Committee Recommendations

August 2005

CFSAC submitted the following recommendations to the Secretary in August 2005.

Recommendation 1: We would urge the DHHS to direct the NIH to establish five Centers of Excellence within the United States that would effectively utilize state-of-the-art knowledge concerning the diagnosis, clinical management, treatment, and clinical research of persons with CFS. These Centers should be modeled after the existing Centers of Excellence program, with funding in the range of $1.5 million per center per year for five years.
Recommendation 2: We would urge the DHHS, through the NIH, to expedite the issue of an RFA with sufficient set aside funds to attract senior level researchers to engage in the study of CFS. DHHS should fund extramural grants, reviewed by a special emphasis panel knowledgeable in CFS, through RO1, RO3, R21, and Directors Pioneer Award mechanisms.
Recommendation 3: The DHHS should provide funds to develop an international Network of Collaborators that would allow for multidisciplinary CFS-related research using standardized criteria accepted by the international CFS research community. Such a network would pool a large number of patients from around the world and would require investigators to develop and employ common protocols.
Recommendation 4: DHHS should provide support and funding for an intramural staffed laboratory committed to CFS research.
Recommendation 5: The DHHS should promote, encourage, and fund research directed toward the diagnosis, epidemiology, and treatment of CFS in children and adolescents.
Recommendation 6: The DHHS, through the CDC and NIH, should continue to sponsor, even accelerate, focused workshops in specific areas of CFS and to invite investigators not currently working on CFS who have been identified as having an interest in the illness.
Recommendation 7: The DHHS should pursue making CFS a topic of training for healthcare providers, wherever appropriate, at regional and national conferences sponsored by the Department.
Recommendation 8: The DHHS should encourage continuing education for Social Security reviewers and adjudicators. The secretary of DHHS should recommend that adjudicators follow the Social Security Policy Ruling 99-2P, which specifically clarifies policies regarding CFS.
Recommendation 9: The DHHS should increase public education on CFS through a public awareness campaign. Discrimination in healthcare, education, and the workplace should be actively confronted.
Recommendation 10: We would encourage the classification of CFS as a 'Nervous System Disease,' as worded in the ICD-10 G93.3.
Recommendation 11: The DHHS should consider participation of the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research as ex-officio members of the CFSAC for future deliberations of recommendations.