There is immense joy and satisfaction watching the seedlings grow that we planted in our makeshift greenhouse in late winter and then carefully transplanted them to
prepared garden beds almost two months ago. With watering and nurturing the payoff is imminent. For the remainder of the summer and early fall, we’ll be treated to an incredible variety of tomatoes, onions, squash, peppers, and more. An epicurean delight. It’s a small garden, but we’ll share all we have.
Bateman Horne Center (BHC) has been sharing seeds of knowledge and practice experience for years looking for open and fertile medical and research minds to help cultivate, grow, and share the learnings and progress in the diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS, FM, and related comorbidities. Progress has been slow and spotty overcoming a dismissive and cynical professional community, but like the miracle of a seed, the determination to germinate and grow and harvest critical information about these debilitating illnesses, has been the hallmark of Dr. Cindy Bateman and her colleagues.
As we enter the second half of 2021, the environment and conditions for shared knowledge to take root have never been stronger. After decades of dismissal and disinterest, ME/CFS and FM are showing up in legislative requests, new federal and health agency guidelines, and in large part due to COVID Long Hauler symptoms, journalists and media in general are pursuing, broadcasting, and publishing the stories that have longed to be told.
That leverage is because of YOU. The planting of more seeds in more gardens of knowledge will yield increasingly bountiful harvests. More informed providers caring for more patients in supportive and tested ways. Your sustaining donations provide the ingredients for the payoff harvest. There is so much more to be done in provider education. BHC, like our garden, is small. But BHC’s reach through mentorships, active clinical engagement, research and educational partnerships, and the production of unique and effective programs and tools continue to extend well beyond its size. BHC effectively leverages its influence in the education of the medical, scientific, and patient communities.
BHC’s midyear fundraising campaign launches on July 12th. During the campaign watch for recent accomplishments, what’s next in 2021, and new educational assets. Please consider a donation and help us continue to plant seeds and enable the ME/CFS, FM, and post-viral community to experience the relief of a bountiful harvest.
Lucinda Bateman, MD, is a renowned clinician, researcher, and educator. Her Johns Hopkins University Medical School training instilled an approach to care that she has employed throughout her career - the patient comes first and the unknown or unexplained does not equate to a lack of proper and compassionate care. Since starting her own practice in 2000, she has served on six boards or committees, been the principal investigator for 45 studies, authored/coauthored 40 journal articles, served as adjunct instructor and adjunct assistant professor in the University of Utah Departments of Preventative Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Anesthesiology, and lectured around the world.