Bipolar Disorder has an estimated average life prevalence of 1% (0.4-1.6%) with high comorbidity with other disorders, particularly anxiety and substance misuse. The seriousness of this condition is illustrated by a natural chronic course and potentially debilitating impact on functioning. According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) this condition remains unrecognised resulting in suboptimal treatment and increased health costs. NICE offers comprehensive guidance on its evidence-based management.

Modern ways of practising can add to the challenge of mental health workers to deliver the interventions recommended by NICE because of important differences in professional background, unequal funding of services, development of electronic patients’ systems and increasingly complexed data sets. These factors became the incentive for the development of an electronic Integrated Care Pathway (eICP) for the management of Bipolar Disorder.

The Bipolar eICP brings the most contemporary evidence-based advice right at the finger tips of mental health workers regardless of the setting of the intervention or the professional background of the care provider. It offers a template for collecting vital epidemiological, clinical and socio-demographic information about this index population. This tool provides specific data feedback to facilitate communication and documentation of information to and for users as well as health care or commissioning organisations. In three words the Bipolar eICP makes possible the “Do _ Document _ Demonstrate” of evidence-based modern practice.