Lyme Disease Review Panel Selected

IDSA has selected a special panel to examine whether the Society’s 2006 Lyme disease guidelines should be revised or updated based on a rigorous review of the medical and scientific evidence.

IDSA is conducting this review as part of its voluntary agreement with the Attorney General of Connecticut, who had questioned the process used by IDSA’s previous guidelines panel. It is important to note that at no point were the medical findings of IDSA’s Lyme disease guidelines panel questioned by the Connecticut investigation. All recommendations from IDSA’s 2006 practice guidelines remain in effect.

Members of the review panel were selected through an open application process to ensure that the panel as a group reflects a balanced variety of perspectives and experience. Panel members come from a broad range of relevant disciplines, including clinical experience in treating patients with Lyme disease and experience in investigating the best methods to diagnose and treat Lyme disease and other infectious diseases. In addition to conducting a thorough literature review, the panel will hold a public hearing that will be available online and will solicit additional input.

As agreed by all parties, all review panel members, including the chairperson, were screened for potential conflicts of interest and were deemed eligible by ombudsman and medical ethicist Howard Brody, MD, PhD, author of “Hooked: Ethics, the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Dr. Brody was jointly selected by IDSA and the Office of the Attorney General.

The chairperson of the review panel is Carol J. Baker, MD, an infectious diseases specialist and pediatrician with Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Dr. Baker has more than three decades of experience treating patients and is professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology, and head of the section of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She is a past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) and IDSA.

A full list of panelists is available on the IDSA website.

The Review Panel is initiating a 60-day comment period next week to allow the public to submit information to ensure that all points of view are presented and considered.Check the Lyme disease section of the IDSA website next week for more information.