Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Education in the United States
Testimony for the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee
October 30, 2009Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Education in the United States
Testimony for the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee
October 30, 2009
Kenneth J. Friedman, Ph.D.
Treasurer of the International Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME
Director of Public Policy for P.A.N.D.O.R.A., Inc.
Scientific Adviser to Lifelyme, Inc.
Board Member and Chair of the Medical Student Scholarship Committee, New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association
Board Member, Vermont CFIDS Association
Good morning!
My name is Kenneth Friedman and I am a medical school professor.
I have been asked by the IACFS/ME to comment upon the status of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome education in the United States.
Comments on The Academic, Medical School Environment
The Director of the Office of Ethics and Compliance of my employer has informed me that my off-campus activities related to CFS which include: testifying before this Committee, serving on this Committee, providing continuing medical education courses, establishing medical student scholarships and assisting with healthcare legislation are not part of my responsibilities as a University Professor. I am told that I will be punished with a penalty as severe as termination of my employment for these activities.
I am not a unique target. Colleague Ben Natelson has left the same school. A different medical school has refused to permit access to their medical students to discuss CFS or inform them of a medical student scholarship. A statewide health care provider, with no physician capable of managing CFS patients refuses to permit a CFS training session for their physicians. The failure of the CDC to convince the medical-academic establishment of the legitimacy of CFS, and the urgent need for its treatment, has created this environment.
Comments on Medical Student Education
High ranking officials of medical education have testified before this Committee that they are powerless to control the curriculum of medical schools, and cannot mandate the inclusion of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the medical school curriculum.
Were the CDC to mandate the reporting of CFS to the Federal Government, as it does for other illnesses, the National Board of Medical Examiners would have no choice but to put CFS questions on the National Boards. If CFS questions were to appear on National Board licensure examinations, medical schools would have no choice but to include CFS in their curriculum.
I have appeared before this body on two separate occasions arguing for the use of existing student programs within both the NIH and the CDC to rotate medical students through NIH and CDC laboratories. I have pleaded for dialogue and feedback on any of my proposals. I have heard nothing.
The only mechanism for medical student education for CFS is the medical student scholarship programs run by patient advocate organizations. We now have programs running in three states. How many scholarship programs must be mounted by state patient advocate groups before the CDC mounts a single, national medical student program?
Comments on Continuing Medical Education for Physicians
To my knowledge, the CDC
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