Patient Story – Denise Octavia Smith

Patient Story – Denise Octavia Smith

Susan Edgman-Levitan and Denise Octavia, survivor of a rare kidney disease and the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Community Health Workers, Smith discuss health equity and trust through the lens of a patient during the pandemic.

Ms. Smith said the clinicians who cared for her in Connecticut did not know about a course of treatment that she said was common in neighboring New York, and described winding up in the emergency room 7–9 times a year for seven years. She faulted her clinicians for neither asking about the impact of her illness on her family nor helping her understand her condition

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Susan Edgman-Levitan and Denise Octavia, survivor of a rare kidney disease and the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Community Health Workers, Smith discuss health equity and trust through the lens of a patient during the pandemic.

Ms. Smith said the clinicians who cared for her in Connecticut did not know about a course of treatment that she said was common in neighboring New York, and described winding up in the emergency room 7–9 times a year for seven years. She faulted her clinicians for neither asking about the impact of her illness on her family nor helping her understand her condition

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Creating a Trustworthy Community


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In addition to addressing trust at the 2020 ABIMF Forum, ABIMF has launched Building Trust a vanguard community on promoting trust in health care.