, helping to tackle some of the most pressing challenges – workforce pressures, rising demand, and the need to improve patient experiences.”
Price-Forbes said that the new registry for suppliers, which will launch this week, is a “tactical response” to the use of AVT in the NHS.
“We are about to launch a national AVT self-certified registry, underpinned by clear business capabilities and application requirements for all AVT suppliers to evidence compliance.
“These build on our existing and recognised baseline regulatory, clinical safety, technology information governance and interoperability standards but go further by introducing AI and large language models-specific criteria for greater safety governance and performance monitoring,” he told the audience.
Results of a London-wide trial of TORTUS AI-scribe technology, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, found ‘transformative’ benefits for NHS patients and clinicians, but the technology’s adoption has been held back by regulatory uncertainty.
In June 2025, Price-Forbes wrote to NHS bodies advising caution about the use of unregulated AVT, leading the British Medical Association to advise GPs to pause use of the technology unless they have carried out data protection and safety checks.
“These technologies are ready to go and to scale and we want to do that,” Price-Forbes told delegates at HETT, describing AVT as “a catalyst for change”.
He also discussed the three shifts highlighted in the government’s 10 year health plan, stressing that “technology has the potential to restore the art of medicine”.
“Embedding the digital by default movement” and “shifting mindset” is required to achieve the for digital transformation in the plan, he added.
Price-Forbes highlighted the “huge boost” that the NHS Online service, expected to launch by 2027 will provide.
He added that making the NHS App a “full front door” for the health service by 2028, and the creation of single patient record were “crucial for all three shifts” of the 10 year health plan.
Meanwhile, a new national commission which includes experts from Google and Microsoft, has been launched to help accelerate access to AVT and advise the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on speeding up access to the latest AI tools.
Speaking at the AI in Health Summit, in London on 1 October 2025, Lawrence Tallon, chief executive of MHRA, said that “we cannot afford to wait years” for AI to be regulated at the pace of innovation.
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