CAAW26 Innovation award winners announced

24 Jun 2026

We are delighted to share that the winners of the Innovation category of the Excellence in Clinical Audit Awards 2026, which are part of Clinical Audit Awareness Week, have been announced!

This award recognises clinical audits and evidence-informed improvement projects that use healthcare data in new or creative ways to improve care. This may include novel uses of data, digital tools, technology, analytics, or artificial intelligence. Many congratulations to:

WINNER: Data Science and Infection Prevention and Control Team, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

This project involved the creation of a Reproducible Analytical Pipeline for Rapid, Sustained and Statistically-Significant Improvement in MRSA Admission Screening Compliance, using open-source software. It integrated electronic patient record and laboratory data, to identify screening-eligible inpatients and determine compliance status, enabling targeted interventions where they were needed most.

RUNNER-UP: End of Life Care Champions, Whipps Cross University Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust

Transforming End of Life Care: A Champion-Led Quality Improvement Approach was designed to address limited specialist capacity, using audit results. With multiple interventions and a monthly dashboard to track progress and sustain improvement, this innovative project used co-produced stories to explain why care mattered, helping to shift learning from passive compliance to reflective practice. The result was measurable improvements in end-of-life care and staff confidence, and increased positive feedback from bereaved families.

Who are the other winners?

This award is one of five main, and two additional commendation, categories in this year’s Excellence in Clinical Audit Awards. The winners are announced at a series of daily online events from 22-26 June 2026, which are run alongside a series of themed webinars, aligned to the award categories.

Register NOW: Find out more about, and register for, HQIP’s free online events, to find out about all the winners of the Excellence in Clinical Audit Awards and hear more about the Clinical Audit Awareness Week topics:

Thursday 25 June, 10.30am-12pm: Patient Safety REGISTER HERE
Thursday 25 June, 12.45-1.30pm: Lunchtime Sharing Session – with Patient Safety award announcement REGISTER HERE
Friday 26 June, 10am-12pm: Data-Informed Improvement (morning webinar) REGISTER HERE
Friday 26 June, 1-3pm: Data-Informed Improvement (afternoon webinar) – with Evidence into Practice award announcement REGISTER HERE.

All award winners announced so far can be found here: Excellence in Clinical Audit Awards.

Clinical Audit Awareness Week 2026

A week-long national campaign that aims to improve and save lives by promoting and celebrating the critical role of clinical audit and data-driven healthcare improvement. Join in the fun by sharing online, using #CAAW26!

Find out more: Clinical Audit Awareness Week 2026