Preventing the spread of hospital acquired infections

Insight

Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) can develop either as a direct result of healthcare interventions such as medical or surgical treatment or from being in contact with a healthcare setting. The term covers a wide range of infections including MRSA, TB, pneumonia and C.difficile.

HAIs are a growing challenge in UK hospitals and globally, contributing to patient harm, operational inefficiencies, and financial losses. HAIs significantly strain bed capacity, blocking up to 20% of acute hospital beds, HAIs also increase the risk to both patients and staff, with some infections leading to serious illness (1)(2).

To prevent the spread of HAIs and identify and break chains of transmission, manual contact tracing methods are used.  However, these methods are resource-intensive, slow and error-prone, often relying on subjective recall and delayed action.

As part of our contract with NHS England and the Office for Life Sciences (OLS), we support the adoption and spread of proven innovations that improve healthcare across our region — including access to validated digital solutions such as Proxximos.

Intervention

Proxximos offers a transformative approach to contact tracing by digitising and automating what is traditionally a manual and labour-intensive process. When an infection is detected, Proxximos enables the instant identification of exposed individuals and potentially contaminated locations – identifying individuals before they become infectious. This allows infection prevention and control (IPC) teams to intervene earlier and more precisely, reducing the risk of onward transmission.

Proxximos’ wearable contact-tracing technology is designed for both staff and patients and provides high-fidelity location data. This continuously captures opportunities for pathogens to pass from one person to another, enabling automated, accurate tracing without adding to clinical workload.

When a new positive or suspected case is identified, a member of the hospital team is able to identify this patient and individuals in close contact of patient in the Proxximos System. This insight supports informed clinical judgement and targeted infection-control measures.

As part of our OLS work, Health Innovation East has supported Proxximos since 2022, providing early strategic guidance on refining Proxximos’ value proposition and supported with health economics modelling. This support helped demonstrate a compelling return on investment, showing a tenfold ROI for healthcare providers adopting the solution.

Since this initial engagement led by the industry partnership team at Health Innovation East, we have played a pivotal role in facilitating key partnerships, including introductions to Innovation Leads based in Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board (ICB) and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB. This work, as part of the Health Innovation East NHS England core programme activity, has led to wider Trust-level introductions, pilots (including one site as part of the New Hospital Programme) and real-world evaluation opportunities.

Impact

Through the partnerships built with Norfolk and Waveney ICB and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, Proxximos is in the process of implementing and evaluating pilots at both James Paget University Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital – two major milestones that are vital for validating and scaling their technology. At Addenbrooke’s, a successful joint bid with the Infection Prevention and Control and Clinical Engineering teams secured an Innovation Grant from the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, enabling a pilot on a general medical ward. Meanwhile, at James Paget, Proxximos is preparing to go live in the Concept Ward – the ward guiding the design of two new hospitals in Norfolk. These pilots will provide crucial real-world evaluation, helping build robust business cases and evidence for scaling and wider adoption across the NHS.

Next steps

Next for Proxximos is a critical phase of learning and validation. Through the pilots at Addenbrooke’s and James Paget hospitals, the team aims to demonstrate measurable reductions in infection rates and improved patient flow. These real-world evaluations will provide the evidence base needed to build robust business cases and prepare systems and processes for scale across the NHS.

Health Innovation East will continue to work in close partnership with Proxximos, embedding their work within our NHS England’s 2026/27 core programme priorities and accelerating the growth of a strong, future-ready digital innovation pipeline.