Healthwise to "retire the GET/CBT topics" from medical content

One of my personal advocacy projects for the past 16 months has been to try to have Healthwise remove the GET and CBT modules from their ME/CFS content.

Healthwise provides medical content for many major healthcare corporations in the United States, including Kaiser Permanente with its 13 million members.

Over the past 16 months, whenever a paper, letter, or Tuller blog post about GET/CBT appeared, I would send it off to Healthwise, asking them to consider removing GET/CBT from their ME/CFS content.

Last year, after pressure by myself and others, Healthwise downgraded GET/CBT as treatments for ME/CFS. But these modules were still included in their ME/CFS content.

Today, I got a Twitter direct message from Healthwise, soon after sending them @FrankTwisk 's excellent letter to The Lancet. From the message, the recent clinician summit in Salt Lake City influenced them significantly.

Healthwise will be modifying their ME/CFS content fall of 2018, including retiring the GET/CBT topics from the ME/CFS section!

It will likely take a few more months for major healthcare organizations to refresh their websites with the updated Healthwise content.

Below is the Twitter direct message from my email inbox.

 

Well done, that effort paid off!!

 

Well done @Webdog ! Sometimes persistence does pay off.

 

As my wife jokes, being a continual pain in the ass is my superpower.

 

Well done @Webdog

What will you be focussing your superpower on next?

 

Thanks. My other iron still in the fire is a "Scope of Practice" complaint submitted to the Medical Board of Calfornia.

I am asking the medical board to rule that GET/CBT are inappropriate ME/CFS treatments in the State of California ("outside the scope of practice").

 

Terrific news, @Webdog! Well done!

 

Tears of joy. What a relief! Thank you @Webdog!!! Well done! Seriously I can't thank you enough and everyone else that played a role in making this happen. Thank you!

 

Great job, congratulations and many thanks !

 

Woohoo @Webdog - what a fantastic result - thanks so much for your hard work and persistence in making this happen.

 

Wow! Go Webdog, you're a rockstar! It makes me so happy to see this

 

Well done @Webdog your persistence has been rewarded and we all benefit by the chipping away at CBT/GET recommendations.

 

That's really good news. Thanks Webdog for pursuing this.

 

Those on Twitter can thank @Healthwise for their commitment to remove GET and CBT from their ME/CFS content. It never hurts to thank people for doing the right thing.

 

This is fantastic, Webdog. Thank you for your persistance and for sharing the twitter PM.

 

Wow, well done, thats amazing!

 

That's a really good reminder! I don't twitter, but thanking them is an excellent idea.

 

You can also send Healthwise a note on their website:

https://www.healthwise.org/contact.aspx