Lyme disease is a frequently misunderstood illness that requires significant resources to detect and treat—resources that are lacking in Black and Brown patient communities.

When these patients are finally diagnosed, it’s being done based on neurologic and arthropathic symptoms because the more available early signs were either ignored or overlooked. In fact, many Black and Brown patients present in emergency rooms with a Lyme rash and are turned away, being told “there's nothing there.”

Complicating the issue, all the symptoms of Lyme disease (fever, chills, headaches, stomachaches, nausea, vomiting) exist in other diseases. Therefore, it can take a long time for the patient to find a doctor willing to invest the time needed to positively confirm exposure to an infected tick and accurately diagnose Lyme disease.

Working with the Global Lyme Alliance, we learned that Lyme disease is surprisingly increasing in our urban communities.

We also discovered that tell-tale Lyme rashes, which are normally easy to spot on white skin, are much more difficult to identify on Black and Brown skin.

So we're using computer vision to see what human vision cannot.

The incidence of Lyme disease is on the rise around the country, with a historic spike underway in urban areas, where many Black and Brown patients reside.

Managing dark-skinned patients with Lyme disease presents multiple challenges. Racial health disparities in the US healthcare system undermine ethnic patient outcomes in most diseases. Making matters worse, most medical training related to skin conditions has little or no representation of Black or Brown skin.

In fact, a recent study found that 1 in 3 Black patients who were newly diagnosed with Lyme disease already had related neurological complications—a sign that the disease may have been ignored initially and not caught early enough to intervene effectively.

Our strategy was to help close this significant racial gap in Lyme disease diagnosis and care by utilizing widely available smartphone camera tech (something many already have access to) to identify Lyme rashes quicker in people of color.

The power of the Lyme Bomb Detector tech is that it helps patients attain an accurate diagnosis earlier when interventions are more successful. Additionally, it helps physicians overcome their own biases by letting a computer algorithm contrast and evaluate the skin, giving physicians a sharper eye.

The execution is driven by accessibility, simplicity, and an art directional tone designed to appeal to the target demographic. Street art with a touch of graphic novel drove the art direction choices. We aimed to create an effective medical tool that didn't feel anything like a medical tool.

The Lyme Bomb Detector tool will do something that has not been done before—and that is to level the playing field when it comes to identifying and diagnosing Lyme disease among dark-skinned people.

The app is a must-have for everyone with Black or Brown skin. It gives physicians a sharper eye—and hopefully, therefore, patients a more accurate diagnosis earlier (when interventions are most successful).

The goal is to start fighting Lyme disease for people of color by going live on Apple and Google app stores by late 2022.