Web-based tool diagnoses autism quickly

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have significantly reduced the time it takes to diagnose autism, completing a process that now takes hours in a matter of minutes. The process of diagnosing autism is complex, subjective and often limited to only a segment of the population in need. Dennis Wall, associate professor of pathology and director of computational biology initiative at the Center for Biomedical Informatics, has been working to address this problem. He has been developing algorithms and associated deployment mechanisms to detect autism rapidly and with high accuracy. The algorithms are designed to work within a mobile architecture, combining a small set of questions and a short home video of the subject, to enable rapid online assessments. This procedure could reduce the time for autism diagnosis by nearly 95 percent and be easily integrated into routine child screening practices.