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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
IPM Partnership Grants |
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Project Title:
Evaluate, Engage, Educate, Empower: TickEncounter Web Portal Combining Tick Testing With Outreach |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: RI Lead Organization: University of Rhode Island |
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Cooperating State(s):
Massachusetts |
| Undesignated Funding: $19,999 |
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Start Date: Mar-01-2015 End Date: Feb-28-2016 |
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No-Cost Extension Date: Oct-31-2016 |
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Pests Involved: blacklegged ticks |
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Area of Emphasis: Outreach Communication |
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Summary:
"I just found this tick! Will I get Lyme disease?" These days, it's an all too common question in the Northeastern U.S. and across America. The TickEncounter Web Portal for Partners will be a user-friendly platform for combining tick risk assessment and testing with tick protection outreach. This new activity will link risk evaluation with education to empower TickSmart integrated tick management (ITM) actions. This emphasis, as well as access to additional engaging tick bite protection resources, has never been more critical with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now indicating that more than 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed each year across America. More generally, tickborne disease statistics show that the Northeastern states report about 90% of all human and pet cases.
The TickEncounter Web Portal for Partners is a multi-state outreach activity that will integrate the two most popular tick reporting services in America (URI's TickEncounter and UMass's TickReport) into one powerhouse outreach tool for engagement. Our hypothesis is that tick bite victims who report and evaluate the "riskiness" of their tick will become more engaged and more likely to change practices and adopt best-in-class actions provided to them through customized email notifications hyperlinked to resources on TickEncounter and the TickEncounter web portal. This new communications tool will be available for local branding to external partners, and will enable their stakeholders to benefit from the full integration of TickEncounter and TickReport services, including: * Reporting of tick bites with submitted digital image (TickSpotters) * Verifying species and duration of attachment with customized e-mail * Tools enabling submission of the biting tick for testing (TickReport) * A detailed TickReport with additional customized health messages * Simple mapping of verified data with ability to query the database * Embedding of generated maps onto partner websites to enable a uniform risk assessment and protection message Users will interact with this platform through 1) embeddable web forms that allow functionality to any existing web portal, and 2) integrated e-mail communications for rapid notifications regarding reports. Data aggregated in the system, including risk maps, will be available for use by stakeholders and researchers interested in assessing local risk or the need for taking specific tick bite preventive measures. Objectives: The goal of this NE IPM communications project is to promote evaluations of individual tick encounters by a team of experienced verifiers and tick testers in order to more effectively engage tick bite victims. We hypothesize that delivering tailored messages (educate) to engaged individuals increases personal relevance of the messages leading to a higher level of persuasion (empower) compared to mass media campaigns. We believe that ready access to recognized and reliable tick evaluation resources also will lead to continued engagement and reinforcement of best-in-class actions to reduce exposure to disease-carrying ticks. Our short-term objectives include merging access to services of both TickSpotters and TickReport into a single web portal, as well as merging the database curation for both data-gathering platforms. An additional short-term objective is to develop a simple mapping of the submitted data as well as query tools for users to access local tick encounter occurrences and tick infection rates. Intermediate-term objectives include obtaining summative feedback from web portal owners and users about their tick bite protection practices and fine-tuning tailored messages to provide the most effective tick preventive strategies and behaviors. Longer-term objectives include changing the conversation about ticks and preventing tickborne disease in communities from "what will we do?" to "we are TickSmart and we know what to do!" Specifically, this collaborative multi-state project will: 1) Create a "locally brand-able" web portal to promote TickSpotters and TickReport platforms for reporting and evaluating ticks found biting individuals and pets. Expected partners include towns, county-level health agencies, hospitals and veterinary clinics, large multi-state utility, engineering and landscape management companies, and pest control companies. 2) Create an integrated e-mail notification system with automatic and intelligent message handling (informatics). Both TickSpotters and TickReport will provide rapid responses to submitters using the same catalog of tailored messages that are customized based on the conditions of the tick encounter. 3) Provide simple mapping and query tools of verified data to better display overall and in-season tick and tickborne infection occurrence. The verified data will be aggregated and available to users through maps and location query tools accessed via the web portal. |
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Final Report: |
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Outputs Created a web- and mobile-based tool for submitting data/pictures of individual tick encounters. Developed a complete catalogue of vetted tailored messages for most tick encounters that occur in North America. Identified a ticket system software for sending personalized tailored responses to tick encounter victims. Began evaluating whether engagement increased informed best next action. |
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Outcomes Developed a method (TickSpotters crowd-sourced tick survey with tailored responses) for engaging, educating, and empowering people that have encountered a tick. Nearly 10,000 people used the service, and over 25% self-reported specifically taking one or more of the recommended TickSmart actions, including actions that cost $50 or more. |
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Impacts have not measured |
Report Appendices
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