Solve M.E. today announced Renegade Research as the latest recipient of our ME/CFS Catalyst Award, funding its study, “SIGNAL: A Decentralized Discovery Platform for Emerging Therapeutic Devices in ME/CFS and Long Covid.”
The SIGNAL project is built around a device lending library through which people diagnosed with ME/CFS and Long Covid may borrow promising therapeutic devices, shipped directly to their homes at no cost, for a three-month lending period. While borrowing, participants contribute standardized longitudinal data through the Brain Inflammation Collaborative (BIC) Solve M.E. unhide® Solve Together platform. This allows each lending cycle to be a real-world research opportunity.
Solve’s Catalyst Award will launch the Renegade Research study of two devices: the Truvaga vagus nerve stimulation device and the Vielight red light therapy device. While these devices represent the first technologies to be evaluated, the award is designed to establish a scalable, patient-centered framework that can incorporate additional devices as they emerge and generate meaningful real-world evidence to inform future research and patient care. By providing participants with access to devices that are often expensive and not covered by insurance, the project also helps reduce financial barriers to exploring promising symptom management options.
Solve’s investment in this initiative will expand patient participation, accelerate data collection, and increase the speed with which findings can be shared with the community.
Solve President and CEO Emily Taylor said, “We selected the Renegade Research project for Catalyst funding because it’s patient-led and uses promising findings to address the urgent and unmet need for treatments in our community. It’s designed to rapidly identify which device-based therapies appear most effective, for whom they work best, and which symptoms they improve. Rather than waiting years for traditional clinical trial results, patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers can use the study findings to make better-informed decisions sooner.”
Taylor added, “Importantly, the SIGNAL study was designed to also be accessible to the 25% of patients who are housebound and severely ill, enabling researchers to collect data that could lead to better treatment and support strategies for the largest–yet least studied–subgroup of the ME/CFS and Long Covid populations.”
Studying severely ill populations is vital to understanding the full spectrum of these diseases, improving care pathways, adapting research methods for vulnerable populations, and ensuring that research priorities reflect the realities of those most affected.
SIGNAL Co-PI Maya Lindemann, RN, BSN, told us, “During the Vielight Long Covid Clinical Trial, I went from Mild Cognitive Impairment to scoring mostly above average. I wanted to know if this could help others with ME regain cognitive function, and if so, make it as accessible as possible. Two and a half years later, we are proud to launch the SIGNAL device lending library to support IRB research and patient access to potential treatments.”
People with ME/CFS and Long Covid who are interested in participating in the SIGNAL study and device lending library can sign up here.
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Solve’s ME/CFS Catalyst Awards are designed to keep important discoveries from losing momentum. They provide flexible, timely support so that innovative science can continue moving forward—even during periods of uncertainty in the federal research landscape.
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