Evaluation of a novel tablet/game-based diagnostic support tool for the early detection of autism

评估用于早期发现自闭症的新型平板电脑/基于游戏的诊断支持工具

• 批准号: 10027143
• 金额: $ 34.5万
• 依托单位: BRIGHTLOBE LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10027143
• 关键词: Evaluation; novel; tablet; game; based

Autism spectrum disorders affect 2% of children across the UK, and 1% of the global population. Children with ASD require ongoing support from educational, healthcare and social systems. This amounts to £3.1 billion each year. Per family, lifelong support costs are £1 million.Earlier diagnoses can significantly improve long-term outcomes for patients and reduce ongoing systemic and familial support costs -- by making it possible to introduce interventions earlier. However, 78% of children referred for autism assessments did not have a first appointment recorded in Q4 FY2020/2021\. Only 12% began the assessment process within 13 weeks.When parents of children with ASD are asked about their experiences, they say: "\[I\] had to put up with all the fights and battles and it took 4 years for a diagnosis," and "I feel if we had not pushed past the teacher to get an assessment done... both of my kids could have fallen through the cracks quite easily."These challenges exist in part because: there are differences in the behavioural expression of autism due to sex (i.e. the female autism phenotype); ethnic/racial disparities in reporting concerns about ASD leading to later diagnosis in some groups; and bottlenecks exist within public health services due to rising demand.As a small, experienced, credible and trusted technology company, Brightlobe meets the needs of patients and healthcare providers through an innovative medical device that facilitates earlier diagnosis of ASD and continuous monitoring of patients.Brightlobe's device integrates novel neuropsychological tasks, immersive technologies and machine learning for a highly-sensitive diagnostic support tool. Long-term, it is designed to meet the existing healthcare challenge by improving accessibility to ASD assessments; enabling remote monitoring; and enhancing diagnostic sensitivity thereby improving outcomes for the child.This tool will potentially reduce associated public healthcare costs by 68% and private patient costs by 84%.The technology is being co-developed with patient focus groups, leading UK/US developmental-behavioural paediatricians and commercial partners.The feasibility of the tool has already been confirmed alongside a SEND (special educational needs and disabilities centre) in a North London school. To move into the next stage of technology readiness, we must now conduct a preliminary technical evaluation.This project is designed to establish a baseline for performance on the assessment, examines its psychometric properties, and explore its utility as a tool to discover biomarkers for ASD.

自闭症谱系障碍影响了英国2%的儿童，以及全球1%的人口。患有自闭症的儿童需要来自教育、医疗保健和社会制度的持续支持。这相当于每年31亿GB。每个家庭的终身支持成本为100万GB。早期诊断可以显著改善患者的长期结果，并通过使更早引入干预措施成为可能，降低持续的系统和家庭支持成本。然而，78%被转介进行自闭症评估的儿童在2020/2021财年第四季度没有记录首次预约。只有12%的人在13周内开始了评估过程。当自闭症儿童的父母被问及他们的经历时，他们说：“我不得不忍受所有的争吵和斗争，花了4年时间才得到诊断。”以及“我觉得如果我们没有超过老师去完成评估……我的两个孩子本可以很容易地陷入困境。“这些挑战的存在部分是因为：由于性别导致的自闭症的行为表现存在差异(即女性自闭症表型)；在报告对自闭症的担忧方面存在种族/种族差异，导致某些群体后来被诊断；作为一家小型、经验丰富、可信和值得信赖的技术公司，Brightlobe通过一种创新的医疗设备来满足患者和医疗保健提供者的需求，该设备有助于ASD的早期诊断和对患者的持续监测。Brightlobe的设备集成了新的神经心理学任务、沉浸式技术和机器学习，以实现高度敏感的诊断支持工具。从长远来看，它旨在通过改善对自闭症评估的可获得性、启用远程监控并增强诊断敏感性从而改善儿童的预后来应对现有的医疗挑战。该工具可能会将相关的公共医疗成本降低68%，私人患者成本降低84%。该技术正在与患者焦点小组、领先的英国/美国发展行为儿科医生和商业合作伙伴共同开发。该工具的可行性已在伦敦北部一所学校的SEND(特殊教育需求和残疾中心)得到确认。为了进入技术准备的下一个阶段，我们现在必须进行初步的技术评估。该项目旨在为评估的表现建立一个基线，检查其心理测量学特性，并探索其作为发现ASD生物标志物的工具的效用。