Exercise: it's good for nearly everyone. Photo: Cliff Booth/Pexels. In honor of this year's ME Awareness day we're sharing a very simple message: for patients with long Covid or ME/CFS, exercise can be dangerous. We know, we know: exercise is supposed to be the cure-all, the one piece of advice that can be safely given… Continue reading Even a gentle exercise program could cause lasting harm to patients with ME/CFS or long Covid
Author: Katie Johnstone
The NHS must provide mandatory training on ME/CFS – our submission to the APPG
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will be meeting later this month, and we've submitted a short statement for their consideration, which is also pasted below. Please urge the NHS to provide mandatory training on ME/CFS to doctors. Most doctors receive no training on ME/CFS, either during their time at medical school or after,… Continue reading The NHS must provide mandatory training on ME/CFS – our submission to the APPG
Integrating ME/CFS into an undergraduate curriculum: experience from a US medical school
In what might be a world first, the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine in the US has fully integrated ME/CFS into its curriculum. Dr Howard Andrew Selinger, MD. Photo: Quinnipiac University. The training program was developed by Dr Howard Andrew Selinger, a family physician and Chair of Family Medicine at the school. When asked… Continue reading Integrating ME/CFS into an undergraduate curriculum: experience from a US medical school
Update on our campaign
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… Continue reading Update on our campaign
To which area of medicine does ME/CFS belong, and who should teach it?
With the Medical Licensing Assessment coming into effect in 2024-2025, medical schools across the UK will be preparing to teach ME/CFS for the first time, and they will find themselves facing a conundrum: which class or subject area does the condition fit into, and which educators are best-qualified to teach it? Cropped image from the… Continue reading To which area of medicine does ME/CFS belong, and who should teach it?
Website redesign
We've had a bit of a redesign - hopefully the new website will be easier to navigate, but please let us know if anything has disappeared or doesn't work.
Letter to the Medical Schools’ Council on teaching ME/CFS to undergraduates
The Medical Schools' Council coordinates medical schools' teaching across the UK. We reached out to them to ask them to speak to medical schools about providing high-quality teaching on ME/CFS, to give a bit of background information about the condition, and to recommend some learning resources. The letter is posted below. Recommended ME/CFS resources for… Continue reading Letter to the Medical Schools’ Council on teaching ME/CFS to undergraduates
#DontLetMEDie protest: ME/CFS patients demand medical treatment
Most medical professionals have no idea that people with ME/CFS are so angry about the standard of medical treatment that they receive - or don't receive - that they hold protests about it. On 8 March the campaigning group Chronic Collaboration held a protest in front of parliament, brandishing banners and placards with slogans such… Continue reading #DontLetMEDie protest: ME/CFS patients demand medical treatment
Doctors’ lack of training leads to malnutrition danger for patients with severe ME/CFS
Update: as of March 1, Alice Barnett has had a feeding tube inserted and is receiving nutrition. Some patients with very severe ME will require tube feeding, either enterally or parenterally. There can often be a significant delay in implementing this, due to professional opinion, allowing the patient to become severely malnourished. Healthcare professionals may… Continue reading Doctors’ lack of training leads to malnutrition danger for patients with severe ME/CFS
Doctors’ reluctance to diagnose ME/CFS has horrific consequences for children
Dr Nigel Speight is a pediatrician, now semi-retired, with a special interest in myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). The following is an excerpt from an interview carried out by Rob Wijbenga, chairman of the Dutch ME/CFS Association. In it, Dr Speight describes how doctors' inability to confidently recognize and diagnose ME/CFS can result in an alternate 'explanation'… Continue reading Doctors’ reluctance to diagnose ME/CFS has horrific consequences for children
Signs and symptoms of ME/CFS
An infographic showing some of the signs and symptoms of ME/CFS. These signs cannot be measured using the standard lab tests available to a clinician, but they have been detected in research studies. Source: https://www.mortengroup.org.uk/me-cfs/science-of-me-cfs/.
ME/CFS will be taught to all medical students starting in 2024/2025 – but will the teaching be of a high standard?
Cropped image from the cover of the General Medical Council's MLA content map. We were very pleased to learn that ME/CFS is included on the MLA content map, and will therefore be taught to all undergraduate medical students in the UK, starting in the 2024/2025 academic year. However, we have concerns. We know that currently… Continue reading ME/CFS will be taught to all medical students starting in 2024/2025 – but will the teaching be of a high standard?
Letter to medical students from the ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign
We've begun sending this letter out to medical students' societies across the UK. Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating, incurable disease which affects at least four people in a thousand. Yet medical education on ME/CFS in the UK is shockingly poor. There have been great strides in research and clinical practice in recent… Continue reading Letter to medical students from the ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign
Research paints a bleak picture of ME/CFS medical education in the UK
Image credit: Rodnae Productions/Pexels. Studies show that ME/CFS represents a huge gap in medical education. A survey of medical students conducted in 2022 found that the students were generally unaware of ME/CFS, and had received little or no training related to the condition. However the students were very much interested in learning about it, and… Continue reading Research paints a bleak picture of ME/CFS medical education in the UK
Welcome!
Welcome to the new website! The campaign is in its very early stages, but we'd love it if members of the ME/CFS community would have a look around, and perhaps let us know what you think - we can be reached at mecfs.med.ed.uk@gmail.com.
ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign 