Proximie selected for Amazon Web Services (AWS) health equity initiative

Proximie will strengthen Kenya’s health system, supported by technical expertise and computing credits from Amazon Web Services.

London, UK – 28 May 2024 – Proximie (“the Company”), the leading global health technology platform digitising operating rooms, announces it has been selected to participate in the Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) Health Equity Initiative.

The AWS initiative is a $60 million, three-year commitment, supporting organisations developing solutions to advance health equity. Through the initiative, AWS offers AWS credits and customised technical expertise to selected organisations around the world that want to use AWS services to improve health outcomes and health equity.

The support from AWS will advance Proximie’s efforts to strengthen Kenya’s health system, focusing on:

• Expanding the use cases of Proximie into specialist, complex surgeries, such as neurosurgery; laparoscopy; plastics; orthopaedics; and trauma;
• Establishing digital innovation hubs in key teaching and referral hospitals; and
• Modernising surgical residency training and mentorship programmes via Proximie, to support growth of Kenya’s surgical workforce.

Kenya is estimated to have c. 2.35 surgical, anaesthesia, and obstetric personnel per 100,000 people - well below the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery’s goal of 20 personnel per 100,000 people. The rollout of solutions enhancing surgical access and health equity are vital to improve access to safe surgery and patient outcomes in the country.

Shannon Shibata-Germanos, Head of Global Health at Proximie, said:

“We are delighted to collaborate with Amazon Web Services via its Health Equity Initiative. Creating a sustainable impact on global health has been an integral part of Proximie’s DNA from the very beginning. The technical expertise and services provided by AWS will be invaluable as we continue this focus in 2024, reducing health inequity and widening global access to safe and effective surgery.”

Maggie Carter, Global Lead - Social Impact at Amazon Web Services, commented:

“AWS believes individual health outcomes should not depend on socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or neighbourhood.  

“Cloud technology can help address inequities in global health to expand access to the services people need to live longer, healthier lives–no matter who they are or where they live. Through the AWS Health Equity Initiative, we look forward to helping Proximie and other organisations worldwide use the power of cloud computing to advance health equity and improve health outcomes.”

Since its founding, Proximie has been on a mission to improve global access to safe surgery via digitised operating rooms; enabling expertise to be shared with those surgeons and patients who need it.

In Kenya, the Company has invested significant efforts in improving health equity and patients’ access to surgery. In 2020 Proximie formed a dynamic public-private partnership with Jhpiego, with the support of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, to improve access to safe, quality, and respectful obstetrical and anaesthesia care via surgical workforce capacity development and quality improvement efforts.

AWS’ Health Equity Initiative is open to selected organisations working to improve health outcomes and equity in any of the following areas:

1. Increasing access to high-quality, culturally responsive health services. Eligible projects can include synchronous healthcare (i.e., real-time telephone or audio-video interactions); increased access to high-quality diagnostic services; addressing bias in the diagnostic development process; and cleaning existing data sets to improve accuracy for race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or other data points that will help to advance health equity for all.
2. Increasing access to responsive social and community support. Eligible projects can include leveraging technology to improve access to social services, nutrition, transportation, housing, or economic opportunities to improve health outcomes. Additionally, projects can support research to deepen the understanding of and inform strategies to address disparities in social determinants of health.
3. Mitigating the impact of climate change on health and quality of life. Eligible projects must proactively address diverse environmental health threats in an adaptive and culturally responsive manner. Projects could leverage technology and data to control the spread of cross-species infectious diseases, utilise geospatial analysis for mapping outbreaks, and improve equitable air quality monitoring with enhanced community access and data analysis capabilities.

To learn more about the AWS initiative, visit https://aws.amazon.com/health/health-equity.