Trisha Torrey

As a syndicated newspaper columnist, radio talk show host and national speaker, Trisha is recognized by patients and professionals alike for her ability to translate the challenges patients face into solutions for improved health care.

Her work is broad-based. Her current projects range from development of a college-level patient advocate training program, to development of a tool to help patients access advocates, to writing a book about the trek through the challenges of American health care.

It's not unusual to find Trisha quoted in the mainstream media, including CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and Time and More magazines.

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 six 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.