Bob and Courtney Miller’s effort to engage President Obama  on behalf of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome  patients began in a Town Hall meeting in Reno last year. At that meeting President Obama promised to look into the situation and report back and, now, through his Deputy Chief of Staff, Nancy-Ann DeParle, he has.

The top aid to the White House Chief of Staff,  Nancy-Ann DeParle has a long track record with health care; as Director of Health Care Financing for the Clinton administration she helped administer the Medicare and Medicaid  programs and then was director of the White House Office of Health Reform for President Obama.  A Phi beta kappa and Rhodes scholar, Mrs Deparle was recently included on The New Republic’s list of Washington’s most powerful and least famous people.

 Mrs. DeParle told Courtney that President Obama had never asked her to investigate a specific disorder before. No promises were given regarding funding but President Obama’s desire to elevate the priority Chronic Fatigue Syndrome receives at the NIH (in a separate communication to Courtney) was promising.

• Read the letter from President Obama to Courtney here.

From Bob and Courtney Miller

“In an unprecedented step, President Obama has asked the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services to elevate Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in priority, assigning his Deputy Chief of Staff to follow their efforts. When President Obama promised Courtney Miller to “see if they could do more” for CFS research at a Reno Town Hall meeting last year, he was the first U.S. President to say the words Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Now he has lived up to his promise, becoming the first President ever to ask the nation’s health agencies to elevate the priority of CFS! Thank you, President Obama!

In a July 25, 2012 letter addressed to Mrs. Miller, President Obama describes a report given him by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health. The important part of the letter is the last paragraph which speaks to the future:  he has asked his Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Nancy-Ann DeParle, to “stay in touch with Dr. Collins at NIH and Dr. Koh at HHS about my interest in their efforts on CFS.” Mrs. Miller’s communications with the White House confirms that the President’s wish to have CFS elevated in priority in the Department of Health and NIH has been conveyed at the highest level.

“President Obama kept his promise in the most important way he can for CFS/ME patients,” said Courtney Miller, “by leading a stronger federal commitment to CFS/ME research and a better quality of life for patients. CFS is a health crisis for more than 1 million Americans, and President Obama has thrown in on our side!”

Source: Phoenix Rising ME/CFS website: http://phoenixrising.me