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NIH workshop meant to serve only as "snapshot"—overview by Dr. Mangan

Dr. Dennis Mangan, who holds the position of Health Scientist Administrator at the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) at the NIH, delivered a synopsis of the recent NIH State of Knowledge workshop. First and foremost, Dr. Mangan wanted to clarify that the NIH workshop was meant to serve as a "snapshot" of where things stood in 2011.

The goal of the NIH workshop was to identify gaps and opportunities in knowledge and research about ME/CFS since the previous workshop, which was held in 2003. Dr. Mangan further reported that the workshop was not meant to meet any research-generating agenda, nor was it intended to target any specific aspect of ME/CFS. Lastly, he explained how it was deliberately designed to have an overlap of topics, without any break-outs (by panelists), which would consequently encourage networking amongst researchers from different fields. It may also help to create more effective partnering between various health departments, something which does not happen very often, according to Dr. Mangan. A final report of the NIH workshop has been drafted and is currently under review.