Trisha is an empassioned patient advocate. She addresses the problems patients have getting their best possible health and medical care by supplying them with tools and knowledge they need to navigate the healthcare system, stay safe in the pursuit of care, and find their best outcomes.
Experience:
As a newspaper columnist and national speaker, Trisha is recognized by patients and professionals alike for her ability to translate the challenges patients face into tools and solutions they can use to improve their health care.
Her work is broad-based. In addition to her writing and speaking, she has built a website called AdvoConnection to help connect patients and patient advocates, where she also provides business advice to the advocates who participate.
Trisha's first book, You Bet Your Life! The 10 Mistakes Every Patient Makes (How to Fix Them to Get the Healthcare You Deserve) was published in early 2010.
Her second book, The Health Advocate's Marketing Handbook is targeted to private health and patient advocates.
It's not unusual to find Trisha quoted in the mainstream media, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, Time and More magazines.
You can find her at Twitter (@TrishaTorrey), Google+ and Facebook.
Education:
Trisha holds a bachelor's degree in education from Bucknell University and a master's degree in education from Elmira College.
From Trisha Torrey:
I began my quest to help others navigate their own health care after being diagnosed with a very rare, life-threatening cancer in 2004. I was told two labs had independently confirmed the diagnosis, and I needed to start chemotherapy immediately or I would die within months.
Trusting my intuition that I was not nearly so sick as the lab reports indicated, I set about finding the right professionals, asking questions, researching on the Internet, analyzing medical terms and being doggedly persistent to learn more about the disease I was told would be my demise.
Instead, what I learned surprised everyone. Just short of starting chemo, I determined I had no cancer at all. My findings were later confirmed by the National Institutes of Health.
Realizing that millions more patients were confronting challenges with their health care every day, I began documenting the work I had done so others could use the tools I had developed, too.
References:
- Every Patient's Advocate
Find Trisha's print articles, additional online articles, and radio show references. - You Bet Your Life! The 10 Mistakes Every Patient Makes
(subtitle) How to Fix Them to Get the Healthcare You Deserve - AdvoConnection.com
AdvoConnection can help you find a patient advocate in the United States or Canada. - Every Patient's Advocate blog
Trisha's personal blog features commentary on more controversial health and patient-related issues.
