Navenio secures government funding for hospital workforce AI platform

Navenio, the UK company that has pioneered indoor location-based artificial intelligence to revolutionise workflows, has been successful in securing funding in the latest round of the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award.

The healthcare scale-up was one of 38 organisations to receive funding in the second round of the competition, with the AI Award making £140m available to multiple applicants over four years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of artificial intelligence technologies which meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Through world-leading University of Oxford research, Navenio creates unique indoor location-based services, solving the problem that GPS does not work indoors without requiring any new infrastructure.

The award’s aim is to increase the impact of AI-driven technologies to help solve clinical and operational challenges across the NHS and care settings.

And it aligns with Navenio’s mission to help transform hospitals by ensuring the right person is in the right place, at the right time.

The funding will help us accelerate being able to support more teams and patients across the NHS, as we look to build on the positive impact that our technology has provided, particularly during the pandemic

For Navenio, the funding will support the company in delivering benefits to many more hospitals, following its significant success to date operating its solution 24/7 in the NHS.

Navenio will partner with three existing customers to establish the baseline comparison for the project and then on-board 10 further hospitals in two phases.

Phase one is for logistics teams like porters and cleaners, and phase two expands this to clinical support teams, including allied health professionals.

Through the award, Navenio will develop a proven and nationally-scalable evidence base to help support improved patient flow across the NHS.

For patients, Navenio helps deliver a better care experience by removing the distraction of logistics from frontline clinical teams, alongside faster response times and higher-quality cleaning practice, ensuring safer movements of the vulnerable between departments, and quicker turnaround overall - reducing patient stay times and getting people home sooner.

Tim Weil, chief executive and co-founder at Navenio, commented: “The funding will help us accelerate being able to support more teams and patients across the NHS, as we look to build on the positive impact that our technology has provided, particularly during the pandemic.

Artificial intelligence is one of many technologies making a real-world impact in the healthcare sector, and Navenio is proud to help spearhead digital transformation alongside the other award recipients”

Dr Indra Joshi, director of AI at NHSX, said, adds: “With this latest round of AI sward winners, we now have an incredible breadth of expertise across a wide range of clinical and operational areas.

Through this award, Navenio will be at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence in new ways to transform health and care.”