Doctors as Patients (with subtitles)

In this film, five medical doctors open up about living with #PAIS/#IACC conditions like ME, #longCOVID, and chronic #Lyme. It’s a format that I believe has never been shown before, not just in the Netherlands but possibly worldwide!

They speak candidly about their experiences with illness, what they were taught (or not taught) in medical school, and how that shaped their own treatment decisions—sometimes even leading to harm. They reflect on how becoming patients themselves radically changed their views on medicine, science, and what needs to change in healthcare. It’s raw, honest, and incredibly insightful—for medical professionals, researchers, politicians, and patients alike.

This project was a true labor of love. We had zero budget. Three amazing cameramen, a few behind-the-scenes heroes, the MDs themselves, and those from the community who shared material for the film—all volunteered their time and energy. It wasn’t easy: illness and #PEM often got in the way, but we somehow made it.

We're amateur filmmakers (and I'm definitely the biggest one!), so don’t expect a slick Hollywood production. The real professionals here are the doctors—whose powerful voices, shaped by both medical training and lived experience, definitely need to be heard.

I invite you to watch, leave a like, drop a comment on YouTube to help boost the algorithm, and share it far and wide. This is more than a film—it's a message the world needs to hear and see!!!

Their stories will hopefully change how you think about medicine—don’t miss it. Especially now that PAIS/IACC conditions have become an even more urgent health issue since the pandemic. Their voices matter more than ever!

The film has English, Dutch, Spanish, French, German Italian and Arabic subtitles. If you want to translate it to another language let me know.

Subtitles:
NL: ME Centraal
ES: Tamara Diez Otero
IT: Giada Da Ros
FR: Ariane Carrer
DE: Birte Viermann
AR: Huda Saleh
RU: Arina Nesterenko
ENG: Anil van der Zee


References/referenties:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L...

#pwME #millionsmissing #art2cureME

00:00 Intro
00:37 Please introduce yourself and tell us what kind of doctor you are.
02:48 What did your typical day as a doctor look like?
04:30 What does your day look like now as a patient?
06:52 What do you do on a good day and on a bad day?
08:41 What did you learn during your training about post-acute infection-associated syndromes (PAIS)?
11:28 To what extent has this influenced your own approach to treating people with PAIS?
Did you take PAIS such as ME, Lyme, etc., seriously?
13:57 Were you aware of experiences with stigma, iatrogenic harm, medical trauma, and the fact that severely ill patients can disappear from (the view of) the healthcare system?
15:55 As someone with lived experience, how do you now view PAIS?
What do you know now that you didn’t understand or realize back then?
18:26 We still often hear that people aren’t taken seriously enough by medical professionals.
How did this go for you, being a doctor yourself?
21:47 Was the process of getting a diagnosis easy?
25:09 Have there been treatments that turned out to be harmful?
28:50 Do you have any unpleasant experiences with healthcare that you'd like to share?
31:04 What is your opinion on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET), which were heavily promoted for ME?
34:10 Have you personally treated people with CBT, and how does that differ in the context of PAIS?
36:23 Why do you think the biomedical aspects of PAIS are still so often overlooked, even though we already know more?
39:49 How has your illness changed your view of the medical and scientific world?
43:28 As both a doctor and someone with lived experience, what changes would you like to see in healthcare?
46:53 Do you think this experience has made you a better doctor?
48:57 What message would you like to give to your fellow doctors and healthcare providers in general?
50:23 What message would you like to share with fellow patients?