Journal of IiMER Volume 13 Issue 1 Invest in ME Research European ME Clinicians Council One of the many failings in the way ME has been handled over the last decades has been the lack of education and specialisation in ME. Few clinicians have been able to accumulate enough experience and the disease is treated in healthcare with little regard, partly due to this failure and the lack of funding for fundamental research. Those clinicians who have gained experience in treating ME patients and collaborated with biomedical researchers need to be encouraged and supported. Our international conferences and research Colloquiums have brought together researchers from around the world and been instrumental in forging new and promising collaborations. Our European ME Research Group (EMERG) concept brought European researchers together. In a similar way, we feel it is important for experienced clinicians to share their knowledge on diagnostic and treatment methods and produce documentary aids for the research community focused on clinician guided treatment trials, identification of possible illness subsets, and observations of illness presentation. The charity has therefore facilitated the formation of a new European clinicians group. An inaugural CPD-accredited meeting took place in February 2019 in London. The charity sought out the leading clinicians in Europe who are treating ME patients and whom we felt will be supportive and constructive in going forward for the benefit of people with ME and their families. This meeting followed an American initiative that was started by Dr Lucinda Bateman and Mary Dimmock. We have used the name given to the American group that met in USA early 2018 under the chair of Dr Bateman and named this group the European ME Clinicians Council (EMECC). We have also borrowed from the Invest in ME Research (Charity Nr. 1153730) investinme.org USA experiences and documentation and liaised with Mary over the establishment of this group. We used the American meeting as a model and used similar objectives. We wanted to build a network of clinicians in Europe who could support each other, work together, and come together immediately. As Dr Bateman stated, aggregating the knowledge of experienced clinicians on clinical sub topics related to ME/CFS and providing patients, caregivers, advocates, clinicians and the researchers the most up to date information is a critical outcome. The aims of the inaugural meeting were therefore to bring together clinicians in the field of ME, to review the current state of knowledge, to present and discuss the latest initiatives, and to foster collaboration. Since the meeting the clinicians have been working together and this has become a formal group that will work with the American initiative and be supported by the European ME Alliance (now representing fifteen countries). This group will improve the knowledge of clinicians in Europe and act as a focal point for healthcare agencies, doctors and media outlets who wish to learn more from experienced clinicians about ME. The next meeting has already been planned in order develop the network and it has already increased in numbers since the first meeting. The first EMECC meeting took place over three days and a very positive and progressive atmosphere was created with a range of topics being discussed covering diagnosis, treatments, follow-ups, education, research and how the group continues and expands. One of the first items from EMECC is the following statement - Page 11 of 52
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