CareLoop: Preventing psychosis relapse through digital innovation
Discover how CareLoop uses digital technology to identify early warning signs of psychosis relapse, support earlier intervention and reduce hospitalisation.
For people living with psychosis, relapse can be highly disruptive, often leading to hospitalisation and significant costs for health services. Yet early warning signs can go unnoticed until a person reaches crisis point, when opportunities for earlier intervention may have been missed.
CareLoop is a digital platform designed to help mental healthcare teams identify these early warning signs before crisis hits. Built on more than a decade of NHS-led research, it gives clinicians and service users timely insight into changes that might otherwise go unnoticed, helping them act earlier and support people to remain well.
What is CareLoop and what problem does it solve?
CareLoop is a digital platform that helps mental healthcare teams spot the early warning signs of psychosis relapse, before crisis hits. It is built on over a decade of NHS-led research, to give clinicians and service users timely insight into changes that might otherwise go unnoticed until it’s too late.
Psychosis affects around 1 in 100 people, and for many people, relapse remains a significant risk, with around 1 in 4 experiencing relapse each year. Relapses can be highly disruptive and can lead to hospitalisation and significant costs for health services.
“We built CareLoop to help interrupt this cycle by identifying early warning signs and enabling earlier intervention.”
CareLoop is built on more than a decade of research and has been evaluated across multiple randomised controlled trials. In the EMPOWER trial, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, CareLoop’s digital early-warning approach, used alongside standard care, was associated with a 50% reduction in relapse events and a 33% reduction in hospital costs compared with standard care alone.
These findings demonstrate the potential for digital innovation to help identify changes earlier, support clinical decision-making and improve care for people living with psychosis.
What was your inspiration and motivation?
The motivation behind CareLoop is to improve the lives of people with severe mental illness, a population that has rarely been the beneficiary of new innovations.
“I wanted to help build something that gives clinicians and people with psychosis a shared view of what’s happening, so care can happen before a crisis rather than in response to one.”
“I wanted to help build something that gives clinicians and people with psychosis a shared view of what’s happening, so care can happen before a crisis rather than in response to one.”
By bringing together research, digital technology and the experiences of people receiving care, CareLoop aims to help shift mental healthcare towards earlier intervention, rather than responding only when someone’s condition deteriorates.
Why did you become a fellow?
Being an NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) fellow offers an additional platform to move CareLoop from proven research into everyday practice across the NHS.
For CareLoop, the Fellowship is both recognition of the strength of the evidence base and an opportunity to keep progressing towards wider adoption.
“It’s recognition that the evidence base is strong, but it’s also a push to keep going.”
The Fellowship also provides a valuable support network through the NIA team and other fellows, alongside the support and visibility needed to help an innovation like CareLoop become properly embedded in care pathways.
Looking ahead
Over the next five years, the ambition is for CareLoop to become part of the standard of care for people with severe mental illness. This aligns with the wider government and policy priorities to move care from analogue to digital and from hospital to community.
“We want to demonstrate why these shifts matter for people with psychosis, supporting care that is more proactive, accessible and responsive to individual needs.”
The ambition also extends beyond the UK. In the United States, where access to high-quality care can be challenging and psychosis is estimated to cost around $60 billion a year, with half of that spent on inpatient care alone, CareLoop hopes to demonstrate the value of its model in a different health system. This includes a goal to take CareLoop to Low and Middle Income Countries too.
Ultimately, the goal is to make the benefits of early-warning digital care available to more people, across different health systems and settings, helping prevent relapse, reduce avoidable hospitalisation and improve the lives of people living with severe mental illness.
Want to find out more? Visit the innovation page where you can contact the innovator directly, or check out their website.
