Sepsis, a critical condition resulting from a severe immune response to infection, is among the leading global causes of death [1]. Worldwide, around 48.9 million people are affected by sepsis annually, resulting in 11 million deaths [2, 3]. It is also one of the costliest medical conditions to manage. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, sepsis treatment costs were estimated at $1.3 billion per year in Ontario, Canada, and $27 billion in the United States. Sepsis patients typically face hospital stays twice as long as those with other life-threatening conditions, and in-hospital mortality rates remain high at 20% [4, 5]. Even after hospital discharge, survivors are at increased risk of death or suffer from a reduced quality of life [6–8]. Sepsis poses a significant challenge for global healthcare systems, with around 80% of cases present at the time of admission from the emergency department and the remainder occurring within hospital units [9]. The primary issues in sepsis diagnosis include non-specific clinical symptoms, the lack of a biomarker with adequate sensitivity and specificity due to the condition’s complex pathophysiology, and the fact that sepsis is a heterogeneous syndrome without a single identifiable cause, phenotype, or biological marker [9, 10]. The latter group poses a special risk for delayed recognition. Hospital-onset sepsis patients are twice as likely to die, twice as likely to require mechanical ventilation, and have twice the number of ICU days. Given these challenges, early diagnosis and intervention—ideally within 3 h as recommended by best practice guidelines—are crucial for improving patient outcomes [11, 12]. Sepsis-associated respiratory failure and renal failure are associated with higher mortality, increased cost and increased requirements for intensive care [13]. Readmission rates for sepsis are 1.52 times higher than other hospital discharge diagnosis [10]. The cost is 5 times that of sepsis present on admission. This makes ongoing, passive surveillance of patients with early warning of sepsis onset critically importance [12].