Brimmer, Dana J, McCleary, K Kimberly, Lupton, Teresa A et al. · BMC medical education · 2008 · DOI
This study tested whether training primary care doctors about ME/CFS could help more patients get diagnosed and treated. Researchers trained 79 doctors and nurse practitioners to recognize and manage ME/CFS, and these trained providers then taught over 2,000 other healthcare workers. The training improved doctors' knowledge and confidence in diagnosing ME/CFS, showing that education programs can help address the problem of missed diagnoses.
Only 20% of ME/CFS patients receive a diagnosis, and many healthcare providers lack training in recognizing the disease. This study demonstrates that structured education can improve provider knowledge and confidence in diagnosing ME/CFS, potentially reducing the diagnostic gap and improving patient care. The findings inform best practices for expanding provider awareness and could accelerate the path to diagnosis for thousands of undiagnosed patients.
This study does not establish that increased provider training actually leads to increased patient diagnoses or improved clinical outcomes—it only measures provider knowledge and confidence. The study does not evaluate whether trained providers subsequently changed their clinical practice or whether patients benefited from the training. It cannot determine causation between training and actual diagnostic or treatment improvements in real-world practice.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Brimmer, Dana J, McCleary, K Kimberly, Lupton, Teresa A, Faryna, Katherine M, Hynes, Kevin, & Reeves, William C (2008). A train-the-trainer education and promotion program: chronic fatigue syndrome--a diagnostic and management challenge.. BMC medical education. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-8-49
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-brimmer-2008-train-trainer,
author = {Brimmer, Dana J and McCleary, K Kimberly and Lupton, Teresa A and Faryna, Katherine M and Hynes, Kevin and Reeves, William C},
title = {A train-the-trainer education and promotion program: chronic fatigue syndrome--a diagnostic and management challenge.},
journal = {BMC medical education},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1186/1472-6920-8-49},
note = {PubMed: 18922184},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brimmer-2008-train-trainer},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brimmer-2008-train-trainer
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