Hopebridge Partners with EarliTec Dx to Provide Objective Autism Assessment for Children up to Age 30 Months

Pilot Program Supports Georgia Families Through Early and Efficient Autism Diagnostic Evaluations

/EIN News/ -- ATLANTA, GA, July 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atlanta families of young children now have opportunities for more objective evaluations for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as part of Hopebridge Autism Therapy Centers’ partnership with EarliTec Diagnostics Inc. Through the pilot program, Hopebridge licensed clinical psychologists utilized EarliPoint^TM, an innovative approach to identifying autism through FDA-authorized technology that uses eye tracking to measure and quantify social visual engagement.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends autism screening at 18 and 24 months. If the screening suggests signs of autism, the next step is a diagnostic evaluation. As part of Hopebridge’s partnership with EarliPoint^TM, providers use a tablet-based medical device to support diagnostic evaluations in Hopebridge’s pediatric therapy center in Suwanee, GA for children 16 to 30 months old. 

EarliPoint^TM aids in early and efficient autism diagnosis and assessment by serving as an objective biomarker for autism, free from race or ethnic bias, and detecting autism at the speed of a child’s glance. While watching a series of short videos of social interactions, the technology monitors looking behavior to measure the three core domains of autism: Social disability, verbal ability and non-verbal learning.

“Early identification and intervention are key in the diagnostic process and this innovation allows us to continue to perform evaluations for young children in the Atlanta community with an objective measure,” said Hopebridge Chief Clinical Officer Jana Sarno. “We are encouraged by what we have seen in the initial results of our pilot with EarliPoint and what it could mean for opening access to assessment and treatment services, not only at Hopebridge but also for families and providers across the country.”

Research shows that EarliPoint^TM correctly identifies autism in four out of five children. EarliPoint^TM is just one of many tools clinicians use within Hopebridge’s range of autism assessments to provide a diagnosis and is not intended to be used in isolation. Hopegridge incorporates this technology alongside additional measures administered by a licensed psychologist, including a clinical interview, behavioral observations, direct assessments of the child’s behaviors and a parent report.

Hopebridge’s use of EarliPoint^TM is conducted similarly to pioneering work at other organizations, including Marcus Autism Center, a part of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which played a significant role in the research that was pivotal in EarliPoint^TM obtaining FDA approval.

“Our collaboration with Hopebridge offers physicians and caregivers a trusted partner that can perform this important work to provide objective answers for children at an age when their brain is the most receptive and the most impact can be made,” said EarliTec Diagnostics, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Ressemann.

Hopebridge has deemed this pilot to be successful and is looking forward to the potential impact it will have on the communities it serves.  Hopebridge hopes to improve autism identification and treatment outcomes through services like applied behavior analysis (ABA), occupational therapy and speech-language therapy. As one of the largest autism therapy providers in the nation, the pilot with EarliPoint^TM in Georgia is one of Hopebridge’s many steps towards advancing science for the autism community.

To learn more about referring patients to Hopebridge for diagnostic testing or other pediatric therapy services, physicians can visit hopebridge.com/physician-referrals. For information on working with children with autism through Hopebridge’s collaborative, interdisciplinary approach, prospective employees should visit jobs.hopebridge.com to view open positions in locations across the country.

For families seeking more information on Hopebridge’s autism testing and other pediatric autism services, visit hopebridge.com/contact.

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ABOUT HOPEBRIDGE
Hopebridge was founded in 2005 to serve the growing need for autism treatment services and to improve the lives of affected children and families. Hopebridge is committed to providing personalized outpatient ABA, occupational, speech and feeding therapies for children as they navigate autism spectrum disorder and behavioral, physical, social, communication and sensory differences. Hopebridge provides a trusted place where they can receive the care, support and hope they deserve.

Nearly two decades later, Hopebridge continues to open state-of-the-art autism therapy centers in new communities to reach patients and families who need services. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Hopebridge operates over 100 centers in the following twelve states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio and Tennessee.

ABOUT EARLITEC DIAGNOSTICS

EarliTec Diagnostics is a medical device company making earlier identification and treatment for autism and related early childhood vulnerabilities accessible to children everywhere. Developed by leading researchers at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine and Yale University, EarliTec is pioneering the development of biomarkers that help parents and providers understand how a child is looking and learning from the world around them. The company’s initial product, the EarliPoint™ Evaluation for autism, is the first objective measurement tool that clinicians can use to assist in the diagnosis and assessment of autism in children as young as 16 months.

ABOUT EARLIPOINT EVALUATION

The EarliPoint Evaluation was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2022 and June 2023 (second-generation device) as an objective measurement tool that assists experts or trained clinicians in the diagnosis and assessment of autism in children aged 16 months to 30 months. Utilizing Dynamic Quantification of Social-Visual Engagement (DQSVE), the technology captures a child’s moment-by-moment looking behavior, at a rate of 120 times per second, which is otherwise imperceptible to the human eye. By measuring an individual child’s looking behavior and comparing these data to those of typically developing peers, EarliPoint provides information for early identification of autism. Through studies correlating looking behavior with clinician-based diagnostic and developmental reference standard measures, EarliPoint Severity Indices quantify levels of social disability, verbal ability and non-verbal learning.

For more information, please visit EarliTec Diagnostics and follow us on LinkedIn. 

Media Contact: 
Samantha Sandala 
ssandala@hirons.com 
(608) 575-2784 

Hopebridge
                    bcraig@hopebridge.com