Every Patient's Advocate^TM has one important mission:  to improve the relationships among patients and providers, with a goal of improving outcomes for parties.

Who is Trisha? 
And why is she Every Patient's Advocate?

Trisha Torrey began her quest to help others handle the debacle that has become the American healthcare system after being diagnosed with a very rare, life-threatening cancer in 2004. She was told two labs had independently confirmed the diagnosis -- and she needed chemotherapy immediately or she would die within months.

Just short of starting chemotherapy, and to the great consternation of her oncologist, she figured out on her own that she had no cancer at all.  Her misdiagnosis was later confirmed by the National Institutes of Health. 

The irony, of course, is that had she undergone chemotherapy, she would have been declared cured of an incurable disease.  The professionals who had misdiagnosed her would have been heroes for curing her of an incurable disease. These many years later, she has never had any form of treatment.

It was a horrible, frightening, expensive experience, and Trisha decided she would do whatever she could to make sure others would never suffer the same way. 

As she went back over the all hurdles and mistakes in her mind, she realized that even though it was a misread biopsy that started the problem, it was miscommunications that had allowed it to become the debacle it turned out to be.  She realized that communications was an area she had skills in - and she could begin addressing those communications problems to improve the healthcare system for all involved:  Communications for all parties involved in the patient's care - patients, caregivers, advocates and providers.

That's when she started calling herself "Every Patient's Advocate."

Since then, Trisha has built a substantial group of tools to help all parties involved in healthcare, always with patients as the central focus. She originally launched them under the name DiagKNOWsis - and today they all fall under the DiagKNOWsis Family of Activities umbrella.

In 2006, she began writing her newspaper column and hosting the HealthLink on Air radio program.

In 2007, Trisha became the About.com expert in patient empowerment issues. 

In 2008, she was named CNN's Hero of Patient Empowerment.

In 2009, she launched AdvoConnection, a directory to help patients find patient advocates.  In 2012, the membership organization which supports AdvoConnection was named The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates.

Her 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 February 2010. 

Her second book, The Health Advocate's Marketing Handbook was published early in 2011.

Her third book, The Health Advocate's Start and Grow Your Own Practice Handbook was published in late 2012.

Today you'll find Trisha expanding her reach through continued writing and speaking. She is regularly invited to speak to groups of patients, caregivers, advocates and providers. 

•  For an expanded version of Trisha's misdiagnosis story, link here.

•  For a bio and list of Every Patient's Advocate activities, link here.

•  To invite Trisha to speak to your group, link here.

•  For a current calendar of activities, link here.

•  Media requests - information can be found here.