IDEAS Team, LymeAlert, Named One of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2026!
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Winner: LymeAlert
More than 476,000 Americans contract Lyme disease every year. Untreated, it can cause arthritis, fatigue, facial paralysis, and even cardiac arrest. Early detection and treatment with antibiotics are crucial, notes Erin Dawicki, a physician assistant in Boston and co-founder and CEO of LymeAlert , the first at-home test for the tickborne pathogen that causes Lyme disease. The kit, which allows users to test a tick found on a person or pet, produces results in just 30 minutes and integrates with an app that maps where cases are rising. “It’s a story we hear over and over again from people who have been infected: their provider didn’t think they were at risk, so they didn’t test for it,” Dawicki says. “So we help patients advocate for themselves.”