Combining Autism Telehealth and Screening Technologies for Earlier Diagnostic Assessments

Summary: This Phase IIb grant application describes a plan for demonstrating significant improvement of identifying ASD subjects at a very young age and facilitating diagnostic assessments for autism earlier via a proven telehealth service. The plan includes partnering with a private company (CHADIS) that has a substantial client base of referring pediatricians already using their technology to screen toddlers for autism. We have a novel telehealth system for remote autism diagnostic assessment called NODA™. We can add innovations including a Realtime Telemedicine module, and integration with the widely-used CHADIS™ system to provide a state-of-the-art telehealth system for pediatricians to refer at-risk young children electronically for a remote diagnostic assessment with a specialty diagnostic clinic earlier than conventional methods. This novel system will be shown to benefit subjects by providing equivalent services in a shorter time period compared to existing procedures and may also improve the current shortage of early diagnosis by qualified trained autism diagnostic clinicians. The proposed studies include enrollment of subjects in several major clinical centers and in commercial settings. If shown to be successful, the new system we call NODA Enhanced™ will benefit need for intervention services for ASD subjects at an earlier age, and regardless if families can access diagnostic assessments in person. Commercially, the combining of NODA with the widely used CHADIS system will substantially raise the opportunities for a commercially successful product.