Thirty-three doctors. Seven years bedridden. Self-diagnosed, self-rehabilitated — then made Patient-in-Residence at two world-class institutions. I know exactly how systems break people. And how to fix them.
Represented by AAE Speakers Bureau ↗
Most speakers with chronic illness tell you how they overcame it. I'm the one who spent ten years performing recovery while secretly relapsing every few months. What changed wasn't my body. It was my willingness to stop performing.
33 doctors. 7 years. No answers. So I built a new system. This talk on radical self-advocacy and patient power became the foundation of everything that followed.
Every engagement is bespoke. No off-the-shelf programs. I work with organizations ready to stop performing transformation and start building it.
A talk that doesn't let the room off the hook. Radical honesty about the cost of systemic exclusion — and a structural path forward that leadership can actually use.
What your organization loses when people cannot tell the truth about being sick. Your team leaves with a working framework — not just a feeling.
Multi-month engagements and 12-month advisory retainers. Audit, co-design, and sustained implementation — not reports that gather dust.
Seven books spanning chronic illness, patient rights, healthcare AI, and organizational systems. An eighth is on the way.
Takeda, Boehringer Ingelheim, and AOP Health have purchased copies for hundreds of employees. Bulk orders come with personalized bookplates, custom forewords, and optional virtual Q&A sessions with Roi.
Professional practice, media movement, and education — each reinforcing the others.
I don't take every engagement. I take the right ones — organizations genuinely ready to transform, not just perform. If that's you, let's talk.
Print-ready one-pager for event organisers and bureaux.
Speaker · Author · Narrative Medicine · "I study the stories bodies tell — and the systems that refuse to listen to them."
Roi Shternin spent seven years in bed with an undiagnosed chronic illness — losing first the ability to walk, then to speak — while being told, repeatedly, that nothing was wrong. He eventually diagnosed himself, studying medicine horizontally, one hour at a time. He then taught himself to walk again.
He has spoken in 27 countries, advised Fortune 500 companies, and served as Patient-in-Residence at major healthcare institutions. He is not an academic who studies illness from the outside. He is someone who has lived it all the way to the labwork.
"He said the thing I've been trying to say for years and couldn't. I felt seen for the first time."
"Not like a stranger. Like a brother. He said what I have been living but could never articulate."
"I thought this wasn't going to be relevant to me. It was the most relevant talk of the day. I left thinking about three people I manage differently."
"He touched something that most speakers are paid to leave alone. The room was completely still."
"I've been performing recovery for ten years. I didn't have a name for it until this talk."