The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced * (by a Special Notice referenced under Solicitation 13-233-SOL-00686) that it is to provide funding, via the National Academies (Institute of Medicine), to “support a study committee to recommend clinical diagnostic criteria” for ME/CFS. The study committee, which will be made up of ‘thought leaders’ and stakeholders, will comprehensively evaluate the current status of criteria, and then develop consensus clinical criteria for the illness. It also aims to distinguish between disease subgroups, develop a plan for updating the new criteria, and make recommendations for their implementation.
The announcement points out that, “Clinicians and medical professionals disagree on many aspects of ME/CFS, ranging from frank disbelief in the illness to confusion about the application of clinical diagnostic criteria”, and this is certainly true. So, we can only hope that the project will move rapidly, and arrive at sensitive and specific clinical criteria of real practical value.
