Recent Grants

International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society (ILADS)

ILADS is an interdisciplinary group of physicians and researchers dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. To date, the Foundation has granted $237,000 to ILADS for two specific programs. The first program is for a media campaign to educate the public and physicians on Lyme disease treatment and to provide the best care for patients. The second program is a physician-training program. Lastly, we are excited to support the upcoming research project of renowned researcher Alan MacDonald. He will be researching the development of a DNA-based test for the detection of Lyme Borreliosis.

The media campaign launched with the hiring of a medical writer to generate coverage regarding Lyme disease. The hard work of the medical writer and the campaign over the past year has made a significant impact, including several published articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post, brochures and other resources created for physicians, extensive print, radio and television media exposure and the enlistment of Amy Tan as a champion of the Lyme community. The estimated readers/viewers of these ILADS stories are close to 11 million.

Educating the public and the medical community is key to fighting the disease. The updated guidelines for physicians are a much-needed advancement, as many physicians don't know how to recognize Lyme disease and have to rely on outdated diagnosis and treatment information. By the time they're correctly diagnosed, some people with Lyme disease are in the chronic stage, making treatment much more difficult. Lyme disease can cause health complications ranging from seizures to retinitis to sudden cardiac death.

The physician-training program that TTC funded enables physicians from all over the world to have a unique opportunity to train with Lyme-literate physicians. Recently, Dr. Joseph Burrascano of East Hampton, a world-renowned expert in Lyme disease, has trained Dr. David Owen of Wales as well as Dr. Ann Corson of Mendenhall, PA. This program enables hands-on physician training so that they can bring the knowledge back to their community to help further educate the world about the disease.

In early 2005, the Foundation approved a grant to advance the standard of care and understanding between ILADS and the medical staff of major insurance carriers in the state of Pennsylvania. It is our hope that this project will serve as a model that can be used by other states to help insurance coverage for chronic Lyme disease patients throughout the nation.