Who’s Trisha?
Trisha Torrey is Every Patient’s Advocate, a mission she began after a heinous misdiagnosis of cancer in the summer of 2004. Told she had a rare and aggressive lymphoma and had only months to live without chemo, she instead used her wits and chutzpah to prove the two confirming reviews of her biopsy were — wrong.
What she learned is that American healthcare is not about health or care. It’s about sickness and money. Almost 100,000 people die each year because of medical errors and misdiagnosis. Millions more suffer at the hands of the system through mistakes of diagnosis or treatment. Trisha had become a statistic.
Of course, had she actually suffered through chemo and survived it, she would have been declared cured of an incurable disease. The very doctors who were wrong would have been declared heroes.
Today she reaches out to us in a variety of ways to teach us to be “emPatients.” You can read her newspaper columns, or her patient empowerment site at About.com, you can read one of her books, or you can attend one of her talks or presentations as she speaks at events across the US. If you are in need of a patient advocate, you might find the directory at AdvoConnection.com to be useful, too.
She has been interviewed and quoted by CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, Fox News, Angie’s List Magazine, O Magazine, Bottom Line Secrets and many more. CNN’s Empowered Patient named her a Hero of Patient Empowerment in 2008.
Read her full-blown misdiagnosis story here.
Trisha’s first book, You Bet Your Life: The 10 Mistakes Every Patient Makes was published in early 2010.
Her second book, The Health Advocate’s Marketing Handbook was published in December 2010.
Reach Trisha at: blog (at) epadvocate.com
| Websites and Blogs: | |
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patients.about.com Trisha is the Patient Empowerment expert at About.com |
| Every Patient’s Advocate website | www.EveryPatientsAdvocate.com Columns, podcasts, speaking engagements and more |
| Every Patient’s Advocate blog | www.EveryPatientsAdvocate.com Commentary on healthcare, leaning toward the political |
| DiagKNOWsis | www.diagKNOWsis.org Tools to help patients research their diagnoses |
| AdvoConnection | www.AdvoConnection.com Patients can find advocates to help them navigate the medical care maze |
| AdvoConnection Blog |
AdvoConnection.wordpress.com Information of interest to patient advocates and navigators, patients who may hire advocates, and those who are considering a career as a healthcare advocate. |
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| Books: | |
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You Bet Your Life! The 10 Mistakes Every Patient Makes (How to Fix Them to Get the Health Care You Deserve) |
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The Health Advocate’s Marketing Handbook |
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| Newspaper Column: | |
| Syracuse Post Standard | www.Syracuse.com Trisha’s columns appear here bi-weekly |
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| Speaker Information: | |
| Patient Empowerment topics | Trisha is available to speak on topics of interest to patients, providers and the industry. Healthcare Speaker |
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| Social Networking: | |
| Linked In | Linked In Profile Page |
| Follow Me on Twitter | |
| FaceBook |
Friend Me at Facebook |
Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! For all that you do, for all the information that you put out, and for speaking out against what I believe to be a morally and ethically bankrupt medical community. I just wanted to take the time to thank you for all the good that you do. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you.
Thank you, thank you!!! For all that you do, for all the information that you put out. I truly believe all of our medical community to be both morally and ethically bankrupt to the core. Been there done that and after watching my husband of 44 years – whom I had known all of my life, die from ARROGANCE & IDIOCY – I’ve had enough – I refuse to put my life in danger for the growth in revenue in their pockets or the pockets of the so called “caring” hospitals – who cover up – shut up and lawyer up every time there is a “never event or HAI” I don’t believe in the medical community in America. I’ve seen the statistics and I watched one of their mistakes die a little every day for 5 years – 5 months and 5 days – what I’d give to be able to relieve Thursday, January 31st, 2002 again -I can assure you – I’d sell everything I owned and go to France or Austrailia or anywhere except the United States to find a competent surgeon to perform his procedure. I honestly feel Willie would be alive today if I had only known the history of the “professional” and the “facility” in question.