Bipolar Disorder

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, MD

Patient Empowerment

We are very excited to share that About.com has now added a Patient Empowerment site to its lineup. Trisha Torrey serves as the guide to this topic, which gives focus to "the concept of the patient taking an active role in his own disease management, and supporting that participation by learning all he can about his disease or condition and treatment options" ( The Wise Patient's Guide to Being an Empowered Patient).

Trisha shares, "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" ( Bio: Trish Torrey).