#43 Patient-focused care and practitioner education with Bateman Horne Center’s, Tahlia Ruschioni

Putting patients at the heart of chronic illness care and research whilst supporting and educating practitioners, to develop robust, proven pathways and positive outcomes for those with ME/CFS, Long Covid, Fibromyalgia, EDS and related conditions.

Tahlia Ruschioni is Executive Director at the Bateman Horne Center (BHC), a relatively small center with an incredibly powerful reach, who are bringing decades of complex chronic illness understanding to build a global network of practitioners to support complex needs.

Rooted in a deep history of treating ME/CFS, BHC has used that understanding to reach a far wider population. As Education Director, Tahlia developed multiple programmes and a global model for clinician education and training in post-infectious illness care. Through its Medical Education Resource Center (MERC), BHC has now reached over 13,000 healthcare professionals across all 50 U.S. states and 90 countries.

Tahlia led the development of BHC’s Clinical Care Guide, giving clinicians a framework for treating ME/CFS, Long COVID, dysautonomia and mast cell activation using proven knowledge, existing licensed medications and well-understood techniques. Drawing on decades of expertise from some of Visible’s favourite clinicians, including Dr Lucinda Bateman, Melanie Hoppers and Amy Mooney, it is practical, thoughtful and an incredible resource for patients to take to their own clinicians.

Tahlia has also overseen a wealth of videos and printable resources, including What is ME/CFS?, What is Orthostatic Intolerance?, and Overcoming Barriers to Access Care, for patients, carers and the wider community. The Life with a Low Battery: Living with ME/CFS that is referenced in the conversation shows how carefully BHC considers patients’ different sensory needs.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Tahlia’s family’s experience of ME/CFS led her to the Bateman Horne Center
• Why BHC trains every provider to meet patients with respect, curiosity and time
• BHC’s multimodal approach to medical education
• Why lived-experience shapes every resource the BHC produces
• Writing ME/CFS standards of care into medical licensing
• How Long COVID has opened doors for ME/CFS research
• The importance of consistent definitions for e.g. post-exertional malaise (PEM)
• Why funding and care must support the whole patient, including living costs, medication access and help at home

BHC’s work with Federation of State Medical Boards, alongside its ever-expanding practitioner training, has the potential to change medical education for ME/CFS and Long COVID at a systems level. BHC packs more punch than most organisations its size. If you’d like to support its work, please consider donating here.

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