SBIR-STTR Award

This project furthers the Child Health and Development Interactive System (CHADIS). IT is a prototype interactive computer system facilitating implementation of new standards (American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines, Bright Futures, DSM-PC) for comprehensive child health check-ups, especially regarding mental health. Parents answer computer-prompted questions regarding concerns about and perceived strengths of their children. Answers are translated into DSM-PC categories of "developmental variation," "problem," or "disorder" on an electronic clinician worksheet. The worksheet provides the clinician with prompts and guides specific to the concerns, recommendations including resources and helpful products to match the provider's final diagnoses, and compiles a parent's report. Data from administration of validated clinical instruments for health and developmental screening will also be integrated, including a vision and developmental screening procedure (START) and a hearing, speech and language assessment (Communication Screening System patented). CHADIS will be refined through expert feedback from use with patients. The panel will be a model for a national network for expert consensus (grade 3 validity) with later higher level validation of effectiveness for diagnosis and treatment. The project will also assess CHADIS' profit potential through sales of recommended products and services and through use for auditing compliance with the Medicaid EDSDT program. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: It is our firm conviction that the commercial worth of this project really does rest on attaining a very high level of integrity and the trust it engenders. During health supervision visits, developmentally appropriate books and videos will be available through credit card purchase or through the library when available. Health-related products will also be available when appropriate such as bicycle helmets, appropriate environmental allergy control aids (e.g. dust-proof mattress covers and mold limiting measures). It is hard to estimate the commercial worth of these direct sales and ultimate sales through a companion web site.

The Child Health and Development Interactive System (CHADIS) is a clinical instrument aimed at facilitating comprehensive child health care. It includes: a parent inventory with algorithms which translate concerns into DSM-PC diagnoses; validated procedures for simultaneously screening for child health and development; a child inventory of perceived strengths and interests; self scoring electronic derivatives of standard tests, a mechanism for matching clinical situations with resources and products and providing individualized reports for parents. CHADIS provides a new system of ongoing provider education at the moment of the clinical encounter through patient specific prompts and guides. It also provides a system for collaborative research. At the same time CHADIS creates a new economic means of reinforcing and sustaining the broadened clinical role. Phase i provided evidence for feasibility and promising validity data for key components including a simultaneous infant physical examination/developmental screening procedure, a child perceived strengths questionnaire and the parent algorithm suggesting DSM-PC diagnoses. The resultant prototype was proven to be something almost all pediatricians are asking for and parents appreciate. We now propose to complete the initial development and validation of CHADIS, evaluate the need for refinements in various clinical settings and to further develop and test mechanisms for acquisition of revenue using CHADIS. Supplemental funding is now available to evaluate the impact of CHADIS on pediatric resident education and on mental health outcomes.

Thesaurus Terms:
biomedical automation, computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, pediatrics computer assisted diagnosis, computer assisted medical decision making, computer human interaction clinical research, human subject