Local pediatric surgeon demonstrates home tick test and urges prompt care after bites

Erin Joiecki, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who lives in Halifax, demonstrated a prototype home tick-crushing device and rapid pathogen test at a Halifax Beautification Committee meeting and urged residents to “test the tick and don’t toss it.” Joiecki said the device and companion app are meant to help people know when to seek care promptly after a tick bite.

Joiecki described personal and clinical motivation for the project, recounting a 12‑year‑old patient she diagnosed with Lyme arthritis after the family delayed care for cost reasons. She said current diagnostics miss many early infections: “blood tests miss 64 to 70 percent of the cases within the first 30 days after a bite,” she said, and added that mailing ticks to a lab often does not return results within the CDC’s recommended 72‑hour window for considering antibiotics.

The device Joiecki demonstrated is a compact ‘tick crusher’ designed to expose the tick’s gut contents so a lateral‑flow test strip can detect pathogens. Users put the tick into the chamber, add buffer, snap the lid and twist to crush; a control line confirms the test worked and a second line indicates the presence of a pathogen. Joiecki said the design—developed with her husband and MIT collaborators—uses angled teeth to handle ticks of any life stage.

To help read faint results, the project includes a computer‑vision app that photographs the strip and interprets weak lines for people with low vision or color‑blindness. Joiecki also described a telehealth pathway: when a strip reads positive, the user can consult a clinician via telehealth to evaluate timing and clinical context rather than waiting days for mailed lab results.

Joiecki framed the project as a public‑health tool as well as a consumer product. She said her team sends ticks to an MIT lab for pathogen identification and hotspot mapping, then overlays lab results with satellite and animal‑migration data to predict where pathogens might spread. She named collaborators who previously worked on large public‑health and mapping efforts and said the initiative aims to build neighborhood‑level maps, starting with Halifax.

During a community Q&A, residents asked about prevention (repellents, clothing and yard practices), how to remove embedded ticks, whether household laundry eliminates ticks, and the safety of pet tick medications. Joiecki advised EPA‑registered repellents with DEET, immediate showering and a careful tick check, and removal by grasping as close to the skin as possible and pulling straight up. She cautioned against burning or digging at a tick and recommended cleaning the site with soap and water.

Joiecki emphasized practical limits of existing options: some mail‑in tests exist (she referenced programs at UMass Amherst and the University of Rhode Island), but those services can be too slow for the 72‑hour prophylaxis window the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends after removing an engorged tick. She said the new approach is designed to provide faster, locally actionable information and to bridge access gaps through telehealth.

The presentation closed with Joiecki offering to distribute free tick‑removal cards and educational materials; the committee then moved into audience questions and informal discussion. No formal motions or votes were taken at the meeting.