In Other News…

During my little hiatus from typing last month, I did come across some interesting news for the future of diagnosing children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that I wanted to share. I read an online article in June from Medscape Medical News that the FDA approved marketing for a device that will help diagnose ASD in children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years who exhibit potential symptoms associated with ASD.

Given my experience with finding it difficult to get a diagnosis for my child several years ago, I hope that this device will help future children get support earlier in their journey. The device is called Cognoa ASD Diagnosis Aid and it is a machine learning-based software program that receives information from parents/caregivers along with video analysts and healthcare providers input to assist physicians in evaluating whether a child is at risk of having autism. While nothing is perfect, it is nice to see progress in the area of diagnostics. Please note that the Cognoa ASD Diagnosis Aid is only meant to be an aid to the diagnostic process and is not to be used as the only method of evaluating a child with the possible diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Hope you enjoyed reading about an advancement in this space. Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!