Consulting

The perspective
you can't fake.

This work started in healthcare, where the invisible costs are highest and the consequences are real. I've spent years inside pharma companies, hospital systems, and patient organizations, diagnosing the gap between what institutions believe is happening and what is actually happening.

That same diagnostic eye now extends to any organization where people are performing instead of working.

I take on limited clients. I'm particular about who I work with. If the fit is right, the work is blunt and useful.

Roi Shternin

Four areas of advisory work

I work with a limited number of organisations at a time. Everything below sits under one of four umbrellas.

Patient Experience

See the experience your dashboard can't. Patient satisfaction scores tell you what happened. They don't always tell you what it felt like.

Patient Experience Strategy

Health systems, hospitals, and patient advocacy organizations that need to actually understand what their patients experience. Not the survey scores. The real thing. I embed, observe, interview, and translate. The output is a strategic brief that's blunt and actionable.

Deliverables

  • ›Patient experience audit
  • ›Gap analysis between system perception and patient reality
  • ›Prioritized recommendations with implementation logic

Engagement

4–8 weeks

Typical clients

Health systems · Hospitals · Patient advocacy orgs

Medical Gaslighting and Diagnostic Equity

For health systems, medical schools, and clinical training programs that want to address the structural problem of patient disbelief. Evidence-based, experience-grounded curriculum and program design for clinicians who want to do better.

Deliverables

  • ›Curriculum design for clinical training
  • ›Workshop facilitation for clinical teams
  • ›Measurement framework for trust and belief outcomes

Engagement

Workshop or curriculum engagement

Typical clients

Medical schools · Residency programs · Health systems

Human-Centered AI & Digital Health

AI can optimise an enormous number of things. That doesn't mean those things should be optimised.

Product Advisory — Patient-Facing Digital Health

Digital health products built without real patient input are built wrong. I review products in development or post-launch from the perspective of chronically ill users, the ones with the most complex needs and the highest tolerance for what doesn't work.

Deliverables

  • ›Product review from the chronic illness user perspective
  • ›Accessibility and usability assessment
  • ›Recommendations for user research and iteration

Engagement

Ongoing advisory (monthly) or project-based

Typical clients

Health tech · Digital therapeutics · Pharma digital teams

Patient Engagement

Don't put patients in the room just to say they were there. Real patient engagement changes decisions.

Pharmaceutical Patient Engagement

Pharma companies building patient engagement programs that aren't extractive, that actually serve the patients they're designed for. I help design the programs, review the materials, and tell you when you're doing the thing that sounds patient-centered but isn't.

Deliverables

  • ›Patient engagement program design
  • ›Review of existing materials for patient-centered framing
  • ›Patient advisory panel design and facilitation

Engagement

Project-based or retained

Typical clients

Pharmaceutical · Biotech · MedTech

Patient-in-Residence Programs

Academic medical centers and health systems that want to build genuine Patient-in-Residence programs, not symbolic gestures. I've served in this role four times. I know how to structure it so the patient actually changes things rather than being consulted and ignored.

Deliverables

  • ›Program design and scope
  • ›Governance structure and reporting
  • ›Metrics for actual impact, not optics

Engagement

6–12 months advisory

Typical clients

Academic medical centers · Teaching hospitals

Organisational Perspective

Every organisation has things people know but don't say. I help leadership teams find the invisible cost.

Organizational Diagnostic — The Invisible Cost Index

High performers who are fine. Teams that function. Results that hit. And underneath it, something quiet and expensive that no one has named. I run an organizational diagnostic that surfaces the Invisible Cost Index (ICI): the gap between what the organization believes is true about its people and what is actually true. Not an engagement survey. Not 360 feedback. A different kind of reckoning.

Deliverables

  • ›Invisible Cost Index report — diagnostic findings, scored and mapped
  • ›Executive briefing — what you're spending that isn't on any budget line
  • ›Prioritized intervention recommendations

Engagement

6–10 weeks

Typical clients

Leadership teams · HR functions · Organizations pre/post merger or restructure · Companies navigating performance culture change

Performance Culture Advisory

Organizations where psychological safety is aspirational, where high performance is performed rather than lived, and where the most loyal people are quietly burning out behind their competence. I help organizations diagnose the cost of performance culture and design the intervention. This is not a wellbeing program. It's a structural problem that needs a structural answer.

Deliverables

  • ›Performance culture audit
  • ›Leadership briefing on invisible organizational costs
  • ›Program design for culture intervention
  • ›Workshop series (in-house or Roi facilitating)

Engagement

Project-based (8–16 weeks) or retained advisory

Typical clients

CHROs · L&D functions · Leadership teams · Multinationals with Vienna/DACH presence

How I work

I take on limited clients

I don't run a large consultancy. I work with a small number of clients at a time so I can do the work properly. If the timing isn't right, I'll say so.

I say when something won't work

If you hire me to tell you what you want to hear, I'm not the right fit. I give you what I actually see, and I do it clearly and without malice.

I have terms around certain clients

I don't work with organizations whose core business model requires patient dependency. That's not a long list, but it's real.

Roi Shternin

Where this perspective comes from

I've sat inside organizations, not as a consultant passing through, but as a resident. Four times as Patient in Residence at major health institutions. As advisor, mentor, and co-creator across pharma, health tech, and academic settings.

The diagnostic eye that comes from living inside institutions that couldn't see me, as a patient, as a person, is the same one I bring to organizations where people are performing instead of working.

Patient Engagement AdvisorBoehringer Ingelheim (2022–present)
Dell Precision Ambassador1 of 2 health voices globally (2025–present)
Patient in Residence & Patient Innovation ManagerLudwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety — LBG, Open Innovation in Science Center (former)
Patient in ResidenceSheba Medical Center — ranked top 10 globally
Patient in Residence & Acting Interim CEOHealth Hub Vienna
Advisory BoardHealth Sciences, IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences
Advisory BoardHealth Tech without Borders, Zurich
Startup MentorGlobal Incubator Network Austria (GIN) & EIT Health
FounderFounded eight organisations in the patient and health space.
Emergency Care9 years, Magen David Adom, Israel: senior instructor, paramedic (AEMT), first responder, combat medic, ER tech (Medal of Valor)
CertificationESRA certified — Erste Hilfe für die Psyche (Psychological First Aid)
EducationMA in International Health & Social Management (MCI Innsbruck) · B.Ed. Health & Science Education
PlatformAuthor of 5 books · TEDx speaker · 27 countries · 20,000+ professionals trained

From the room

I have collaborated with Roi on multiple patient engagement projects — including as co-creator of our Global Mental Health Community Summit. Roi is an excellent patient advocacy leader, an amazing host, and a person with his heart in the right place. His ability to connect with people and inspire meaningful conversations makes him an invaluable asset to any team.

Tereza BackkorovaGlobal Patient Advocacy Lead · Boehringer Ingelheim

Roi's captivating and impactful presentation at the INAT Summit resonated deeply with hundreds, leaving a lasting impression. His ability to deliver valuable content across various formats makes him a highly recommended partner.

MilenaCEO · INAT, Serbia

My personal highlight was Roi Shternin and his keynote on 'Why Disabled and Chronically Ill People Might Be Our Best Employees'.

Dr. Barbara RedleinSr. Partner · PwC Austria

I have never seen a speaker like you before.

Dorthe H.Sr. Patient Engagement Officer · Boehringer Ingelheim

Advisory engagements

Quieter work than the projects above, and mostly under NDA. A patient expert and research collaborator for organisations that need someone who understands the system from inside both ends, as a former clinician and as a patient who lived inside it for a decade. I take on a small number of these at any one time.

Research consortia

Patient perspective on study design, recruitment, and what counts as an outcome worth measuring. The Ludwig Boltzmann work and the JMIR paper are examples of what this produces.

Government and policy

EU AI Act compliance in health. Patient data interoperability. The gap between policy intent and implementation. And the questions nobody is asking yet.

Founders

Especially founders building for chronically ill or disabled users. The accessibility decisions you don't know you're making, the market you think you understand but don't yet, and the tone that signals “this was built for me” rather than “this was built about me.”

One specific thing that is hard to find: a person fluent in clinical language, in patient experience, in the operational reality of a healthcare organisation, and in the codebase of the tools being built into all of it.

Questions before engaging

What is the Invisible Cost Index?

An organizational diagnostic that measures the hidden costs of performance culture: silence, avoidance, and systemic pretending. It quantifies what most organizations feel but cannot name or budget for.

What industries do you work with?

Healthcare, pharma, technology, and leadership. Clients include Boehringer Ingelheim, PwC, Dell, and Google. The diagnostic work applies to any organization where people are performing instead of working.

Looking for a workshop or keynote instead?

The Honest Room →Keynotes →

Inquiry

Tell me what you're working on.

I respond within 3 business days. If we're not a fit, I'll say so, and point you somewhere that is.