Saying there are new tools and research approaches to apply to ME/CFS, the Director pledged to continue to be involved in developing NIH’s work and to integrate our disease experts. Patients and advocates played an essential role in advocating for a stronger NIH response, from meetings to the Obama Promise to emails to participation in the IOM and P2P processes, which taken together with recent published science have created a turning point at NIH and for our disease.
We embrace these changes, and are encouraged that the Director’s Office has led a new direction for ME/CFS research. We look forward to working together with patients, experts, and the NIH on follow-up, to make the most of these changes and successfully expand research that will lead to diagnosis, treatments and ultimately a cure. It has been a long time coming, and we have a lot of catching up to do in the science of our disease. More details and increased funding will need to be forthcoming to fulfill the potential of these changes, but this announcement is a promising set of steps necessary for a strong federal research program.
 
Read More:
NIH press release: http://nih.gov/news/health/oct2015/od-29.htm
Atlantic Monthly story with quotes from Dr. Collins: theatln.tc/1NDffHt
Courtney Miller’s Letter to the NIH