AI, telehealth & sensor-based technologies facilitate autism diagnosis

ABSTRACT

[...]individuals in low-income communities and minorities have limited access to services necessary to diagnose ASD.4 Only 60% of pediatricians screen children for developmental delays despite the recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to perform screenings at 18- and 24-month well visits. Screening for ASD Pediatricians have a plethora of ASD screening tools available, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales, the Parents Evaluation of Developmental Status, the Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers and Young Children, and M-CHAT-R/F. Over the past few years, several AI-related technologies have been developed to improve medical care.10 Addition ally, investigators have had some promising results using sensors to analyze facial expressions, vocalizations, touch sensitivity, eye tracking, movements, and interactions with robots to try to identify children with ASD. A study published in March 2020 validated Cognoa's system on 375 patients over the course of 2 years, indicating that the system could identify children with ASD with sensitivity and specificity as high as 90% and 83%, respectively.18 More recently, the company completed a double-blind clinical trial at 14 sites around the United States, using an improved algorithm to gather data for submission to the FDA.