Post on Twitter/X* re reactivating European Network on ME/CFS (EUROMENE) - noticed a question --- purpose?
Ideas guys?
Here's a useful discussion re purpose of original EUROMENE -
@MSEsperanza
"I mean, is EUROMENE really only a forum? What about the working groups on common goals?
So, should we be involved? How? What do forum members think?"
@Jonathan Edwards (replying)
"Yes, EUROMENE is just a forum.
What is confusing is that certain EUROMENE members are part of a research grant called a 'COST Action'. This is a European Union grant for promoting meetings and gathering information relevant to collaboration and education. So there are no 'specific country members' for EUROMENE but there are for the COST Action. The COST Action is really just an awareness raising exercise so is going to do nobody any harm. This is what has the 'working groups', which are just groups of people prepared to spend time gathering data to justify the money for having meetings.
The people who set up the COST Action are very biomedically orientated. Moreover, they are the higher quality scientists, unlike some others who might like to run things. However, part of the aim is to bring in people from each country and the organisers have wanted to be inclusive to allow BPS types to benefit from the biomedical environment if countries cannot provide anyone else. How that works out is anyone's guess, but, as I say, since this is not actually a grant for active research no great harm can be done.
EUROMENE is specifically a forum for researchers. So people on this forum in general have no real reason to be involved. However, EUROMENE is keen to have patient dialogue and the COST Action encourages patient involvement. If patients want to attend the EUROMENE meetings currently funded by the COST programme then why not - they could contact their country representative. The people running the programme would have
no problem with patients expressing their views about BPS and so on.
Maybe I should actually go back to where EUROMENE started - that will give you an idea. EUROMENE was set up by people like Derek Pheby (I think it may have been his idea). Pheby is the epidemiologist who got Nacul and Lacerda involved in the study published in 2011. He is one of the wisest of scientists in the ME field and not a prima donna. He is now retired but still gathering important data on economic costs of ME. If for no other reason, I think people should embrace EUROMENE because it continues his aims.
https://www.s4me.info/threads/europe-euromene.30/page-2#post-98567
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