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 hear her host HealthLink on Air on the radio, 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, Fox News, Angie’s List Magazine, CreditCards.com, 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.
Reach Trisha at: blog (at) epadvocate.com
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| Websites and Blogs: | |
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You Bet Your Life! Trisha is the author of 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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patients.about.com Trisha is the Patient Empowerment expert at About.com. |
| Every Patient’s Advocate website | www.EveryPatientsAdvocate.com Columns, speaking engagements and more. |
| 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. Advocates can find ways to reach out to patients, and to improve their business practices. |
| More Than Grand Rounds |
MoreThanGrandRounds.com Trisha’s blog addressed to medical professionals, exploring different points of view. |
| PatientAssistance.com | www.PatientAssistance.com Providing access to pharmaceutical drugs for people with no health insurance. |
| All Experts from About.com | www.AllExperts.com Find help with internet medical research. |
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| Print (Newspaper) Columns: | |
| Syracuse Post Standard | www.Syracuse.com Trisha’s columns appear here bi-weekly |
| Knoxville News Sentinel: WELL | http://www.wellknoxville.com Trisha’s columns appear here bi-monthly (no longer active) |
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| On the Air: | |
| HealthLink on Air | www.HealthLinkonAir.org Trisha’s weekly radio show, includes podcasts from this location |
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| Social Networking: | |
| Linked In | Linked In Profile Page |
| Friend me on Facebook | |
| Follow Me on Twitter | |
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