Co-founded by Solve M.E., the World ME Alliance is a global collaboration of 27 organizations across 21 countries. This year, in honor of World ME Awareness Day, the Alliance has launched a digital ME/CFS medical education hub designed to be a “one-stop shop of trusted tools for diagnosis and management.”
ME/CFS is a seriously disabling condition that affects at least 67 million people worldwide, but medical education on ME/CFS is lacking in most countries. This leaves clinicians without the knowledge they need, and many feel uncertain or ill-equipped to provide care. This uncertainty can be uncomfortable for clinicians, but it is not a reason for inaction. Clinicians have a duty to provide safe, structured, and supportive care while adapting as the evidence base develops.
When patients are denied the care they deserve, the consequences are significant and can include delayed diagnoses,
harmful or inappropriate treatments, repeated experiences of stigma and disbelief. The lack of warning for patients of the risks of Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM) can be particularly damaging.
To help close the education gap, the World ME Alliance created and curated a Medical Education Hub that contains trusted, evidence-based resources to equip healthcare professionals, inform researchers, educationalists and policymakers, and improve the experiences of people with ME/CFS and their families.
The hub is designed to foster a future where care is grounded in science, and shaped by dignity and compassion. It
provides a range of resources that vary in terms of length and format (e.g. webinars, documents) and includes resources in various languages.
Resources on the hub are organized into categories, currently including:
- Full Guidelines
- Continuing Professional Development
- Severe ME
- Quick Reference Summaries
- Medicines
Visit the medical education hub here.
Want to get involved? Share your story of why medical education matters (using the hashtag #EducateME), and ask healthcare professionals to read our one-page document explaining how the Medical Education Hub can help.