Kenneth Friedman

Kenneth J. Friedman, PhD, is a retired Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ, Newark, New Jersey. He was a trainer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Continuing Medical Education Course and delivered continuing medical education courses to physicians and other healthcare professionals throughout the United States. After the CDC discontinued its continuing medical education course for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, he developed his own continuing medical education course for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, approved by the American Academy of Family Physicians, and delivered that program to physicians around the U.S. He retired after he was denied promotion, officially reprimanded, and subjected to an ethics investigation, merely for researching ME/CFS at a medical school that did not include ME/CFS in its curriculum. His passion for ME/CFS advocacy is fueled by the fact that his daughter has CFS and fibromyalgia after getting mononucleosis her freshman year in college.

Advocacy

Boards

Dr. Friedman has served on the Board of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME) and is a Trustee of the New Jersey ME/CFS Association (NJMECFSA). Dr. Friedman was, also, the Secretary and Chair of Public Policy for PANDORA Org and an advisor to the website cfsKnowledgebase. He is currently serving as a Board member of both the New Jersey ME/CFS Association and the The Vermont CFIDS Association.

CFSAC

From 2003-2006, he served on the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as a member of the Research Committee. During his term, he wrote a Research Committee minority report entitled, “Fish Or War." In it he argues that the National Institutes of Health had not solved CFS in the past 15 or 20 years, so new "more aggressive funding elements should be incorporated into the United States’ future funding of CFS research."

In 2014, he was the Sub-group Chair of the CFSAC Working Group justifying the establishment and funding of ME/CFS Centers of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Open letter to The Lancet

Two open letters to the editor of The Lancet urged the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal had published in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Friedman, along with 41 colleagues in the ME/CFS field, signed the second letter.

• 10 February 2016, An open letter to The Lancet, again - Virology blog

Writing committees

Dr. Friedman was a member of the writing committee for several primers and manuals, including:

• 2002, Consensus Manual for the Primary Care and Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sponsored by The Academy of Medicine of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. The authored the first chapter "Pathophysiology in CFS" and co-authored chapter 3, "Infections in CFS," and chapter 10, "Gastrointestinal Symptoms in CFS."

• 2006, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children and Adolescents

• 2012 and 2014 editions of ME/CFS: A Primer for Clinical Practitioners sponsored by the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis- (Full text)

• 2017, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer by Peter C. Rowe, Rosemary A. Underhill, Kenneth J. Friedman, Alan Gurwitt, Marvin S. Medow, Malcolm S. Schwartz, Nigel Speight, Julian M. Stewart, Rosamund Vallings and Katherine S. Rowe - (Full Text)

Speaking engagements

• May 12, 2007 - Dr. Friedman presented the keynote speech at The Vermont CFIDS Association CFS Awareness Day held in Burlington, VT.

• April 28, 2011 - The National Institutes of Health invited Dr. Friedman to the NIH-Sponsored ME/CFS State of Knowledge Workshop, where he delivered a speech: "Elephants in the Room: Acknowledging Impediments to ME-CFS Research, Education, and Clinical Care"

• March 21, 2014 - Dr. Friedman presented a talk entitled "Home-Based Self-Management for Severe CFS/ME:  A Randomized Trial" at the IACFSME conference in San Francisco.
• Oct 3, 2019 - "Advances in ME CFS Research and Clinical Care" sponsored by Solve ME/CFS Initiative

Articles

• After the Institute of Medicine report was released, Dr. Friedman wrote a review in which he states:

"The report was written to develop a series of recommendations to assist in the development of policies that will guide future ME/CFS research, education and patient support. The IOM report needs to be placed in the broader ME/CFS environment. Additional input regarding the historical, medical, social and research environment of ME/CFS needs to be received by the Department of Health and Human Services prior to the development of new ME/CFS policies and initiatives. That input should be provided by responsible ME/CFS researchers, clinicians, healthcare educators, patient advocacy organizations, patients, social scientists and social services organizations. Only then can the correct path forward for ME/CFS be projected."

• On Oct 13, 2016, Dr. Friedman wrote a position paper, "Increasing Efficacy of the CDC’s ME/CFS Educational Program" about the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) fourth attempt of revising and creating meaningful educational materials for its Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) educational program so as to not contain illness stigmatizing elements.
• Aug 2019, Editorial: Advances in ME/CFS Research and Clinical Care - (Full text)

Notable studies

• 2017, Access to Medical Care for Individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Call for Centers of Excellence - (Full Text)

Talks and interviews

• 2011, Radio interview with Dr. Ken Friedman
• 2014, Rituximab & ME/CFS
• 2014, ME/CFS: Why Do I Feel This Way
• 2014, ME/CFS What We Know About Causes
• 2014, Biomarkers
• 2016, Immune Dysfunction (ME/CFS) Awareness Panel 2016
• 2021, Physical & Occupational Therapy for ME/CFS and Similar Chronic Illnesses

See also

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee
• New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association (NJCFSA)
• Vermont CFIDS Association
• Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer

Learn more

• Interview with Cort Johnson
• "Fish Or War"