Terms of Service

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are the agreement between you and Health Compass For You ("we", "us", "our") governing your use of the website at healthcompassforyou.com and everything published on it (the "Service").

By visiting the Service, creating an account, or reading our articles, you confirm that you have read and accepted these Terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the Service.

These Terms apply to every language version of this site. Where a translated version differs from the English version, the English version prevails.

2. Definitions

"Content" means every article, summary, image, illustration, translation, and other material published on the Service.
"Account" means the free reader account you can create to unlock the complete text of gated articles.
"Reviewer" means a licensed healthcare professional who checks an article for medical accuracy before publication.
"You" means the individual using the Service, whether or not you have an Account.

3. Medical disclaimer — please read this first

This is the most important section of these Terms.

The Service is an educational health library. It provides general information for a general audience.
The Content is not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis, treatment plan, prescription, or professional recommendation for you or for anyone else.
Reading the Content does not create a doctor–patient relationship, a therapeutic relationship, or any other professional relationship between you and us, or between you and any Reviewer named on an article.
General information cannot take account of your personal medical history, medication, allergies, or circumstances. Only a qualified healthcare professional who can actually examine you can do that.
You must always consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting, stopping, or changing any treatment, medication, supplement, diet, or exercise programme.
You must never delay or avoid seeking professional medical care because of something you have read on the Service.
Any decision you take on the basis of the Content is your decision and your responsibility.

In an emergency, do not use this website. If you think you may be experiencing a medical emergency, call your local emergency number or go to your nearest emergency department immediately.

4. How our content is produced and reviewed

We want you to know exactly what our editorial promise is — and what it is not.

What we commit to:

Every article is researched from clinical guidelines, peer-reviewed literature, and established medical consensus.
Every article is checked by a licensed healthcare professional for medical accuracy before it is published, and that Reviewer is credited by name.
We accept no payment to feature, recommend, or favourably describe any product, medicine, clinic, or treatment inside an article. There are no sponsored placements in our editorial content.
Where the evidence is genuinely unclear or contested, we say so instead of picking a side for the sake of a cleaner answer.

What we cannot promise:

Medical knowledge changes. An article that was accurate on its review date may be superseded by newer evidence.
Guidance differs between countries. Something that is standard practice in one health system may not be in another, and drug names, availability, and dosing conventions vary.
Review by a Reviewer is a check on medical accuracy for a general audience. It is not personal medical advice to you and the Reviewer takes no responsibility for how you apply it.

5. Your free Account

Some articles show an extract and require a free Account to read in full. Creating an Account is free, and we do not ask for payment details.

An Account gives you access to the complete Content library, the ability to contact our support team through the Service, and the option — never the obligation — to receive our newsletter.

We may introduce paid features in the future. If we do, they will be clearly identified as paid before you commit to anything, and Content that was free will not be retroactively put behind a payment.

6. Eligibility and your responsibilities

You must be at least 16 years old to create an Account.
You must provide an email address that is genuinely yours and keep it up to date, since we use it for password resets and security notices.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything that happens under your Account.
You must tell us promptly at support@healthcompassforyou.com if you believe someone else has accessed your Account.
You may not create an Account on behalf of someone else without their authority, and you may not share one Account between multiple people.

7. Acceptable use

You may read, print, and share our articles for your own personal, non-commercial use, including sharing a link with a friend, a family member, or a patient.

You may not:

Copy, republish, or redistribute substantial parts of the Content on another website, app, newsletter, or social media account without our written permission.
Use the Content to train, fine-tune, or benchmark a machine learning or generative AI model, or use automated tools to scrape, crawl at scale, harvest, or systematically download the Content.
Remove, obscure, or alter any author credit, Reviewer credit, disclaimer, or copyright notice.
Present the Content as your own work, or as medical advice given by you to another person.
Sell, licence, or otherwise commercially exploit the Content or access to it.
Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, another user's Account, our database, our administrative area, or any connected system.
Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, or interfere with its normal operation, including through denial-of-service attempts or deliberately excessive automated requests.
Upload or transmit malware, or use the Service to send spam, harassment, or unlawful material.
Use the Service in a way that breaks any applicable law, or that infringes anyone else's rights.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, please report it to us at support@healthcompassforyou.com rather than exploiting it. We will not pursue good-faith security researchers who report responsibly and do not access other users' data.

8. Our intellectual property

All Content on the Service, together with our name, logo, and visual identity, is owned by us or licensed to us, and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.

Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of anything to you. We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and read the Content for your own non-commercial use, in accordance with section 7. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

If you would like to reuse an article — for example in a clinic waiting room, a school programme, or a patient information pack — contact us at support@healthcompassforyou.com. We are generally happy to say yes when it is asked.

9. Content you send us

When you send us a support message, a question, or feedback, you keep ownership of what you wrote. You grant us permission to use it for the purpose of replying to you and improving the Service.

Please do not send us confidential information or detailed personal health information — the support channel is not a clinical consultation and is not a substitute for contacting your doctor.

10. Third-party links and no endorsement

The Content may link to external websites, health authorities, scientific studies, or organisations. We include those links because we think they are useful.

We do not control third-party websites and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, or privacy practices. A link is not an endorsement, and visiting a linked site is at your own risk and subject to that site's own terms.

11. Availability of the Service

We work to keep the Service available and working correctly, but we provide it on an "as available" basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access, and we may suspend, withdraw, restrict, or change all or part of the Service — including individual articles — at any time, for example for maintenance, security, or editorial reasons.

We are not liable to you for any interruption or withdrawal of the Service.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Service and the Content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

In particular, we do not warrant that the Content is complete, current, error-free, or suitable for your particular circumstances, or that the Service will be free of interruptions, defects, or harmful components.

Nothing in this section limits any warranty or right you have that cannot be excluded under the mandatory consumer protection law of your country of residence.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law:

We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on the Content, including any decision you take, or fail to take, about your health or the health of another person.
We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, data, or goodwill, however caused.
Where our liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you have paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim — which, for a free service, will normally be zero.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights under the mandatory law of your country of residence are unaffected.

14. Indemnity

If you use the Service in breach of these Terms and that causes a third-party claim against us, you agree to indemnify us against the reasonable losses, costs, and legal fees we incur as a result. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach or negligence.

15. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time, and you may delete your Account whenever you wish.

We may suspend or terminate your Account, with immediate effect and without refund where relevant, if you materially breach these Terms — in particular section 7 — or if we are required to do so by law. Where it is reasonable and lawful to do so, we will tell you why and give you an opportunity to respond.

Sections 3, 8, 12, 13, 14, 18, and 19 survive termination.

16. Changes to the Service and to these Terms

The Service will change over time as we add articles, features, and languages.

We may amend these Terms to reflect changes in the Service, in our practices, or in the law. The date at the top of this page always shows when the current version took effect, and the previous position is not applied retroactively against you.

If a change is material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you — for example by email or a notice on the Service — before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the amended Terms. If you do not accept them, you should stop using the Service and may delete your Account.

17. Independence and no commercial influence

We state this in the Terms, and not only as a marketing claim, because we consider it binding on us:

We do not accept payment for editorial coverage of any product, treatment, medicine, clinic, or provider.
We do not allow any third party to approve, veto, or edit the medical substance of an article.
Where we ever present commercial or partner information, it will be clearly and separately labelled as such and kept outside our reviewed editorial content.

18. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of them or out of your use of the Service, are governed by the law applicable at our place of establishment, without prejudice to the mandatory consumer protection rules of the country in which you are habitually resident. If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, you keep the benefit of those rules and the right to bring proceedings before the courts of your place of residence.

Before starting formal proceedings, we ask you to contact us at support@healthcompassforyou.com so that we can try to resolve the matter directly. Most issues can be settled that way, quickly and at no cost to either side.

19. If a clause is unenforceable, and other general points

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in full force, and the invalid provision applies to the maximum extent permitted by law.
No waiver. If we do not enforce a right immediately, that is not a waiver of that right.
No assignment by you. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms to anyone else. We may transfer ours as part of a reorganisation or transfer of the Service, provided your rights are not reduced.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, form the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
Headings. Section headings are for convenience and do not affect interpretation.

20. How to contact us

General enquiries and support: support@healthcompassforyou.com
Privacy and data protection: privacy@healthcompassforyou.com
Support page: open a ticket at /support and we will reply in the same thread

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal data and forms part of your agreement with us.