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At ieso, we take a responsible approach to innovation that places our patients at the heart of everything we do: the mental healthcare we deliver, the research we conduct, and the products we develop.
In partnership with experts-by-lived-experience* and clinicians, we have co-developed a set of responsible innovation principles that we use to inform the way we work.
Click on each principle to find out more.
Our priority is improving the lives of our patients in line with their mental health needs and personal goals. In turn, this delivers value for the NHS, other global healthcare providers and payers, and wider society. We involve experts-by-lived-experience and clinicians in the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of our research and product development to maximise its accessibility, acceptability and impact. We prioritise research that aims to deliver patient benefit. We are committed to ethical research practices that protect the safety and wellbeing of our patients, lived-experience contributors, and research volunteers.
Our products and services are grounded in research and evidence to ensure that they are as safe and effective as possible. Our scientists and clinicians learn from (i) our real-world treatment data, (ii) the published research findings of others, (iii) insights from experts-by-lived-experience, (iv) rigorous testing in product development, (v) evidencing our products prior to market release, and (vi) monitoring real-world use in market. We report our outcomes transparently using internationally recognised measures.
Our products and services are designed to facilitate the learning, reflection and action required for recovery. We build digital tools that are engaging and promote our patients’ independence by empowering them with the knowledge and skills they need to support their own wellbeing and recovery.
We are committed to improving equity, diversity and inclusion. We monitor the demographics of our patients, lived-experience contributors, and research volunteers to (i) understand how to meet the needs of those accessing our research, products and services, (ii) inform ways of diversifying the people we reach, and (iii) mitigate embedding biases in our care and technologies. We recognise that needs differ across individuals, conditions and contexts, and seek to understand and address barriers experienced by different people, including those who identify as belonging to groups that have been systemically excluded from mental health research and treatment. In this way, we broaden the relevance and impact of our research, build more inclusive products and services, and contribute to countering existing health inequalities.
We bring together expert clinicians and technology to safely scale provision of mental healthcare, so that patients can access a course of therapy when and where they need it. We ensure they achieve sustainable value in the marketplace by embedding the needs of patients, clinicians, regulators, the NHS, and other global healthcare providers and payers.
We seek to ensure that the insights generated by our research benefit as many people as possible. We publish our findings in peer-reviewed journals and share our work with our patients, the public, researchers, clinicians, policymakers, the NHS, and other global healthcare providers and payers. In this way, we contribute to continually improving the mental healthcare delivered by ieso and other providers, and evidence to our patients the value they add to mental health science and treatment by sharing their health and care data with us for research. We partner with researchers at universities and other demonstrably trustworthy organisations when they can contribute unique methods and expertise to enable additional research that improves mental health outcomes for more people.
We take data privacy extremely seriously. Mental health is deeply personal; we store patient data confidentially, protect it using the highest encryption and security standards, and use it responsibly, in accordance with local laws, regulations and standards. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect, use, retain, share and protect patient data for treatment and research, so that our patients understand the benefits and risks and can make informed choices about how their data is used.
By analysing our patients’ de-identified data, our scientists and clinicians can learn more about the causes of mental health conditions, and why different people respond better to different types of treatment. We use this information to make our existing products and services more effective, and to develop new ones. We collect the minimum amount of data required for specified treatment, safeguarding and research purposes, and minimise access to patient data on a strict need-to-know basis. We never sell patient data or share it for advertising or marketing.
We are committed to the fair, ethical and transparent use of AI and machine learning technologies. When we use them, we prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our patients, clinicians and wider society.
* At ieso, we define experts-by-experience as people who have lived experience of anxiety and/or depression. Experts-by-experience encompass a wider stakeholder group than patients; they might, or might not, have a current mental health diagnosis or experience of using ieso’s services specifically. Their lived experience might be first-hand, or they might have cared for someone with a mental health condition.
A note on terminology
Choosing the right term to describe people receiving mental healthcare is a contested area. Some people criticise the use of the term ‘patient’ because they believe it implies a passive relationship with healthcare providers. This has contributed to the use of alternative terms such as ‘client’ and ‘service user’.
Our Lived Experience Partners have recommended that we use the term ‘patient’: when asked, most people receiving treatment for depression and anxiety prefer this term as it is consistent with the terminology used in physical healthcare. As such, it gives parity of esteem to mental and physical health and helps to de-stigmatise mental health conditions. Beyond any one label, those receiving mental healthcare are – first and foremost - people, who deserve agency to navigate their own care.