Frequently Asked Questions

How did Proxximos get started?

How did Proxximos get started?

In early 2020 before the pandemic struck, a group of civil servants, doctors, technologists and academics in the UK realised that a traditional approach to countering infectious disease called contact tracing could be automated using digital technology, and that this would prevent it being overwhelmed by a pandemic.  The UK’s health service innovation arm (NHSx) backed this group to build and deploy a prototype.  This highly multi-disciplinary group worked from first principles to build a system designed to counter communicable disease and tuned it to Covid-19.  It was trialled in the UK in May 2020 on an island with 140,000 people (the Isle of Wight).  The results were promising and subsequently published in The Lancet Epidemiological changes on the Isle of Wight after the launch of the NHS Test and Trace programme: a preliminary analysis – The Lancet Digital Health

The UK government eventually decided to back a technology offer from Google and Apple (the Google and Apple Exposure Notification – GAEN) and changed course to build an App based on GAEN.

Some of the original team continued to work on the promising earlier version and joined forces with other like minded technologists.   In mid 2021 they formed Proxximos to pursue the vision of combating and eradicating communicable disease.  Proxximos is now trialling a prototype, engaging with potential customers with big infectious disease concerns (infection control in hospitals, energy producers with remote production platforms, cruise ship operators, etc), and talking to investors about accelerating the realisation of the vision.