Category Archives: Research

RFA Ticker, 12/5/16

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

The news in the past week was more about NIH generally, rather than ME specifically. President-elect Trump has nominated Representative Tom Price to be Secretary of HHS. This has touched off a war of words within the medical community, as … Continue reading →

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RFA Ticker, 11/28/16

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

A short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t slow NIH down, apparently. More than $40 million was committed to RFAs last week. ME/CFS research didn’t even get the giblets. Will we be more successful in December? Here are the … Continue reading →

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RFA Ticker, 11/21/16

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

The big news (apart from the election, of course) is that Carol Head and Dr. Zaher Nahle of the Solve ME/CFS Initiative had a brief meeting with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of NIH. SMCI reported: Dr. Collins could not offer … Continue reading →

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RFA Ticker, 11/14/16

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

It got a bit crazy with NIH last week, didn’t it? The talk by Dr. Shorter went ahead as scheduled on November 9th, much to the chagrin of the entire patient community. Afterwards, NIH issued a follow up response which … Continue reading →

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The Proverbial Olive Branch

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

In what will probably be the last word from NIH on the invited lecture by Dr. Edward Shorter, the Trans-NIH ME/CFS Working Group has issued a follow up response to the ME community. For background, read my open letter to … Continue reading →

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Small Steps of Progress

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

Progress, no matter how small, is still progress. Any tiny incremental change advocates can achieve is improvement, and it’s important to acknowledge when it happens. I am pleased to report that NIH has taken a small step towards providing more … Continue reading →

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RFA Ticker, 11/7/16

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

We learned a bit more about NIH’s plans for ME/CFS RFAs during last week’s NIH telebriefing. In response to a comment from Bob Miller, Dr. Koroshetz said that funding for the research consortia centers will be “significant” and “equivalent to … Continue reading →

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Enough Is Enough

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

After I pointed out to Dr. Walter Koroshetz, Chair of the Trans-NIH ME/CFS Working Group, that NIH had invited a speaker who has publicly insulted people with ME/CFS and anyone who takes this disease seriously, Dr. Koroshetz responded that “inclusion … Continue reading →

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An Open Letter to Dr. Koroshetz

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

The following text is an open letter that I sent to Dr. Walter Koroshetz, Director of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. A plea for sanity, respect and science Dr. Koroshetz, I write to you tonight to personally … Continue reading →

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2016 NIH Spending on ME/CFS Studies

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Jennie Spotila

Update: This post was revised on March 12, 2018 to reflect the addition of intramural research to the total. When I analyzed NIH’s spending on ME/CFS studies in Fiscal Year 2015, I concluded: The bottom line is that NIH is … Continue reading →

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