The Take-Charge Patient ─ How You Can Get the Best Medical Care

The Take-Charge Patient Puts the Expertise of 200 Medical Professionals in Your Hands

Frustrated or confused about how to get good medical care? In her newest book, The Take-Charge Patient: How You Can Get The Best Medical Care, (Lemon Grove Press, on sale May 15, 2012) award-winning author and patient advocate, Martine Ehrenclou, empowers patients to become proactive, well informed participants in their own care. With advice and personal stories from over 200 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, health psychologists, patients and more, The Take-Charge Patient reveals insider information on how to cut through the red tape and navigate today’s complex health care system with confidence.

Ehrenclou empowers readers with vital information on how to find the right doctor, how to communicate effectively with doctors, how to prepare for medical appointments, prevent medical errors and medication mistakes, obtain discounted medication, manage your health insurance, and much more. The Take-Charge Patient will forever change how you act as a patient and thereby vastly improve the quality of the medical care you receive.

Six months into her research for The Take-Charge Patient, Martine Ehrenclou developed debilitating, chronic pain and used every strategy in her new book. She went from author and advocate for others to an advocate for herself and became a take-charge patient. After eleven doctors failed to diagnose her correctly, Martine found her own diagnosis and the correct surgeon to treat her. She is now pain free.

According to Ehrenclou, your health care is a team sport. The Take-Charge Patient shows you how to take charge of what you can and become an effective player.

Martine Ehrenclou has also written the multiple award-winning Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital. Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive (Lemon Grove Press). Ehrenclou writes monthly articles for several health websites, national magazines, and is interviewed regularly on national TV and radio such as ABC News, ABC World News, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Publishers Weekly, and many more. She frequently lectures on how to be an advocate for yourself and your loved ones at universities, hospitals and various organizations.

Martine Ehrenclou is an award-winning author, patient advocate and speaker. Author of the multiple award-winning, Critical Conditions, and her newest health book, The Take-Charge Patient, Martine is focused on empowering patients so they become experts on how navigate and take charge of their medical care. With her last book, Critical Conditions, and her newest book, her mission is to bring to light the importance of being an advocate for others and for ourselves. Through her books, published articles, media interviews, and lectures, Martine Ehrenclou reveals insider information on how to work the healthcare system for the patient's benefit.

Through her extensive research and her own recent chronic pain medical condition, Martine learned firsthand how to be a take-charge patient by using her own strategies in her new book. She went from author and advocate for others to an advocate for herself. After seeing eleven physicians, undergoing nine procedures and surgeries, being prescribed twenty-two medications, she finally found a doctor who diagnosed her correctly and cured her medical condition.

Martine writes monthly articles for several health websites, regularly publishes articles on the topics of patient empowerment, patient advocacy, patient safety and other health/medical related issues. She consistently receives national exposure and is interviewed by TV, radio and other media. Martine lectures at universities, hospitals, organizations and libraries, and writes a monthly blog and newsletter.