Early Diagnostic Telehealth Pilot for Moderate- and High-risk Children: Evaluating Protocols for Children in Georgia's Early Intervention Program
Emory University
Summary
This pilot study includes children identified as moderate- as well as high-risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within Georgia's Babies Can't Wait (BCW) Early Intervention (EI) program. The project will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and implementation of a diagnostic protocol, including optional measures, through measures of recruitment, retention, adherence, provider confidence, and time from referral to report completion. It will also examine which child diagnostic measures are essential and needed to improve psychologists' diagnostic confidence. Caregiver, early intervention provider, and clinician experiences and satisfaction before, during, and after assessment will be assessed to evaluate protocol acceptability, knowledge, and access to services. Outcomes will be analyzed using the RE-AIM Framework (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance) and compared across BCW districts and child characteristics, including changes in autism screening, referral, and evaluation rates over time.
Description
The objective of this study is to develop, pilot, and evaluate a telehealth diagnostic protocol for assessing toddlers identified as moderate- or high-risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within Georgia's Babies Can't Wait (BCW) Early Intervention (EI) program. Many BCW children with moderate- or high-risk screening results face long wait times and limited access to diagnostic evaluations. This pilot will evaluate how many of these assessments can be completed entirely via a streamlined telehealth protocol and the level of diagnostic confidence achieved. It is hypothesized that the EDRM-E…