The Institute for Natural Medicine (INM) is thrilled to announce the appointment of Robin Shapiro, board chair and co-founder of HealthAdvocateX, to its Honorary Board of Directors. Ms. Shapiro has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare public relations, public affairs, and advocacy. Throughout her career, she has empowered patients and healthcare consumers to be informed partners in all aspects of their care.
“We are thrilled to add Robin Shapiro to our Honorary Board,” says INM President and CEO Michelle Simon, PhD, ND. “She is a pioneer in the critical field of patient advocacy. As the U.S. increasingly embraces whole-person health, centering patients’ voices and needs is crucial to their success. The availability of experienced and knowledgeable advocates will help patients navigate the sometimes overwhelming complexity of options they face.”
As co-founder of several companies, including HPG LLC (now known as REVERBA, a patient experience company) and Allied Health Advocates, the first independent health advocacy company dedicated to helping patients work with private advocates, Ms. Shapiro brings a patient-centered perspective to INM’s mission of improving healthcare delivery in the United States. Her 2019 book, The Secret Language of Healthcare: How to Ask for the Care You Deserve, highlights practical ways patients can communicate their care goals more effectively—a position well aligned with INM’s efforts to help build a “common language” around whole-person health for healthcare professionals and consumers.
“I am proud to support the important work of INM and recognize the organization’s commitment to whole-person health,” says Ms. Shapiro. “In my decades of helping people find their voice and choice around medical decision-making and health, it is clear that each person’s mind and body are unique and deserve an integrated approach. The health advocacy movement is grounded in making sure people, when they become patients, are not treated as body parts but as a whole body system that deserves careful consideration and understanding to receive the best care possible.”
Ms. Shapiro joins a distinguished group of visionary leaders from across the medical community. Together, they support INM’s aim to bring a whole-person health approach into the mainstream.
INM’s Mission
Bringing whole-person health to the mainstream
Media Contact
Wyn Delano
wyn@naturemed.org
