Innovate UK has awarded more than £300,000 to a partnership between the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and UK healthtech company Sanome to accelerate the development of an AI-enabled system aimed at detecting hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) earlier.
The 18-month SMART grant will support the co-design and deployment of MEMORI, a Class IIb CE-certified software-as-a-medical-device platform. MEMORI uses real-time clinical data to predict infection risk up to seven days before symptoms appear.
HAIs represent more than 20% of NHS bed days each year. Research suggests that 35% to 55% of these infections are preventable with earlier detection and intervention. Conditions including pneumonia, MRSA, and Clostridium difficile contribute an estimated 7.1 million excess bed days annually, costing the NHS around £2.7 billion.
Preliminary studies show MEMORI’s first certified version outperformed the NHS-standard National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) in detecting patient deterioration. The new funding will allow the development of MEMORI v2, with enhancements such as integrating laboratory results, prescriptions, and clinical notes alongside existing data like vital signs and medications.
The platform will also feature deeper integration with Electronic Patient Record systems, a targeted 20% improvement in predictive accuracy, and enhanced explainability to build clinicians’ trust in AI-driven insights. The upgraded system will undergo validation through a large-scale deployment across multiple wards at Royal Devon University NHS Foundation Trust.
The collaboration is backed by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre and is intended to pave the way for wider NHS adoption. Long-term, Sanome and the HealthTech Research Centre aim to develop a real-time, longitudinal view of patient health that extends beyond infection risk into broader preventative and personalised care pathways.
Benedikt von Thüngen, chief executive and founder of Sanome, said: “Our mission is to prevent deterioration before it becomes life-threatening. MEMORI shows how real-world NHS data, when safely unlocked, can be transformed into actionable bedside insights using multimodal AI. Working with the Exeter HealthTech Research Centre, with support from Innovate UK, allows us to demonstrate both the clinical and system-wide benefits of AI.”
Dr Nick Kennedy, digital innovation and AI theme lead at the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre, emphasised the importance of early intervention. “Hospital-acquired infections remain one of the biggest threats to patient safety, particularly for vulnerable patients. By co-designing MEMORI, we can show how AI can support clinicians, transform care and ultimately save lives,” he said.
Chris Sawyer, innovation lead for digital health at Innovate UK, added that the project demonstrates how innovation and clinical expertise can tackle persistent healthcare challenges. Initial impact data from the live deployment is expected throughout 2026, with plans to expand MEMORI across NHS trusts nationwide.
