Platform dedicated to improving accessibility to mental healthcare.   

Dr Julian provides tele and virtual health solutions to care providers, with the aim of reducing waiting lists and helping more people feel better, faster. 


  • Dr-Julian is working across over 30 NHS sites.  
  • Platform aims to reduce burn-out in NHS clinicians by reducing the administrative burden and helps to free up clinical hours by up to 30%. 
  • Patients attending virtual appointments, reduce unnecessary travel, and support the ambitions of the Net Zero agenda by reducing emissions.  

Dr Julian Nesbitt is a GP who joined the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme in 2017.  

Founded in 2016, Dr-Julian is a secure web app platform and mobile app that enables patients to connect online with vetted clinicians by video or instant messaging on their phone, tablet, or computer. 

”Dr Julian provides the NHS with a £2.80 cost saving, for every £1 spent on the platform.

As a frontline NHS doctor previously working in A&E and now a GP, Dr Julian Nesbitt has seen first-hand the issues the UK is facing in terms of its mental health provision. Whilst working in A&E he came across multiple patients who had attempted suicide, with many of these patients reporting that they had been on mental health waiting lists for over 9 months. 

Dr Julian Nesbitt saw waiting lists were increasing, whilst clinicians were becoming burned out and leaving the NHS, and knew he needed to help urgently by incorporating new technology and digital solutions.  

The Dr Julian online mental health platform was then developed to support the improvement of access to mental healthcare. The platform enables its users to book and have a scheduled video, voice, or text appointment with accredited therapists remotely from the comfort of their own home. They can also undertake assessments and have tailored resources and homework suited to their needs using patient dashboards.  

‘’We integrate our patient facing side with our clinician and admin sides, incorporating a modern easy to use electronic health record and case management system. 

We have recently launched our technology as a service proposition for service providers wanting benefits of enhanced efficiency in a case management/ EHR system, alongside a patient facing system.”

Dr-Julian Team

Through using an online platform, the team can offer flexible working for clinicians from the location of their choice and automate most of their administration to help reduce burn-out. By linking a patient facing dashboard to the back end electronic health record, the team are aiming to increase efficiency, for example patients can undertake assessments and notes can be written before the appointment which auto-populate into the clinical side.  

By using this joined up approach the team hope to improve patient care by offering flexibility, matching and choice of the most appropriate clinician, along with the right self-help tools and resources personalised to each patient on their dashboard. 

We are now scaled across the NHS in 30 Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services and counting.

We are also licencing our platform to some of the largest service providers in the country, including NHS Practitioner Health. We are also in final stage discussions around deploying our technology across a whole healthcare system internationally in multiple care pathways, not just mental health.

Dr Julian data has demonstrated that the platform has halved “did not attend rates”, doubled engagement rates and improved recovery rates.”

Dr-Julian Team

‘Online video therapy using your phone, tablet or computer in the comfort of your own home.’ 

The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has provided Dr Julian Nesbitt with valuable networking opportunities, a community of support and vital business knowledge through monthly educational events focused on key themes to support innovators.

”It has been an amazing journey since joining the programme in year two. The NHS CEP has provided me with a high-level of support and provided access to Pit Stops which provide foundational knowledge around the business and commercial world.  

The biggest benefit of the programme for me is the community and networking opportunities. There is always someone willing to help at whichever stage or problem you may have, and it gives you permission to innovate with likeminded people. After every event I leave feeling inspired having made new important connections and ultimately, I feel like I have found my tribe.

Dr Julian Nesbitt

What is your key piece of health and wellbeing advice? 

‘’Make time for yourself- Find what works for you and make sure you dedicate time to those activities. Personally, the biggest things for me are sleeping well and high intensity exercise.  

It is not about the amount of work you do but how productive that work is, so make sure when do you work, you are firing on all cylinders.’’

Dr Julian Nesbitt

How has the programme supported your innovation around health and wellbeing?  

‘’The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme offers a range of support around health and wellbeing. This includes useful resources on the website and within the programme delivery. 

As an entrepreneur my main stay of support is having a network of other entrepreneurs that understand what I am going through and speaking to those who have already been through it. This helps you to understand that you will get through the hard times, no matter how challenging it may be. The NHS CEP gives a unique place for us ‘clinical entrepreneurs’ to support each other.’’-

Dr Julian Nesbitt

Looking to the future

The next steps are to continue to scale the technology enabled service proposition by increasing the number of services offered, including children’s services. The team are also scaling up the licensing for their platform technology proposition as a much more efficient and personalised end-to-end case management and electronic health record, to support other service providers nationally and internationally. 

For more information, please click on the links below.  


TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE THROUGH INNOVATION