Canadians* have already led the world with the 2003 Canadian Consensus Definition for ME/CFS and the first (only?) text book called,
The Clinical and Scientific Basis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ed. by Dr. Byron Hyde in 1992, which is still almost all relevant and a goldmine of information. Next year in September, 2011, in Ottawa, there will be an International Symposium on ME/CFS in which, as I understand it, they will review the XMRV (human gamma retroviral) research, update the CCD, and make their latest recommendations of clinical guidelines for physicians.
I would call this A Leadership of Intelligence.
Lydia Neilson, the Founder and CEO of the National ME-FM Action Network deserves special mention for her leadership and organizational work from the beginning, starting with Dr. Hyde's Nightingale Research Foundation, then branching off to
www.mefmaction.net
*I say Canadians, rather than the Canadian or any provincial government, because these accomplishments were led and/ or made by Canadians rather than by any governmental bodies. Some acknowledgement and help from government sources came in after the fact--kind of like what we have seen in the USA where the leadership has come from Annette Whittemore, then the WPI and only secondarily are we seeing governmental agencies helping and beginning to acknowledge this work.
Sing