Widespread psychological issues (CMDs), together with melancholy, anxiousness, and stress-related circumstances, are main contributors to international incapacity and illness absence. In Sweden, they account for a big share of long-term sick go away, affecting each particular person wellbeing and nationwide productiveness (Helgesson et al., 2025; Falkenberg et al., 2025).
As digital well being providers broaden, curiosity is rising of their potential to ship person-centred care (PCC) at scale. PCC promotes a collaborative strategy that centres on sufferers’ values, targets, and capabilities, somewhat than simply symptom reduction (Ekman et al., 2011; Forsgren et al., 2025).
The PROMISE trial, performed in Sweden, examined a digitally delivered PCC intervention for people on sick go away as a result of CMDs (Cederberg et al., 2022). Early findings have proven reductions in fatigue (Alsen, 2025).
Kebede et al. (2025) evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the PROMISE intervention, looking for to reply whether or not the intervention is not only clinically useful, but in addition a wise use of restricted assets.
Can digital person-centred care provide an economical resolution for psychological health-related sick go away in Sweden?
Strategies
The PROMISE trial was a non-blinded randomised managed trial carried out throughout 9 public main healthcare centres in Sweden from February 2018 to June 2020. Individuals had been adults on sick go away as a result of CMDs, with diagnoses of melancholy, anxiousness, or stress-related issues. A complete of 206 people (>80% girls) had been enrolled and randomised into one among two teams: 100 contributors within the eHealth intervention + care as standard group, and 106 contributors within the care as standard group.
The intervention itself comprised a structured PCC delivered by healthcare professionals by way of cellphone and a safe web-based platform and included:
- an preliminary person-centred dialog
- the event of a personalised well being plan, and
- ongoing digital help.
The healthcare professionals who delivered the intervention included nurses, a physiotherapist, and an occupational therapist who acquired a half-day coaching in CMDs from psychologists and physicians, and extra coaching in PCC philosophy from researchers in related fields, supported by reflective boards with PCC specialists all through the intervention. The digital platform was developed by the College of Gothenburg and allowed sufferers to trace progress and keep communication with suppliers. Ordinary care included GP consultations, treatment, psychological remedy, and rehabilitation providers.
The first well being end result for the cost-effectiveness evaluation was quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), calculated utilizing the EQ-5D-3L instrument which assesses 5 dimensions of health-related high quality of life: mobility, self-care, every day actions, ache/discomfort, and melancholy/anxiousness. Outcomes had been measured at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. Prices included healthcare utilisation, drug prices, and productiveness losses (sick go away days). Knowledge had been sourced from Swedish nationwide registries. The financial analysis employed incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs).
Might a digital, professional-delivered, person-centred care intervention for adults on sick go away as a result of CMDs be more cost effective than standard care over 12 months?
Outcomes
By way of cost-effectiveness, the research discovered that:
- Individuals within the intervention group had barely larger QALYs (0.813) than these within the management group (0.807), reflecting a really small beneficial well being acquire.
- In the meantime, complete societal prices had been decrease within the intervention group, at 183,352 Swedish Krona (SEK) per affected person (£14,314.09), in comparison with SEK 203,648 (£15,898.58) within the management group, a imply saving of SEK 20,296 (£1,584.49) per particular person.
- The ensuing ICER was SEK 23.8 million (£1,858,039.82) per QALY gained. Though this determine could seem excessive, probabilistic sensitivity evaluation indicated a 76.3% chance that the intervention was cost-effective inside Sweden’s willingness-to-pay threshold.
- Value financial savings had been primarily attributed to diminished drug prices and decrease productiveness losses. Particularly, sufferers within the intervention group used fewer non-antidepressant psychotropic drugs and had fewer sick go away days.
The intervention confirmed modest potential for cost-effectiveness, pushed primarily by diminished treatment use and fewer sick go away days.
Conclusions
The intervention seems possible, scalable, and even cost-saving, particularly when factoring in diminished treatment use and fewer sick go away days. However the well being acquire was minimal, and the excessive uncertainty round cost-effectiveness means it’s troublesome to suggest wide-scale adoption primarily based on this research alone.
General, the end result of this research demonstrates a viable proof-of-concept: it exhibits that efficient and environment friendly person-centred psychological healthcare might be supplied digitally, however the actual problem lies forward.
Strengths and limitations
The research used a practical design, applied in real-world main care settings in Sweden, enhancing the relevance of the findings to routine medical observe.
The inclusion of contributors with a spread of sick go away durations and CMD signs displays the medical variety present in real-world healthcare. An vital energy lies in its value evaluation, which included each direct healthcare prices (e.g., consultations, drugs) and broader societal prices akin to misplaced productiveness, offering useful insights for policymakers weighing system-wide advantages. The feasibility of the intervention additionally lies in it being delivered by non-specialist healthcare professionals, together with registered nurses. This helps its scalability in main care, significantly in settings the place entry to psychological well being specialists is proscribed. The researchers additionally examined the robustness of their findings beneath completely different analytical assumptions, strengthening the arrogance in the principle findings.
Nonetheless, you will need to contemplate that the cost-effectiveness outcomes had been extremely variable, as mirrored in a really excessive incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of SEK 23.8 million (£1,858,039.82) per QALY gained. Though the intervention was cost-saving total, the small well being acquire means the ICER alone doesn’t imply the intervention must be adopted at a nationwide degree.
Moreover, the noticed QALY features had been minimal, elevating questions on whether or not the intervention meaningfully improved health-related high quality of life, even when it did assist scale back prices. Alternatively, whereas QALYs stay the gold commonplace for cost-effectiveness evaluations (Le et al., 2021), they might not totally seize the impression of psychological well being interventions, particularly these centered on work participation and restoration (Franklin & Alava, 2023).
The follow-up interval was restricted to 12 months, which is probably not lengthy sufficient to totally seize well being and financial outcomes for individuals with frequent psychological issues, particularly relating to return-to-work trajectories or sustained enhancements in wellbeing. As well as, the intervention relied on a digital platform developed by a Swedish college, however the price of constructing, implementing, and sustaining this platform was not included within the financial evaluation. If adopted at scale, new or tailored digital instruments could also be required, doubtlessly incurring substantial prices that might alter the general cost-effectiveness.
The research presents real-world insights into value and scalability; however modest well being features, unsure cost-effectiveness, and lack of digital platform value information elevate questions on wider implementation.
Implications for observe
The authors counsel key implications for observe and analysis primarily based on their findings:
- Digitally delivered person-centred care could provide an economical strategy to supporting people on sick go away as a result of frequent psychological issues (CMDs), particularly when considered from a societal perspective that features productiveness loss.
- Additionally they spotlight the potential for this mannequin to reinforce continuity and coordination in care, particularly when healthcare professionals are capable of kind collaborative, goal-oriented relationships with sufferers over time.
Past the authors’ suggestions, there are vital implications that researchers, policymakers and healthcare suppliers ought to contemplate:
- Future research ought to contemplate complementary measures, akin to functionality or work functioning outcomes, which can higher replicate the impression of CMDs and restoration in working-age adults.
- Though the intervention demonstrated value financial savings and feasibility beneath trial circumstances, real-world implementation could face sensible challenges. These embrace workers capability, variable engagement throughout suppliers, and digital entry and literacy boundaries for some sufferers. Future analysis ought to discover these elements, together with coaching and supervision fashions, to help sustainable supply at scale.
- Whereas the intervention’s supply by non-specialist healthcare professionals makes it scalable and cost-efficient, the restricted period of coaching could have diminished the intervention’s medical effectiveness, significantly for contributors with extra advanced wants. Future analysis ought to look at whether or not extra intensive or tailor-made coaching may improve outcomes with out considerably growing prices.
- This research additionally factors to a possible position for university-developed digital platforms in healthcare innovation. Nonetheless, long-term adoption could require integration with current IT infrastructure, information governance, and person expertise design, which aren’t captured in cost-effectiveness analyses.
- The NHS is already investing in e-mental well being interventions, together with Digitally Enabled Therapies (DETs), NHS-approved apps (e.g. SilverCloud, Sleepio), and AI-driven triage instruments. Nonetheless, the structured, person-centred mannequin used within the Swedish trial shouldn’t be but extensively applied. Integrating such an strategy into NHS Speaking Therapies or return-to-work providers would require funding in workforce coaching, digital infrastructure, and analysis of usability and accessibility throughout various populations. Nonetheless, the groundwork exists to adapt and pilot comparable fashions throughout the UK well being system.
Digitally delivered person-centred care could possibly be scalable, however would require funding in coaching, digital infrastructure, and end result measures that higher seize psychological well being restoration.
Assertion of pursuits
I’ve no competing pursuits to declare.
Hyperlinks
Major paper
Kebede TT, Cederberg M, Alsén S, Fors A, Gyllensten H. A Particular person-Centered eHealth Intervention for Sufferers With Widespread Psychological Issues: Value-Effectiveness Evaluation Inside a Randomized Managed Trial. Worth Well being. 2025 Jun;28(6):875-883. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2025.03.011. Epub 2025 Apr 10. PMID: 40220864.
Different references
Alsén, S., Cederberg, M., & Fors, A. (2025). An individual-centred care intervention supplied by way of eHealth to scale back fatigue in sufferers with frequent psychological issues–secondary end result evaluation from a randomized managed trial. Scandinavian Journal of Major Well being Care, 1-10.
Cederberg, M., Alsén, S., Ali, L., Ekman, I., Glise, Okay., Jonsdottir, I. H., … & Fors, A. (2022). Results of a person-centered eHealth intervention for sufferers on sick go away as a result of frequent psychological issues (PROMISE research): open randomized managed trial. JMIR Psychological Well being, 9(3), e30966.
Ekman, I., Swedberg, Okay., Taft, C., Lindseth, A., Norberg, A., Brink, E., Carlsson, J., Dahlin-Ivanoff, S., Johansson, I.-L., Kjellgren, Okay., Lidén, E., Öhlén, J., Olsson, L.-E., Rosén, H., Rydmark, M., & Stibrant Sunnerhagen, Okay. (2011). Particular person-centered care—Prepared for prime time. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 10(4), 248–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcnurse.2011.06.008
Falkenberg, H., Nygren, A., & Jensen, I. (2025). Diagnoses of frequent psychological issues and long-term work incapacity: A 20-year longitudinal research utilizing Swedish nationwide information. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 35(1), 88–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-024-00491-1
Forsgren, E., Feldthusen, C., Wallström, S., Thunström, L., Kullman, L., Sawatzky, R., & Öhlén, J. (2025). Particular person-centred care as an evolving area of analysis: a scoping evaluate. Frontiers in Well being Providers, 5, 1534178.
Franklin, M., & Hernández Alava, M. (2023). Enabling QALY estimation in psychological well being trials and care settings: mapping from the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to the ReQoL-UI or EQ-5D-5L utilizing combination fashions. High quality of Life Analysis, 32(10), 2763-2778.
Helgesson, M., Gustafsson, Okay., & Leineweber, C. (2025). Prognosis-specific sick go away and the position of a nationwide return-to-work program: A population-based matched cohort research. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 35(2), 263–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-025-10269-4
Le, L. Okay. D., Esturas, A. C., Mihalopoulos, C., Chiotelis, O., Bucholc, J., Chatterton, M. L., & Engel, L. (2021). Value-effectiveness proof of psychological well being prevention and promotion interventions: A scientific evaluate of financial evaluations. PLoS medication, 18(5), e1003606.
