The ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign started up in December of last year, with the goal of ensuring that all UK doctors and medical students receive high-quality, up-to-date, evidence-based training on ME/CFS.
The problems we face are very familiar to the ME community, but they might be unfamiliar to clinicians and medical educators:
- ME/CFS is a common and very serious condition, yet most doctors know little about it.
- Medical students receive little to no training on ME/CFS, and have little knowledge of the condition.
- People with ME/CFS receive an unacceptably low standard of medical care. Many wait years for diagnosis, and are given inappropriate and harmful medical advice. The NICE guidelines are routinely ignored. Things are even worse for children and young people, and for those with severe ME/CFS.
More information on these problems.
Our campaign
We’re focusing on the education of medical students, who will one day become doctors. Studies show that, up to now, ME/CFS has hardly been taught to undergraduate medical students at all. This explains why doctors seem to know so little about the condition.
The General Medical Council (GMC) has included ME/CFS in the Medical Licensing Assessment Content Map, a list of topics that must be taught to all medical students. This means that, from the 2024-2025 academic year, UK medical schools will be teaching ME/CFS.
We’re concerned, however, that without adequate preparation and co-ordination, this training could end up being of poor quality. Therefore we’re doing everything we can to support medical schools to deliver excellent training on ME/CFS:
- We’ve sent a mail-out to the directors of medical education (or equivalent) of all 34 UK medical schools, offering a list of recommended teaching materials and some information sheets.
- We’re offering to connect educators with experienced, expert clinicians who can talk to them about ME/CFS.
- We’re planning to reach out to local ME groups across the UK to find people willing to go into a university to talk with medical students, giving the students a chance to hear about ME/CFS firsthand from someone who lives with it.
- We’re reaching out to relevant organizations such as the GMC and the Medical Schools’ Council to ask that they do their part in ensuring that all UK medical students receive excellent training on ME/CFS.
We want to be accountable to the ME and long Covid communities, and to medical educators as well, and we hope this update will stimulate some ideas and discussion.
Thanks
We wouldn’t have got this far without the help of experts and others who have generously donated their time and skills. Thank you!
ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign 