Focus Areas

Execute human-centered design methods in identifying, developing, and implementing innovative advancements in Lyme disease care.

LymeX is exploring how collaborative partnership models can best support stakeholder engagement. For example, the Health+ approach pinpoints challenges from the patient’s point of view to identify and map development of new tools and technological solutions.

In close collaboration with stakeholders, LymeX:

• Builds capacity for effective, efficient communication among patients, stakeholders, and HHS
• Identifies common challenges in patient and healthcare provider experiences
• Holds roundtables to outline possible improvements and solutions
• Pilots and tests solution prototypes with patients and scales what works

Focus on innovative health education that brings light to tick-borne disease prevention using open innovation methods. 

LymeX supports innovative health education and public awareness initiatives that focus on Lyme disease. The challenges posed by Lyme disease require fresh thinking and novel approaches.

Novel ideas can come from crowdsourcing, citizen science, innovation sprints, technology sprints, and even “Healthathons.” A Healthathon is like a hackathon but with a healthcare focus. Community, provider, and stakeholder groups come together in an environment where targeted Lyme disease challenges can be solved.

Like a hackathon, ideas move quickly to prototype so they can be validated and accelerated into innovative solutions that truly meet the needs of people living with Lyme disease.

Prize challenges open to universities, non-profits, and private sector for cross-sector, next-gen diagnostic innovations. 

LymeX prize challenges encourage rapid, cross-sector, patient-centered diagnostic innovations. These challenges drive creators, industries, and academia toward breakthroughs in more accurate Lyme diagnosis, helping make next-generation diagnostics available more quickly. 

During 2021 and the early part of 2022, LymeX worked in partnership with the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, collaborating with NASA CoECI, to develop a multiyear, multiphase competition to accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostics. The ultimate goal of the multiphase competition is to nurture the development of these diagnostics toward Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review.