Practitioners
1. Diagnostic and Treatment Protocols, References for Medical Practitioners:
As late as Summer 2004, the two peer reviewed published Guidelines were not available free online and could cost nearly $100 to purchase and ship. FM-CFS Canada paid the US publisher Haworth Press to receive permission to share the two journal-form Protocols electronically with you, free, as below.
In late 2004 FM-CFS Canada met the College of Family Physicians of Canada and asked for a model for a short diagnostic and treatment overview. Such Overviews are now written, at our request, with the review of the expert panel. These inexpensive guides radically change the economics of sending information to doctors, and deliver the information in a concise format, as below.
Fibromyalgia Guidelines
- Overview for General Practitioners (28 pages)
- Fibromyalgia Guidelines (130 pages with a full set of references)
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Guidelines
- Overview for General Practitioners (28 pages)
- Canada's 2003 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Guidelines (130 pages with a full set of references)
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) Definition, courtesy of the Nightingale Research Foundation
Pain Management
2. New Educational Materials
The goal is to create made-in-Canada, free, information for the relevant disciplines of Canadian health professionals. We're underway, with our thanks to the Canadian medical experts who responded to our call or volunteered.
| New ME/CFS Primer for Clinical Practitioners | |
| This website will provide you with information about Dr Stein's practice, access to her recent newsletters, publications and presentations and a way to purchase the newly released "Let Your Light Shine Through” a manual for patients and health care providers. The objective of the manual is to guide patients with ME/CFS, FM and MCS towards improved health. You can also find other useful guides written by Dr. Stein under the publications tab on her website. | |
| Myalgic Encephalomyelitis International Consensus Primer-Physicians -12-10 (pdf file) | http://www.mediafire.com/view/?zbwlek6na70nyb7 |
| Link to IACFS/ME primer webpage: | http://www.iacfsme.org/Home/Primer/tabid/509/Default.aspx |
| IACFS/ME primer pdf: | http://www.iacfsme.org/Portals/0/PDF/PrimerFinal3.pdf |
| FM-CFS Canada's Practitioner Guides | |
| Nursing & FMS: | Reviewed by a team of six Canadian pain nurses |
| Physiotherapy & FMS: | Click here for international research method results. Click here for another, the BMJ |
| Pharmacist Guides | |
| Draft Guides | |
| Massage & FMS: | Draft, two RMTs are reviewing this first draft. |
3. Advancing medical school teaching time
FM-CFS Canada met the Ottawa U. Medical School Dean, Vice-Dean, Associate Dean, and a departmental Dean, enroute to an agreement to double the teaching time for FM & CFS at the University of Ottawa medical school. We've provided educational resources in print and electronic form to the professor.
With the National ME/FM Action Network in a spring 2007 initiative, we distributed Clinical Overview guides for FM & ME/CFS to the remaining medical schools across Canada.
Delivering and Subsidizing Physician Education
In 2006 FM-CFS Canada mailed FM & ME/CFS Overviews to more than 1,000 doctors in the Ottawa region, and to many beyond. FM-CFS Canada then covered half the cost of printing 14,000 more for distribution across Canada.
Tools & Expert Information Assembled for You
- Red Labs - a possible CFS test
- Weekly Chart to Record Pain
- The DrugBank database
- Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ)
- Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) - Scoring
- "Devin's Diagnostic" - FMS & CMP - Devin Starlanyl
- Karnofsky Scale for measuring Energy Levels in CFS patients