Telehealth Technology Enabling Medication Management of Children with Autism

Abstract

To assist healthcare providers in the management of autism symptoms, a new smartphone application was developed that now allows physicians to observe patient behaviors between office visits, and allows physicians to manage a patient’s medication based on the severity and dynamics of the symptoms observed. A technology evaluation was conducted to determine ease of use of the smartphone application by two physicians and three caregivers of autism patients. The results showed that the new smartphone application is able to assist the physician in monitoring patients with an autism spectrum disorder more accurately than when using subjective reports provided by caregivers during office visits. The smartphone application technology demonstrated a potential new way to help both caregivers and physicians in improving medication management for children with autism.