The author, Dr. Sharief Taraman, CEO of Cognoa, suggests several solutions to address the crisis. These include policy changes to expand the available workforce and change reimbursement models, and embracing technological innovations such as AI and telehealth. He emphasizes the need for responsible AI trained on population-representative datasets to provide accurate, equitable evaluations, and the use of telehealth and mobile apps to improve healthcare accessibility. He also suggests providing physicians with pre-loaded smartphones to quickly implement AI-based medical devices in practice.
Key takeaways:
- There is a crisis in diagnosing developmental delays and early signs of autism in children due to long wait times, workforce shortages, and lack of diagnostic centers.
- The current process for assessing developmental delays is complicated and time-consuming, and costs and reimbursement issues often exclude disadvantaged families.
- There are actionable steps to improve the situation, including changing policy to expand the workforce, changing reimbursement models, and embracing technological innovations.
- Technologies such as AI, telehealth, and mobile apps can help in providing accurate, equitable evaluations, increasing healthcare accessibility, and saving time in the diagnosis process.