About Us

distrACT app wins BMA award

Who we are

Expert Self Care is an award-winning specialist provider of health information apps for universities, colleges, NHS organisations, local councils, charities, and private providers.

Our story

Our story begins with founder Dr Knut Schroeder realising that his patients could make better-informed decisions about their health had they easier access to trusted health information. This prompted him to write his first book for the general public - Diagnosing Your Health Symptoms For Dummies. 

While working at a student health centre, a colleague suggested writing a similar book for students. When asked, students wanted easy access to trusted information - but they didn't want a book! Instead, they wondered if he could create an app that "provided information faster than googling", that "worked without an internet connection when out in town or on a beach" and that "anyone could use without having to think - even after a couple of beers".

Despite not knowing anything about app development, Knut responded by getting a team together, started work on the successful 'Student Health App' and founded Expert Self Care in 2012. One app led to another, and by July 2021, he and his teams have co-created their 9th app.

Problems we solve

We want to help education and healthcare providers solve some common problems:

  • The challenge to create health information - writing, updating and distributing health information for people you care for can be hard, especially if you don't have the time and don't feel well equipped for this role
  • Excessive pressure on services - many support services are overwhelmed with demand, especially when people don't know where else to turn for help
  • Lack of engagement - organisations often find it hard to reach and engage with people in their communities and make them aware of available services - yet people may still feel that "you don't care"

Solutions we offer

We help you provide your communities with easily accessible and reliable health information - even when offline:

  • Free apps: Simply tell people that they can download free health information apps for trusted advice. Find out more
  • Customised pages: Add customised page(s) to existing apps to better signpost local support (optional service for universities/colleges and NHS organisations/local councils)
  • Own-brand apps: Make your own health information more easily accessible and create your own-brand app(s) with us. Learn more

Benefits for you

With our ready-made free health information apps:

  • get peace of mind - help people find reliable health advice instantly on their mobiles
  • fulfil your duty of care - signpost available support more effectively
  • reduce pressure on services - help people self-care and choose services wisely

We help you enable people to live healthier lives and show that you do your best to support them.

Benefits for your communities

We give people instant access to trusted health information so they can:

  • learn more about their health and feel more in control (health literacy)
  • feel enabled to self-care (self-efficacy)
  • look after their health better (prevention)
  • know instantly where to go for support (early intervention and crisis care)

Type of business

We're an independent, 100% founder-owned private limited company with:

  • no outside shareholders
  • no sponsors or investors
  • no competing interests

Funding

All our current apps are free-to-download. We generate revenue through:

  • Subscriptions: We charge licencing subscription fees for customised local pages on some of our apps (universities and NHS)
  • Own-brand apps: We create white-label 'own-brand' apps commissioned by the NHS, private providers and other organisations
  • Consultancy: We do a small amount of consultancy work for national organisations, such as Student Minds

Quality assurance

We're a dedicated provider of quality health information apps:

Find more details on our Quality Management page.

Awards

Page last reviewed and updated on 18 July 2021.