Meet Kiera Chan | Patient Advocate, Healthcare Researcher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kiera Chan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kiera, what is the most important factor behind your success?
My success relies on being able to help patients navigate the healthcare system and receive the proper medical care they need. My goal is to use my knowledge from my public health background and the research and work I am doing in my PhD in Medical Sociology to help others navigate the healthcare system and advocate for the care they need. I aim to teach patients how to advocate for themselves and their medical needs in a healthcare system that has become increasingly complex. I receive messages from patients everyday about their experiences in the healthcare system, their difficulties in trying to receive a diagnosis, treatment, or just basic care. Patients have health insurance, but they try to get care and are told that they are “fine,” or “its all in their heads,” or that they are “too complex.” This type of dismissal is all too common for patients with chronic and complex medical conditions. In my past research as a public health researcher, I found that patients were being dismissed even with an official diagnosis. Now, in my advocacy work I see that many patients with complex medical conditions, such as those that impact multiple bodily systems struggle to get care, and fall through the cracks of the medical system. Patients are sick and thrown into the medical system, without any prior knowledge of how to navigate it, so my goal is to distill my understanding of healthcare into actionable and concise steps that patients can follow. My goal is to not only address this issue of barriers to proper care for patients at the academic research level with my research, but also help patients individually with my advocacy work on my instagram page.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Professionally, I have dedicated my career towards health equity and patient centered care. When I was 15 years old, I read about how girls in low income countries lacked period products and missed school due to menstruation. I immediately started learning how to sew cloth pad kits and sent 75 of them to a friend who took them to a girls’ orphanage in Ethiopia. I immediately got requests for more, which inspired my career in public health. At 19, I did a TED X talk on menstrual health and period poverty, which has received 14K views. Women around the world started messaging me about their struggles with menstruation, particularly premenstrual disorders. So, for my Masters of Public Health thesis, I conducted a study on Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and healthcare experiences of patients, and found that even with an official diagnosis, women were being dismissed. I later started working as a researcher in gerontology, and found that older adults were being dismissed in healthcare, being told that their pain was just a normal part of becoming older. Then, I myself became sick and started experiencing the dismissal that patients were telling me about. I decided to create an instagram page to help advocate for patients with chronic illness that were struggling to navigate the US healthcare system. I wanted to be able to conduct patient centered care research and understand why patients were being dismissed or struggling to get care in the healthcare system, despite resources like health insurance. I chose to get my PhD in Medical Sociology to further study the healthcare barriers that patients were facing. Throughout my journey, I have always been passionate about health equity and my inspiration to help patients has been fueled by my advocacy and work in public health. In my career, I have aspired to raise the voices that have been traditionally sidelined in research and policy, and to help patients who have been neglected by the healthcare system.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

I am grateful to all the chronic illness warriors who have shared their stories with me on my page and throughout my career. I have heard so many stories of patients who have reached out to me, with years of suffering or years of being invalidated in the medical system. Many patients have lost their jobs, their families, their livelihoods, just trying to find answers in the medical system, and their symptoms debilitating them. My heart goes out to these patients. I believe that every patient deserves to be heard in the healthcare system. These stories have fueled my passion for creating my page on advocacy and doing research in this area.

Website: https://www.uab.edu/cas/sociology/people/phd-students/kiera-chan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chronically_kiera/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiera-chan-mph-327475214/

Youtube: https://www.ted.com/talks/kiera_chan_a_talk_about_menstruation/transcript?subtitle=en