The Association’s annual public lecture will be held on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, at Newton Wellesley Hospital. Our speaker this year is Linda Tannenbaum from the Open Medicine Foundation, where some very exciting research is underway.
Mark your calendar now. More details will follow!
We are pleased to announce that the Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS at Stanford University on Saturday, August 12th will be live-streamed. The event will begin at 9:00 AM Pacific Time and will conclude at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. Patients, parents, researchers, clinicians, family and friends are invited to register to watch all or part of the program from anywhere in the world via live-stream.
Pre-registration is required. There is still time to register to watch the program live. Please tell a friend - forward this announcement to share this unique experience with our worldwide community.
Confirmed speakers
Ronald W. Davis (Stanford)
Robert Naviaux (UCSD)
Chris Armstrong (U Melbourne)
Jonas Bergquist (Uppsala U)
Maureen Hanson (Cornell)
Neil McGregor (U Melbourne)
Baldomero Olivera (U Utah)
Mark Davis (Stanford)
Alan Light (U Utah)
Alain Moreau (U Montreal)
Wenzhong Xiao (MGH)
The Symposium will be made available on OMF's YouTube Channel for free or you can order a DVD for $15 (which includes shipping). All orders are due by September 10. Order your DVD today.
For more information, see www.omf.ngo/community-symposium
Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS zeroed out the $5.4 million line item for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at the CDC....again!
Tell your members of congress to restore the funding for ME/CFS for next year’s budget. We cannot abandon the progress we've made so far!
Here's a simple form you can fill out to send a personalized letter directly to your U.S. Senators and Congressperson who will be voting on the 2018 Federal Budget. We want as many letters as possible from as many states as possible! Here’s another chance to make ME/CFS visible to your representatives in D.C. Be sure to personalize your letter by writing a sentence or two about yourself in the “Add a Personal Message” box. Your personal message will appear at the beginning of the letter. To access the form: https://solvecfs.secure.force.com/actions/kwac__takeaction?actionId=AR00009
Action is needed NOW, since the Senate will begin work on the budget as soon as they return in September.
OI is one of the 5 key symptoms of ME/CFS identified in the Institute of Medicine report. Although it appears to be more common in children and adolescent patients, many adult patients also have this condition but it may not have been recognized. It is treatable! There is a simple test which requires no special equipment that your doctor can do can show if you have OI.
Here’s one patient’s experience with the test. The page has links to more description about the test and complete instructions that you can take to your doctor.
Here’s a note from our Patient Services team. Help finding doctors is our most requested service. We have very few doctors to recommend – we need more names! Please help us by letting us know of any doctor you see who has helped you. They don’t have to be ME/CFS or FM experts, just open-minded, respectful, and willing to learn and work with you to help you feel better. Our focus is on doctors in Massachusetts or surrounding states.
Dear fellow patients, family members and friends,
One of the most important of patient needs is to find physicians and health care providers that are knowledgeable about ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, and other associated illnesses.
One of our major services is health care provider referrals. And our primary source for these referrals is the patient community.
We especially need patients and their families to tell us about physicians/health care professionals they've seen who are able to provide diagnosis and treatments.
We are asking for your help. Please click this link: https://www.masscfids.org/provider-recommendation-form to fill-out a questionnaire on health care professionals with whom you've had significant contact. We understand you are sick and may not have a lot of energy at any one time, so go at your own pace. If you can provide feedback on more than one doctor or other provider, please use multiple forms.
We want to assure you that any and all information you provide will be kept strictly confidential and your name will never be associated with the information. Also, we are careful not to overload any one doctor with patient referrals.
We would like to get both positive and negative feedback so that we can help patients obtain the best referrals possible.
By taking a little time, you will be helping patients who need to obtain diagnosis and treatment.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Patient Services team, Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association
This is Part One of our summer newsletter. Part Two will follow shortly and will focus on recent research and advocacy.