New research from the University of Missouri has identified a tool that could be useful in diagnosing kids in rural areas of the state where specialty care is less accessible.
The study tested an existing AI medical device, called CanvasDx, to see if it was helpful in identifying and diagnosing autism in children more efficiently and expeditiously.
University of Missouri pediatrics professor Dr. Kristin Sohl said the tool utilizes videos and questionnaires uploaded by parents, as well as feedback from rural physicians to predict a positive or negative autism diagnosis.
She said the hope is that tools such as this will reduce barriers to treatment — including time, costs and traveling distance — that rural families often face.
“The idea is to build capacity, so that if you live in a smaller community you still have access to the best practices that you need or the best practices that you want to access,” Sohl said.
According to the study, the average distance that families had to travel for specialist care was 97 miles, and by keeping the care in the local communities, families were able to receive an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis 5-7 months earlier.
Sohl said they found the tool to be helpful and it never contradicted a clinician’s assessment, but it was not yet effective enough to reliably replace a clinician.
“We definitely found that the device works well,” Sohl said. “And so, one of the things that we know is that autism is diagnosed by clinical experience, and so, when you're adding an AI device, you really want to make sure that the clinician and the device are aligned.”
She said there were many times that the device could not determine a positive or negative autism spectrum diagnosis, so it returned an “indeterminate result.” According to the study, the device reliably produced determinate results for just more than half (52%) of patients.
“That doesn't replace a human to support a child and their family after the diagnosis. What I hope is that this does accelerate the actual bottleneck around diagnosis, so that we can, kind of, move on, right?” Sohl said. “Like, fine, kiddo is on the spectrum. Now what?”
Sohl said there is still more work to be done before AI tools will be taking over from providers, but these tools can help rural primary care physicians be more confident in their decision-making.
She added there are other resources for rural primary care physicians who are looking to learn more about diagnosing autism spectrum disorders, such as the ECHO Autism.
This group virtually brings together a team of 20-40 clinicians, including rural providers and autism specialists, twice a month to consult on cases and share new autism developments.
