The author composition is made up of representatives from IDSA, AAN, and ACR with representation from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics - Committee on Infectious Diseases (AAP-COID), American Academy of Pediatrics - Section on Emergency Medicine (AAP-EM), American College of Physicians (ACP), Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - Canada (AMMI-CA), Child Neurology Society (CNS), Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), Entomological Society of America (ESA), and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). Members representing the disciplines of cardiology, microbiology, pathology, and a methodologist with expertise in GRADE are also included. Finally, the panel includes a healthcare consumer representative, three patients with confirmed Lyme disease, and a parent of a pediatric patient with confirmed Lyme disease.
The societies are utilizing the IDSA guideline development process which includes the widely accepted GRADE methodology and are adhering to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines. These rigorous standards are meant to assure objective, transparent, and scientifically valid systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines.
In 2015 the guideline panel held a public comment period requesting input on its project plan that laid the ground work for new Lyme Disease Guidelines. The panel has published its response to the input received during the public comment period.
Please note the following project personnel changes:
- A team at Tufts Medical will now develop the systematic review of this topic, as the medical librarians that had been working on the project were unable to sustain the volume of work related to the guideline.
- Due to personal and professional reasons unrelated to the nature of this specific guideline, panel member Dr. Charles Ericsson has resigned from the panel and will not be replaced.
- As a matter of course, Dr. Cameron Wolfe (IDSA Standards and Practice Guidelines Committee (SPGC) liaison to the Panel) rotated off the SPGC and has been replaced by new SPGC member Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet.
What happens next?
After a draft of the full guideline is developed, it will be posted on the IDSA website for a 45-day public comment period. Additional information on the timing and availability of this draft will be posted to the IDSA website.