New Educational
Resource Available!
A
new educational webinar,
Sharpening Fibromyalgia Diagnosis and Management Skills:
Improving the Patient Experience,
is now available at www.paradigmmc.com/fibro13web. Initially
designed to educate healthcare
professionals (HCPs) about the
diagnosis and management of
fibromyalgia, this webinar is
also an invaluable resource for
patients. As a result, we are inviting everyone in the fibromyalgia and chronic-pain communities to view the webinar and
to share it with their families,
friends, and healthcare teams
to further the understanding of
fibromyalgia.
P
eople living with fibromyalgia
(FM) continue to report that
HCPs do not always take them
seriously and often misdiagnose
or do not even suspect fibromyalgia even when all of its symptoms
are present. Fibromyalgia continues to be poorly understood and
misdiagnosed by most HCPs.
T
o help bridge the knowledge
gap and increase FM awareness, NFMCPA Founder and
President, Jan Chambers, was
asked to join two physicians and
a fibromyalgia patient to create
a webinar that educates HCPs
about fibromyalgia and how to
better diagnose, manage, and
communicate with patients
about this very serious, very
real condition. The webinar was
produced by Paradigm Medical
Communications, LLC, a medical communications company
devoted to creating educational
programs for HCPs. It was
important to everyone involved
that the webinar include the
best and most current evidencebased information along with the
personal perspective of patients
living with fibromyalgia.
T
he webinar may be different
from other programs you’ve
seen about fibromyalgia. Sharpening Fibromyalgia Diagnosis and
Management Skills: Improving
the Patient Experience is actually
a certified continuing medical
education (CME) activity. Physicians and other HCPs are required to earn a certain amount
of CME credits in order to renew
their licenses, and in some cases
their certifications in particular specialties. Rules governing
CME ensure that these programs
cannot be biased toward any one
particular treatment, making
CME programming one of the
most trusted sources of information for HCPs. The program is not
about selling one particular drug,
but rather about looking at all
the options available to make the
best decisions for patients.
A
nother thing that makes
the program unique is that,
besides two expert physicians, it
includes Jan Chambers—a strong
fibromyalgia patient advocate
and someone who lives with
the illness herself—and Annette Schwind—a woman who
has coped wit