Providing a cloud-based operating system for intelligent operating rooms (ORs) has been a 10-year journey for NHS practising surgeon, Dr Hachach-Haram.

‘I initially spent 10 years working in missions around the world working with medical device companies, helping train surgeons,' she said.

‘But as I stepped back into one of my operating rooms one day, I realised fundamentally the problem is that this environment, as sophisticated as it is, is incredibly manual.

‘It's the most data-rich environment, but insight-poor. And someone needs to do something about collecting this very rich data, connecting experts and capacity, and activating insights that can transform the way we deliver care for patients.

‘So I spent the last decade building the thing that would make it possible.'

Intelligence Suite

Proximie's Intelligence Suite uses AI and predictive analytics to capture real time data and detect surgical events, eliminating manual entry, improving data quality and workflow automation.

‘We're seeing a lot more desire to adopt that automation and drive more throughput in the hospital,' Dr Hachach-Haram observed.

‘Because ultimately, the front of mind for a lot of health systems is cost. So this really helps with that productivity.'

Early deployment of Proximie's Intelligence Suite has indicated the potential to enable an additional surgical case per day through improved theatre flow and operational efficiency, helping to address pressure on NHS waiting lists.

Intelligence Suite is already deployed across many NHS trusts including University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, where benefits include an 8.2% increase in cases, and a 30% reduction in turnover time.

At one hospital, Proximie's AI identified overbookings and uncovered gaps for additional procedures, releasing 3,010 minutes of capacity in a single week, equivalent to just over 50 hours. It can then match patients on the waiting list to those openings based on factors including the procedure, surgeon, operating room, anaesthetist and patient BMI.

At Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, nearly 20 minutes was saved per case. An independent evaluation of Proximie across two robotic thoracic surgery lists found that targeted workflow changes reduced procedure lengths by nearly 20 minutes per case on average, recovering close to one hour across each surgical list. Proximie subsequently reported the changes could create capacity for an additional procedure per list without requiring additional OR time.

In September, Proximie announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Deloitte, and eight NHS hospitals that will see its Intelligence Suite deployed across 104 operating theatres, endoscopy suites, and catheterisation laboratories in a bid to examine how AI can increase surgical capacity and reduce surgical waiting lists.

Dr Hachach-Haram said Proximie would be ‘one of the largest AI deployments in the NHS, particularly focused around ambient intelligence'.

Surgical Suite

Proximie's Surgical Suite enables real-time remote access to the OR and creates a secure video record of every procedure to support and scale surgical training and medtech adoption and is accessible in approximately 20% of NHS hospitals.

‘We've shown we can train twice as many doctors and nurses in half the time by using Proximie,' Dr Hachach-Haram said.

‘We have medical students engaging with it, resident doctors engaging, consultants and medical device companies.'

Proximie has also played a key role in helping accelerate the adoption of new surgery techniques such as robotics through virtual teaching and support.

‘We've been involved quite extensively in robotic surgery, helping robotic surgery adoption because a lot of the proctoring and teaching has been happening virtually through Proximie,' the practising surgeon said.

‘Surgeons in one hospital are dialling in and supporting surgeons in another hospital to accelerate their learning curve in surgery and start to get comfortable with these devices.

‘We've done it in variety of different robotic companies. We've done it in orthopedics with new orthopedic systems. We've done it in vascular surgery and interventional endovascular, to name a few.'

Digital ecosystem

The business founder said Proximie was a ‘vendor neutral digital ecosystem' able to integrate with EPRs and medtech partners.

‘A lot of medical device companies want to work with us because they can take what we've built and integrate it into their devices, so they can turn their device into smart connected devices,' Dr Hachach-Haram explained.

‘Secondly, using Proximie means they can accelerate the learning curve and acquisition of new techniques and devices.'

OR co-pilot

Looking ahead, the business founder said Proximie would focus on deploying more operating theatre automation, including documentation, coding and consumable tracking.

‘We're figuring out how do you link into things like waiting lists? How do you link into device telemetry data? How do you reinforce and enrich the data set that we have to continue to drive predictive intelligence and predictive analytics?' she said.

‘Proximie is really going to be the team's co-pilot in the OR, helping with task management, with what they need to do, with ensuring the patient gets everything they need from the care perspective and that the teams are more effective working together through that.'

Concluding, Dr Hachach-Haram said Proximie was all about helping ease pressure on overstretched OR staff.

‘We're not asking them to work harder,' she said. ‘We're just wanting them to work smarter.'