· This page provides information for medical personnel (doctors and nurses) about assisting patients to enrol into our NHMRC-funded research project Troublesome Ticks, a study into the aetiology, pathophysiology, clinical syndromes and progression of tick-associated illness in Australia.
· If your patient has a tick attached to them, our project requires that the tick is removed as soon as possible (and kept for the study), and a skin punch biopsy and blood samples are also collected.
· If your medical practice is not registered with us for the project and you would like to register, please call our Project Manager (Michelle) on 1300 817070.
· If your medical practice is not registered with us and you need more information immediately to enrol a patient in this research project, please call our Project Manager (Michelle) on 1300 817070. We will send you immediately by email or fax:
o All necessary instructions for enrolling the person,
o Copies of the patient information and consent form for the person to complete,
o Detailed instructions for sample collection at your clinic or local pathology centre, and
o Pathology Submission forms
· Our Project Manager will be able to answer any questions and will advise you about patient enrolment and sample collection.
· You should kill the tick as soon as possible, as it will take a short time for our Project Manager to email you detailed instructions. We advise the tick is frozen with an ether spray such as ‘Tick Off or ‘Wart Off’:
PLEASE DO NOT DISCARD THE TICK – WE NEED IT FOR OUR RESEARCH!!! The tick will die immediately it is sprayed. Please then carefully remove it with a pair of forceps and place it into a sterile jar, or a small container with 70% ethanol/surgical spirit if you have some. Our Project Manager can advise.
· Once you have received all the documents by email/fax, please arrange for a skin biopsy and blood samples to be collected (as detailed in the documents)
· We have arrangements with certain pathology services nationwide who can assist with sample collection.
· We also ask for a blood sample (not biopsy) from another patient, similar to the tick-bitten patient, to act as a "control" – our project manager will discuss this with you.
