Invisible International has just released an important medical education course on neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with Lyme disease, with treatment recommendations for specific manifestations. The course is taught by Shannon Delaney, MD, MA, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and neuropsychiatrist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Other topics covered in this masterclass include:

• Review of the first large, population-based study examining the relationship between Lyme disease and psychiatric outcomes.

• Case studies that illustrate the unreliability of testing for neurological Lyme disease.

• Immune system biomarkers associated with neurological Lyme disease.

• A description of how the Lyme bacteria creates disease in humans.

The Invisible Education Initiative, funded by the Montecalvo Foundation, provides free, accredited Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses that focus on vector-borne and environmental illness within a One Health framework. These courses are available to clinicians and the public. To donate to this initiative and to learn about Invisible International, please go here.

Invisible is hosting a clinical symposium, “One Health Clinical Tools for Primary Care,” on Tuesday, March 28, at Scripps Health’s Primary Care Conference. Attendees include 250 primary care physicians from 20 U.S. states and Canada. Presenters will be Nevena Zubcevik, DO, Chief Medical Officer of Invisible International, previously co-founder and co-director of the Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School; and Elizabeth Maloney, MD, Education Co-director at Invisible, a Minnesota family physician, and the founder/president of Partnership for Tick-borne Diseases Education, a nonprofit providing evidence-based education on tick-borne diseases.

This CME-accredited course will provide an overview of the One Health framework which recognizes that the health of people, animals, and the environment are intertwined. It will use Lyme disease to illustrate this approach, using relevant peer-reviewed studies on clinical strategies.

Attendees will receive a toolkit for integrating One Health into clinical practice, which includes a validated symptom questionnaire, a risk assessment tool, and access to our online platform for AAFP-accredited medical education, supported by the Montecalvo Foundation. These tools will demonstrate how collaborations across human and animal health disciplines are essential to further developing innovative and climate-responsive clinical care.

Participation in this conference was made possible by a generous donation from the Lipman Family Foundation and Invisible's annual fund supporters.

The WHO’s One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) has published a 25-page “Theory of Change” document, designed to help organizations implement One Health solutions. The goals of this document are to help groups made up with diverse stakeholders:

• Provide policy relevant scientific assessment on the emergence of health crises arising from the human-animal-ecosystem interface, as well as research gaps.

• Guide the development of a long-term strategic approach to reducing the risk of zoonotic pandemics, with an associated monitoring and early warning framework, and the synergies needed to institutionalize and implement the One Health approach, including in areas that drive pandemic risk.

The goal of the document is to help the world prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats and improve the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment, while contributing to sustainable development.

In the 30-minute documentary, LymeLight, Olympic skier Angeli VanLaanen discusses her battle with Lyme disease which began when she was 10 years old. Suffering for years from chronic sinus infections, fainting spells, dyslexia, fatigue, and crippling body pain, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease in November 2009 and had to put her competitive halfpipe career on hold at the peak of her career.

“It’s the lowest I’ve ever felt,” VanLaanen said. “With no guarantee that treatment would relieve my symptoms, I had very little to hold on to.”

Wanting to help others, VanLaanen partnered with director John Roderick of Neu Productions to produce a revealing account of her life with Lyme.

“Our goal with LymeLight is to educate people about Lyme disease, where it comes from, what the symptoms are, and the challenges people face reclaiming their health,” says Roderick.

Angeli’s story of misdiagnosis and chronic illness is all too common, which is why Invisible International has developed a library of free online courses to educate frontline health-care workers on how to diagnose and treat tick-borne diseases.