Journal article
Short report: Autism diagnostic impressions in young children formed by primary care clinicians and through telemedicine expert assessments
Autism : the international journal of research and practice
08 Jul 2025
PMID: 40629680
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Formal autism diagnosis is often critical for children to access early, autism-specific services and supports. However, barriers to traditional in-person evaluations, including long waitlists, delay diagnosis. The goal of the current study was to compare diagnostic impressions (i.e. clinical judgments) made by primary care clinicians and autism experts conducting brief telehealth sessions, with expert diagnosis from in-person gold-standard evaluations. Participants were toddlers ( n = 32, age 12–36 months) referred for any developmental concerns by four primary care clinicians from one pediatric practice in the United States. Primary care clinicians indicated their diagnostic classification and families then completed telehealth evaluations and in-person evaluations with one of five autism diagnostic expert clinicians. When primary care clinicians classified a child as having definite autism ( n = 11), they were 100% accurate, but only 57% accurate when they indicated a child definitely did not have autism. Experts providing classification after a telehealth evaluation accurately classified 72% of children and were confident in the diagnosis for 55% of cases. In high-confidence cases, telehealth diagnosis matched final diagnosis 88% of the time. These findings indicate that when primary care clinicians believe a toddler is autistic, or when autism experts indicate autism telehealth classification with confidence, the child should begin receiving autism-specific services and supports right away.
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Details
- Title
- Short report: Autism diagnostic impressions in young children formed by primary care clinicians and through telemedicine expert assessments
- Creators
- Andrea Trubanova Wieckowski (Corresponding Author) - Drexel UniversityAshley de Marchena - Drexel UniversityAlexia F Dickerson - Drexel UniversityErika Frick - Drexel UniversityGeorgina Perez Liz - A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, USAAshley Dubin - Drexel UniversityDiana L Robins - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Autism : the international journal of research and practice
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Number of pages
- 8
- Grant note
- Pennsylvania Medical Society
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We are thankful to the Pennsylvania Medical Society for providing funding for this project.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology); A.J. Drexel Autism Institute
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001524599900001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105013493414
- Other Identifier
- 991022064841204721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: SDGs in the Output
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychology, Developmental