Transforming infection prevention: how collaboration is accelerating Proxximos’ impact

Introduction

Hospital Acquired Infections (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 20% of acute hospital beds and increase the risk to patients and staff (1). Manual contact tracing methods used today are resource-intensive, slow and error-prone, often relying on subjective recall and delayed action.

Proxximos offers a transformative alternative by digitising the contact tracing process. Proxximos enables instant and labour free identification of contacts and contamination zones when an infection is detected. This enables infection prevention and control (IPC) teams to make precise and early interventions to prevent the spread of infection. This precise and early invention helps reduce HAIs and ultimately saves money and lives.

Health Innovation East plays a vital role in supporting innovators like Proxximos by helping them realise the full potential of their ideas. As a trusted partner to the NHS, Health Innovation East works closely with healthcare colleagues to understand how innovations can transform health and care. By leveraging its strong relationships across the NHS, it accelerates the spread and adoption of innovative technologies, ensuring they reach the people, places and problems where they can deliver the greatest benefit.

Collaboration and connection are essential to innovation success in the complex health and care ecosystem. By building meaningful relationships and drawing on diverse perspectives, we can overcome challenges and scale ideas across systems with the right infrastructure and support. Health Innovation East has been working with Proxximos since 2022 to foster the connections they need to accelerate their innovation in health and care.

The challenge

Proxximos faced several significant challenges in bringing its innovative contact-tracing solution to healthcare settings. As a small SME with limited prior healthcare experience, the team had minimal visibility and struggled to access NHS partners and decision-makers. Their users – IPC clinical staff – are not generally budget holders for these types of new digital solutions, making stakeholder engagement complex and multi-layered. Being first to market with a novel approach to tracking staff and patients for infection control, Proxximos had to build awareness, educate stakeholders on the scale of the infection challenge, and create a sense of urgency around the need for their solution. Overcoming these barriers required strong partnerships and collaboration. By working with trusted organisations like Health Innovation East, Proxximos was able to navigate the healthcare ecosystem, connect with the right stakeholders, and accelerate the adoption of their technology where it could deliver the greatest impact.

The relationship between Proxximos and Health Innovation East began through a valuable network connection with Health Innovation East’s Innovation Lead, who provided 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.

Health Innovation East played a pivotal role in facilitating key partnerships, including introductions to Innovation Leads based in Norfolk Waveney ICB and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB , which led to wider Trust-level introductions, pilots and real-world evaluation opportunities. Health Innovation East also championed Proxximos by nominating them for HETT through the Health Innovation Network, opening doors to further relationships and visibility. Beyond connections, Health Innovation East has also offered strategic advice, evaluation support and partnered with bidding for NIHR grants. This has helped Proxximos navigate the healthcare landscape and accelerate the adoption of their technology.

Health Innovation East’s invitation for Proxximos to attend the East of England All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) at Westminster provided a valuable opportunity to showcase their solution among leading innovators and NHS stakeholders. It provided visibility, credibility and a platform to build strategic relationships that support adoption and scale across the health and care system.

The impact of these connections

Proxximos will be able to make significant strides through implementation and evaluation pilots now planned 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 Charitable Trust, enabling a pilot on a general medical ward. Meanwhile, at James Paget, Proxximos is preparing to go live in the Concept Ward, which is informing the design of two new hospital 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.

“These pilots are a turning point for us. They not only validate our technology in real-world clinical environments but also demonstrate the trust and collaboration we’ve built with NHS partners. It’s the foundation for scaling our impact.” Peter Whawell, CEO, Proxximos

“Proxximos is a great example of how the right idea, combined with the right partnerships, can create real system-level impact. By working closely with their team and connecting them with clinical, operational, and innovation leaders across our region, we’ve been able to help accelerate their journey from concept to real-world evaluation. What excites us most is the potential of this technology to not only improve patient safety but to fundamentally strengthen how we manage infection risk across the NHS. It’s exactly the kind of innovation that shows what’s possible when we collaborate with purpose.” – Jacob Carter, Innovation Lead, Health Innovation East

Looking ahead

Next for Proxximos is a critical phase of learning and validation. Through pilots at Addenbrooke’s and James Paget hospitals, the team aims to demonstrate measurable reductions in infection rates, improved patient flow, and a strong financial return. 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 be a key partner in this journey -supporting Proxximos with strategic introductions, helping identify new pilot sites, and guiding adoption and spread. Their expertise in economic growth and scaling innovation will be instrumental in expanding Proxximos’ impact across the health and care system.