Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder is a complicated, length process between providers, parents and children which can take between 10-14 hours to complete over a month. The Seattle Children’s Autism Center performs an annual ‘Blitz Week’ every summer, a week focused exclusively on diagnosing ASD in children.

During Blitz Week, the SCAC performs more than 100 diagnoses in a single week, compared to a typical week’s 22 diagnoses on average. This year, Blitz Week will use a new ‘team-evaluation model’, developed at the center, to diagnose ASD in about 3 hours! The new model pairs a psychiatrist or psychologist with a nurse practitioner, and together they make the diagnosis of autism.  The Bernier Lab’s Dr. Raphael Bernier and Dr. Jen Gerdts helped develop, test and implement the ‘Team Evaluation’ model (read Dr. Gerdt’s 2016 IMFAR poster titled ‘Team Evaluation: A Streamlined Method for the Clinical Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder’).

An article by Rebecca Sladek, published in the University of Washington’s News Beat, explains ‘The team-eval model is not only more satisfying to parents of children being screened, but also improves diagnostic consistency.’  This year’s Blitz Week, from August 1-5, will implement the new model in order to provide faster, more consistent  ASD evaluations for children.

Read the full article here: http://hsnewsbeat.uw.edu/story/blitz-week-idea-leads-faster-autism-assessments