Dr Nina Muirhead and Dr Charles Shepherd.
This month the ME Association has welcomed a survey designed by a third-year medical student based at Cardiff University.
Her project is being supervised by Dr Nina Muirhead who many of you may know because of her presentation at the 2018 CMRC research conference and her work on improving medical education.
Nina writes, “I am a qualified doctor, surgeon and medical educator and became unwell with M.E. in September 2016.”
“I am determined to improve medical education on this topic and have been working with the Medical Schools Council and Cardiff University to begin this process.”
“I saw thirteen doctors before I was diagnosed by my current general practitioner (GP). Having a good GP has been extremely important, from early diagnosis to holistic and practical support.”
“Examples include monthly telephone consultations when I was at my most severe and suggesting a wheelchair when I became well enough to leave the house.”
“I am now supervising a medical student working on a project designed to identify factors that patients view as important to their management in primary care.”
“Please take part in the survey which can be found on the Homepage and contact Russell Fleming by email if you have any additional feedback you’d like to contribute.”
“We look forward to the outcome of this project which we hope to share with you in April 2019.”
About the survey
Data from this survey will be used in a student report and may be published or taken to conference with the goal of improving future practice.
All answers are anonymous and your participation in this survey is voluntary. By answering the survey question, you are agreeing to take part in the study.
Thank you.
Dr Nina Muirhead
You can find the survey on the Homepage of our website about half-way down the page. If you have any additional feedback then please send it to Russell Fleming via email before the end of January 2019 and it will be forwarded to Dr Nina Muirhead for use anonymously.
This website survey links in with various initiatives that are taking place to improve the medical education of all health professionals who are involved in the management of people with ME/CFS, especially those doctors working in general practice.
The work that Dr Nina Muirhead is doing both nationally, and at Cardiff University in relation to medical student education, is particularly important here – which is why we are using a survey that has been designed by a medical student at Cardiff to assess the views of patients on which are the most important aspects of ME/CFS that GPs need to know about.
The results will also be fed back to the NICE guideline committee during the evidence gathering process for preparation of the new clinical guideline on ME/CFS.
The ME Association has various resources available to help with the education of health professionals.
These can be downloaded from our website shop or ordered and sent to you in the post. For example, our leaflet on the importance of making an early and accurate diagnosis.
And we still have funds in our medical education budget to send out a free copy of our clinical and research guide to any UK health professional who would like one.
The clinical and research guide comes with a covering letter from myself and a copy of the letter to US physicians from the Workwell Foundation about activity management and the potential dangers of graded exercise therapy.
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association.
The ME Association
Please help us continue our work
Please donate – whatever you can afford – to help us continue with our work to make the UK a better place for people with M.E. Just click the button below to visit our JustGiving page:
Or why not join the ME Association as a member and become a part of our growing community? For a monthly (or annual) payment you will not only be helping to keep us doing what we do best, but will receive our exclusive ME Essential magazine.
Image copyright: 123RF/Igor Stevanovic