Development of Guidelines and Algorithms

With the launch of the ATN clinicians and researchers established several medical subspecialty committees to address the major medical issues commonly suffered by children with ASD, including sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, seizures, and metabolic conditions. Armed with the belief that if these conditions are treated successfully the child's overall health and quality of life might also be improved, these experts have sought agreement on the most appropriate means to identify and treat these conditions so that eventually they will become available more widely. Clinicians in the ATN have been initially focused on identifying the most appropriate screenings and diagnostic procedures for doctors to use, mindful of the need to keep costs down and minimize discomfort and inconvenience to patients and their families. Through the efforts of their Sleep, GI and Neurology/Genetics/Metabolics committees, whose members have been meeting regularly since the beginning of 2008, the ATN has made progress towards developing guidelines for physicians in each of these areas that are specifically design to guide the treatment of children with autism. Much of their guideline development has focused on establishing medical "algorithms". An algorithm is a table, formula, decision tree, flow diagram or other tool that helps a doctor or other healthcare professional to choose the best course of treatment in a particular situation.

The ATN Clinicians have recognized that special considerations need to be taken into account when treating patients with ASD. In developing their algorithms and guidelines they are taking special care to ensure that their information will make diagnosis and treatment easier, especially for clinicians who may not be as experienced or familiar with treating patients who have ASD.

We have spent much of 2010 pilot testing draft algorithms which will later be developed into formal guidelines. Pilot testing involves a subset of ATN sites trying out the flow diagrams with children in the ATN. The pilot sites meet monthly on conference calls led by the National Initiative on Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) to discuss progress, successes and challenges. NICHQ has also led the pilot sites in collecting data to measure the level of adherence to the flow diagrams. Subsequently, we will be reviewing ATN Registry data to determine whether children who have been cared for following the steps of the flow diagrams have greater improvement than children who have not been cared for using the flow diagrams.

What do we mean by 'guidelines'?

Read more about them here

Click on the links below for the latest updates.

Areas of Focus:

Managing Sleep Behavior
Dealing with Gastrointestinal (GI) Conditions
Neurological / Genetic / Metabolic Screenings

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