Case Studies

Client

Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (TBDWG) Federal Advisory Committee under the supervision of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP)

Challenge

Tick-borne diseases and associated illnesses are a serious and growing public health problem in the United States. Much of the science related to tick-borne diseases remains unsettled, and efforts toward progress have been impeded by longstanding disagreement and mistrust between researchers, clinicians, and patient advocacy groups. The TBDWG’s mission was to bring representatives of these disparate groups together to assess the state of the research and provide recommendations to Congress on how to best treat patients and advance the field.

How RLA Moved Science Forward

RLA guided the development of the TBDWG 2022 Report to Congress over 16 months by initially facilitating the writing of five separate subcommittee reports, which involved convening more than 70 subcommittee meetings and six public meetings of the full TBDWG. RLA then worked with a group of subcommittee chairs to facilitate working group meetings and assist with the writing of the Report to Congress. In parallel, OIDP tasked RLA with developing the 2022 National Inventory of Tick-Borne Diseases, which captures tick-borne disease funding, programs, and related activities across participating federal, state, and private organizations.

Results

The TBDWG Report to Congress and National Inventory were delivered in early 2023. This work will directly inform the forthcoming Vector-Borne Disease National Strategy, which will unify efforts to improve the health of Americans across the nation by addressing vector-borne diseases. TBDWG members pledged to continue their work beyond the sunsetting of the committee, prompting the need for continued review of efforts across national, state, and private organizations.

Services

• Providing technical writing, editorial, design, and accessibility compliance services
• Facilitating meetings with federal agencies and stakeholders to monitor progress
• Conducting scoping literature reviews
• Creating tailored questionnaires for federal, state, and private organizations
• Analyzing and visualizing survey results