Multi-Site Pharmaceutical Trial

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A multi-site clinical trial, led by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. James McCracken of UCLA, is designed to measure the effects of an investigational product to mitigate social disability Changes in social functioning will be measured through the use of structured assessments that are administered by trained raters. The variability in rater’s skill levels with these kinds of assessments administered at multiple sites can potentially mask a significant effect of the investigational product.

On HIPAA-conforming Behavior Connect-for Clinical Trials, the PI or designated clinicians at one site can watch the recorded assessment that took place at other sites, and then rate the behaviors observed during the assessment. This method of scoring will help to control for variability introduced by multiple raters with varying skills. As part of this clinical trial the Social Communication Interaction Test (SCIT) will be performed in examination rooms at 4 different sites around the country, Behavior Capture™ Online technology will automate the video images of these assessments to be securely uploaded to Behavior Connect for subsequent review by the PI to help him perform:

1. Inter-site Reliability checks
2. ease-of centralized scoring of primary assessments
3. Post hoc “microanalysis” of video’s assessments

Use of Behavior Imaging during this study should show “proof of principle” that Behavior Imaging can improve multi-site clinical trial methodology for variety of symptoms associated with various brain disorders.

 

Study Goals

The goals of this study are to Implement a System to Allow 4 Clinical Sites to Share Behavior Images to Improve Multi-site Operations of Ongoing Assessments:

a. Use of video capture technology in the proposed FAST-ASD Clinical Trial will require developing and implementing video capture technology in interview rooms with the ability of the clinician to control video enabling during the interview and to review and annotate video clips at a future time.

b. Support Principal Investigator(PI) and others regarding Security, Regulatory and Documentation Requirements for Behavior Connect 2.0 to have System compliant with IRB and other regulations

c. Ensure that each Clinical Site participant is able to use Behavior Capture to archive and securely share Assessment interactions via video capture

d. Customize Behavior Connect – Clinical Trials online Platform Customized for the Right Clinical UI Interface for PI to Interact with Clinicians at Multiple Sites, ‘Rate’ Video assessments in Behavior Connect, and other desired features he may want to improve project oversight

e. Maintain Technical and Client Support throughout FAST-ASD to ensure that platform can be accessed and used by authorized users identified by PI

f. Assess PI’s, Gold Standard Rater(s), and Remote Clinicians’ Perspective of use of Behavior Connect

g. Write Report re multiple stakeholders’ Strengths, Weaknesses, and Recommendations

 

School Behavior Assessment Study

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Overview

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost difference in using Behavior Imaging vs. traditional practices for evaluating children with special needs in the classroom, training teachers on interventions, and implementing behavior intervention plans.

Behavior Connect is an online portal that enables health and education professionals to remotely interact with students, specialists and other staff members via video, while building a secure library of shareable video and document assets and a continuous record.

The study will be conducted in collaboration with the Marcus Autism Center in Georgia, and will evaluate the use of the technology for assessment of student problem behavior and for assisting staff development – based on caregiver-captured video of child behavior or staff exercises in the classroom. The study will consist of at least 3-9 teachers and 15 students in at least 2-3 different schools, of which Marcus currently consults, that are furthest away from the Marcus experts. The experts at Marcus will use Behavior Connect 2.0, and a special Behavior Capture App in conjunction with the traditional practices in the assistance of said students and their teachers and gather data based on time spent, dollars spent, progress of each student, and teacher’s and Marcus experts’ evaluation of the product.

 

Diagnostic Assessment Study

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Early Results

Autism Speaks is co-sponsoring the 2nd International Conference on Innovative Technologies for Autism (ITASD 2014), at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, October 3rd and 4th. This year’s conference will focus on developing and using digital tools to improve the lives of people with autism. Invited to talk, Gregory D. Abowd of Georgia Tech, will speak about the pilot evaluation of hardware and software innovations to Behavior Capture and Behavior Connect for diagnostic assessment and its use in the two clinical studies.

Original Study Proposal

This research project will combine the expertise of Behavior Imaging Solutions, Georgia Institute of Technology, and leading diagnostic and behavioral health organizations to make state-of-the-art technical innovations to the Behavior Imaging® telehealth system, and will evaluate the enhanced system in two critical clinical settings affecting Autism Spectrum Disorders.

These technical innovations will significantly improve ease of deployment and Response to Intervention (RTI). The specific aims of the current project are:

(1) To introduce hardware and software innovations to Behavior Capture, with simplified video capture on commodity smartphones and novel interactive features

(2) To optimize clinicians’ workflow with Behavior Connect’s 2.0 telehealth custom modules for (autism) Diagnostic Assessment, and

(3) To conduct two clinical studies to demonstrate how the technology innovations impact clinical decision-making around diagnosing autism.

Study Sites

The first of these studies will be conducted in collaboration with the Autism Research Group at Georgia Tech – and this focus will be on the effectiveness of smartCapture to clinically guide a family remotely to collect and share behavior data in the home.

The second study will be conducted at the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC) in Arizona, and will evaluate the use of the technology to streamline the process of diagnosis for autism using Behavior Images (health-related video captures) recorded by parents in the home.

 

 

Doctor-Caregiver Med Management App

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Thanks to Autism SpeaksBehavior Imaging Solutions announces the results of its research study funded by an Innovative Small Business grant from AutismSpeaks.org evaluating how doctors, patients and caregivers can utilize its Telehealth technology to better monitor the effectiveness of medications prescribed to individuals with autism. The research study involved the development and evaluation of a new mobile device app called Med SmartCapture.

Are you a doctor, patient, or caregiver? Help advance our research by taking this quick survey.

The results showed that caregivers who used the new Med SmartCapture app could avoid expensive and difficult (and therefore often postponed) follow-up appointments with their doctor and, instead, could submit recorded video data via the Behavior Connect platform. The participating doctors found that they could obtain necessary contextual information by requesting appropriate video data from the caregivers via the Behavior Connect online platform and the smartphone app. With such information, the doctors could successfully monitor and subsequently optimize their patient’s medication. Such a process normally involves numerous in- office visits.

Using the Med SmartCapture app, families in the research study were able to maintain a consistent and informative relationship with their prescribing doctor. With such positive results, Med SmartCapture gained the attention of several other professionals, including community medicine and public health professionals such as Uwe Reischl, PhD, MD, who concluded that “the Med SmartCapture technology can revolutionize the way people reach out to access healthcare services. The BIS technology can become a game-changer in telemedicine.”

Dr. Robert L. Hendren, D.O., Vice Chair and Director of the Autism and Neurodevelopment Program the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, was equally impressed by the technology, saying, “I am very excited about what Med SmartCapture will be able to do for patient care and communication between parents, educators and providers so that we are all putting our integrated energies in the same direction to help the kids we are working with.”

Behavior Imaging Solutions provides an online HIPAA-conforming consultation platform (called Behavior Connect) where caregivers and doctors can upload and annotate video data of a child’s behavior, along with other medical records and notes. In this system, videos of behavior can be captured even after the fact thanks to Behavior Imaging’s time-buffering video capturing software. Med SmartCapture is yet another application for this internationally-used technology.

Learn about the Behavior Connect Platform and applications:

– Multiple Problems, One Innovative Solution
– Naturalistic Observational Diagnostic Assessment (NODA)
– Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials
– Clinical Staff Support, Training, Evaluation

USA Today Covers the Diagnostic Assessment Research

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USA Today Covers the Diagnostic Assessment study to be initiated at SARRC later in 2013. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/13/autism-application-faster-diagnosis/2080247/

P.I. Surveys Special Education Stakeholders in Special Behavior Assessment Workshop

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As part of its grant market research activities, PI led a group of education stakeholders (special ed  teachers, services, administrators) to evaluate the uses and importance of Behavior Imaging 2.0, include smartCapture – in their classroom environment. More than 20 educators took part in the evaluation.  Results to be published shortly.

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P.I. with Special Educators discussing SmartCapture for Problem Behavior

Increasing Role of Telemedicine in Future Healthcare

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(From 4/22/2013 email put out by the American Telemedicine Association) – There has been increasing attention to the rise of “Big Med”–a term coined by Atul Gawande in the August 2012 edition of The New Yorker (NewYorker.com). The term relates to the accelerating trend in mergers, acquisitions and affiliations that are taking place throughout healthcare. Coupled with this is the use of new approaches in the delivery of care that adapts strategies used in retail and other sectors.

The trend is leading to major shifts in healthcare. Dr. James Weinstein, the President and CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock has stated: “My vision is that we’re going to have 15 major (healthcare) systems in this country. We can’t support 5,000 hospitals, all going of them doing their own thing.” The shift goes beyond health systems. According to estimates by Accenture, about 39 percent of doctors nationwide are independent, down from 57 percent in 2000.

One of the interesting aspects around this is the increased use of telecommunications technology in making such changes possible. For example, Mayo Clinic’s CEO, John Noseworthy has set a goal of the Clinic touching the lives of 200 million patients by the year 2020. This will take place through Mayo’s “Care Network” that seeks to affiliate and provide “e-consults” to patients in affiliated hospitals throughout the country. Noseworthy has stated: “Our model has been that the patients come to us. Increasingly, going forward … we also wish to extend the reach of the Mayo Clinic, taking our knowledge, taking our experience, and sharing it with others.”

Another approach being used is the use of telemedicine allowing health system’s to share the expertise of specialists and subspecialists throughout their entire system. A leading example of this is Mercy, based in St. Louis, Missouri. Mercy, the sixth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. serves more than 3 million people annually. It is currently in the process of building a $90 million virtual care center along with a new specialty hospital and corporate offices. The center will enable Mercy to consolidate various telemedicine services at one site. Mercy estimates that using the center to provide shared specialty services and coordinated care with more service sites and easier access can reduce the cost of an emergency room visit alone by $4,000 per patient.

Lynn Britton, the CEO of Mercy, is speaking at the ATA 2013 Opening Plenary Session, where he will discuss his institution’s experience with telemedicine, as well as the key drivers behind his decision to invest heavily in telehealth.

Behavior Assessment – Using B.I. for ‘Problem Behavior 911′ Service

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One of BIS’ current customers, and NIH Research Partner, was featured in Pennsylvania’s newspaper regarding how they’ve been using (Legacy) Behavior Imaging to advise schools to deal more effectively with Problem Behavior.  Using Behavior Imaging for Problem Behavior 911 Service

This current NIH research study will study if smartCapture can make this ’911′ service even better, and can the use of Behavior Imaging 2.0 be generalized to other special education school markets around the country.

Applied Behavior Analysis Autism conference in Philadelphia, PA

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Behavior Imaging Solutions attends annual Applied Behavior Analysis Autism Conference in Philadelphia, PA and supports one of its clinical sites who presented the following research at the poster session: “Creating Efficiencies in Classroom Interventions and Professional Development Using Video Imaging Technology”

Behavior Imaging Research Demonstrating Effectiveness in Autism Classrooms – Atlanta, GA

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In this NIH funded pilot study, four teachers with varied experience in teaching children with special needs were randomly assigned to eight students each; and asked to provide Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) using Assessment View. Results included a 43% reduction in data collection errors.