Company

Our story

Expert Self Care is a small, private, and independent company founded in 2012 by Dr Knut Schroeder, a UK GP with 30+ years of working in the NHS and Higher Education.

Over the years, Knut learned that too many intelligent and competent individuals lacked basic health knowledge — and didn't know which information to trust. When people experienced health issues, they often didn't feel confident about self-care and navigating the NHS — inadvertently adding pressure to already stretched health services.

Inspired by his students and young people who said they wanted easy access to reliable health advice on their smartphones, he launched Expert Self Care. The company is a campaign-driven enterprise aiming to advance public health education with user-friendly apps — open and free to everyone, and tailored to under-served groups.

Initially self-funded, one app led to another. Expert Self Care now creates successful apps supporting priority groups that often feel left out.

Our vision

Everyone should have easy access to reliable health & wellbeing information to help them live their best possible lives.

Our purpose

To advance public health education using mobile technology to improve people's wellbeing and reduce avoidable service pressures.

What we do

We specialise in creating targeted free information and signposting apps that enable the NHS, universities, public bodies, charities, and other organisations to better support under-served groups, including:

  • People who self-harm and feel suicidal
  • People with eating disorders
  • Students with mental health issues
  • International students
  • Young Carers
  • People with bladder and bowel leakage
  • People with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)

Awards

We've won two national awards - the British Medical Association Patient Information Award for wellbeing (distrACT app) and the Nursing Times Award for continence care (CONfidence app).

Our values and beliefs

  • We want to make a positive impact. We want to leave the world in a better place than the one we were born into.
  • We work together. We co-create our apps with experts by experience, users, health professionals, topic experts and trusted partner organisations.
  • We're open and transparent. We want everyone to trust us as a provider, employer and partner.
  • We treat everyone fairly. We treat people with kindness and free from favour toward either (or any) side, regardless of their background and other characteristics.
  • We support your aims. We do our best to support you and your organisation. We have your best interests at heart and want you to be successful.
  • We focus on quality. We want to create outstanding products and services that give you and others the best possible experience - and to keep improving them.
  • We are responsive.  We sort problems quickly and maintain a can-do attitude when looking for solutions.
  • We keep learning. We are a learning organisation that keeps up-to-date and invites feedback from our users and those we work with to help us improve.
  • We support personal and organisational growth. We believe in fostering a 'growth mindset' in our teams and anyone we work with.
  • We want to achieve and maintain a good work-life balance. Work should be an enjoyable and integral part of our lives.

How we're funded

Expert Self Care is privately owned by Dr. Knut Schroeder. We're fully independent, have no other shareholders, and avoid conflicts of interest. Our first apps were entirely self-funded.

So we can grow and continue to create the best possible products, we generate revenue in different ways:

  • Subscriptions: We offer optional subscriptions to local customised pages on some apps.
  • Commissions: We create own-brand apps for selected organisations that share our values.
  • Grants: We've accepted small grants from public or not-for-profit bodies to support some of our unfunded app projects (UWE Bristol, Bristol Urological Institute).
  • Commercial partnerships: We're currently exploring opportunities for commercial partnerships with trusted and reputable organisations.

Our apps are free to download and don't contain advertising or in-app purchases.

Page last reviewed: 30 May 2024