From the Desk

of Dr. Kenneth Friedman,

Executive Board - Secretary

Chairman Public Policy Committee

Dr. Friedman has been very busy as one of our medical provider educational speaker as well as local, national and international advocacy spokesperson.

Click below for a very important power point presentation by Dr. Kenneth Friedman that was made on Saturday, January 19, 2008, titled The Positive Side of Lyme, at the Similarities and Paradoxes in Chronic Illness Medical Conference hosted by the University of South Florida (USF) and sponsored by the Lanford Foundation - Lifelyme, Inc. at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, St. Petersburg, FL

Click here for the Power Point Presentation of the Positive Side of Lyme

Click here for the written presentation of the Positive Side of Lyme (coming soon)

Other essays and presentation by Dr. Friedman:

Fish or War - Background Information for The CFSAC Research Recommendations, “Fish or War?” by Kenneth J. Friedman, Ph.D.
June 16, 2004. - Click here for article on PDF.

This is an eye opening article regarding the state of CFS research at the National Health Institutes (NHI).  A must read for CFS patient advocates!

April 11, 2008 presentation at the Everglades AHEC – Florida Department of Health Nurse Training by Kenneth Friedman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia: Similarities, Differences, and Overlap.

May 6, 2008 - Presentation to the CFS Advisory Committee on the New Jersey CFS Association Scholarship as well as announcing P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s community grants which includes several scholarships for Neuroendocrineimmune Disorders with special allocation for 2 CFS-ME scholarships for medical students.

May 8, 2008, 12:00 pm - Guest speaker at the Fibromyalgia Awareness Month in New Jersey at the State House, Trenton, NJ, Committee Room 12, State House Annex, 4th floor.

To check P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s Awareness Day/Month for Neuroendocrineimmune Disorders throughout S. Florida and beyond click here.

Golf Fore A Cause! Swing Fore a Cure! (as reported by Marly Silverman)

May 23, 2008 – Marly Silverman, Founder and Dr. Kenneth Friedman, our  Chairman, Public Policy, addressed and thanked the corporate benefactors/sponsors of our first Annual Golf Classic - Golf Fore A Cause! Swing Fore a Cure.

During this presentation Dr. Friedman proudly displayed the check in the amount of $1,050.00 for the Dr. Kenneth Friedman Medical  Student Scholarship donated by P.A.N.D.O.R.A. to the Vermont CFIDS Association in his honor.  This is a 5 year scholarship disbursed yearly to deserving medical students to encourage them to be educated, to treat and practice in the area of neuroendocrineimmune disorders. The education has to start early in their medical career.

During our Golf Classic a check for $5,000.00 was also donated to the University of Miami, CFS-GWS Clinical Research Center for Dr. Nancy Klimas as well as a check i/a/o $2,000.00  to the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME for a medical/research scholarship honoring Dr. Nancy Klimas.

A grant for $1,000.00 was given to the CFIDS Association of America Inc., for their advocacy and educational programs. Future grants for medical student scholarships will be consolidated and hopefully disbursed in the upcoming months.

A grant for travel expenses was also disbursed to Cort Johnson, one of P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s Advocate Extraordinaire, and founder & publisher of the newsletter Phoenix Rising. The grant will allow him to attend the June medical symposium hosted by the HHV-6 foundation so he can report to our overall community. On May 12, Cort interviewed Tom Hennessey, Jr., one of the pioneers of our advocacy community. It was a very dynamic interview and Cort delivered Tom's "in your face" message with respect, courtesy and open minded fairness.

P.A.N.D.O.R.A. has decided to follow this strategy because of the serious lack of medical providers available to treat chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Gulf War syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities and chronic Lyme disease (neuroendocrineimmune  disorders). This grant strategy will also allow organizations and Advocates Extraordinaire© to have access to funding to continue and or to expand their own beneficial initiatives allowing our entire community to continue to thrive. It is part of our overall mission to establish partnerships to ensure our advocacy community remains strong and efficient.

The Golf Classic on May 23, 2008 raised $100,000.00 (gross) and with a large in kind grant donation by Google of $120,000.00 for awareness and outreach campaign (advertisement), we reached $227,000.00 and we are still counting.  Net proceeds (roughly 75%) of the funds raised will be applied towards our 2008 yearly educational, advocacy and medical training provider programs and the administrative costs necessary to keep us in operation. Until this event we haven't have andy paid staff supporting our day to day managemetn, but our growth is requiring us to take the next step and evaluate the management of our offices and efforts. We have had only volunteer staff, including our board membership, supporting our mission.

GOLF FORE A CAUSE! SWING FORE A CURE!

We are extremely grateful to JC Calleiro, Chair of our Golf Committee, to our Volunteers Extraordinaire©, and most of all a huge & sincere gratitude to our corporate benefactors! The event was a huge sucess because they demonstrated a generous and genuine caring concern for our community supporting our first major fund raising effort!

SPECIAL MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT!

June 11, 2008

The CFS/FMS  Empowerment Group did not schedule a meeting for June 08 as they decided to take June/July/August off during the summer. But then a great opportunity presented when P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s founder wanted to honor Rabbi Ivan Wachmann who will be retiring from his positions as the spiritual leader and rabbi of Temple Sholom and is currently one of the members of the Board of Trustees of Holy Cross Hospital.

P.A.N.D.O.R.A. asked Dr. Kenneth Friedman, former CFS Advisory Committee member, P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s Public Policy Chairman & Secretary to be one of the presenters in the meeting listed above and the group moderator then asked him to participate in a special meeting too scheduled from 2:30-3:30 pm.

Other distinguished presenting doctors during the June 11 meeting: Dr. Alan Niederman, internal medicine, cardiologist, at and Dr. Cristina Mata, an endocrinologist specializing in diabetes management. They are both Holy Cross Hospital physicians.

Holy Cross Hospital CEO John Jonhson and Sister Rita Levasseur, will also share with the audience the community presence impact of Holy Cross Hospital in South Florida.

So here it is a wonderful opportunity for anyone who has a neuroendocrineimmune disorder or cares for someone, to attend a great meeting! Dr. Friedman's presentation is titled: Breaking the Silence and the Myths on Neuroendocrineimmune Disorders. He will be making two presentation one at the meeting above listed and then be available for a short presentation and a Q& A session specially for the group members.

Email: Kenneth Friedman, Ph.D., Secretary, Chairman, Public Policy