Emily Parks, Patient Advocate

Emily Parks is a chronically ill young professional based out of San Francisco working in behavioral health and patient advocacy. Having been diagnosed with short bowel syndrome in infancy and unable to absorb nutrition orally, she was dependent on Parenteral Nutrition until receiving an isolated small bowel transplant from MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Combining her expertise in behavioral health with her lived experience of navigating multiple tertiary hospitals firsthand has led her down the path of studying the impact of medical trauma and medical PTSD on patients and its influence on treatment outcomes. Emily founded the organization POP!, where she hosts patient lead discussion groups on all things medical PTSD related in an effort to learn what providers need to know about the mental health side of the patient experience.