The Innovation Fund for Technology group at Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest non-profit healthcare plans, recently collaborated with Vectorform to create a more engaging, consistent and standardized method of Autism assessment.

Together we successfully developed a gaming tool designed by therapists to help them assess pediatric patients who have difficulty engaging with the traditional assessment tools. The game leverages Kinect for Windows to provide body and object tracking to determine the child’s success on many of the activities and deliver an objective assessment of the child’s performance. The game activities span three disciplines: Speech, Occupational, and Physical Therapy.

The game, designed for children 3-12, provides an exciting, engaging, and immersive experience. The goal was to build a game that is extremely accessible, non-complex and includes simple mechanics that children with autism can quickly understand to retain their attention, prevent over-stimulation, encourage play, and prevent frustration.

One of the most notable advantages of this solution, versus traditional assessments, is the increased efficiency and cost reduction that it provides. This in turn provides therapists with the opportunity to develop more effective treatment plans. The time saved in assessing children’s capabilities can effectively allow therapists to spend more time providing treatment and therapy to their patients. This gained efficiency allows therapists to service a higher volume of patients more effectively in the same amount of time, as well as help improve patient access to services and reduce operational costs.

Other success factors for the Kinect Autism Assessment Game include:

• Improved Patient Engagement – Children experiencing differing levels of ASD can quickly engage in the activities to demonstrate their capabilities. Patients are put at ease by the game’s creative style, activities, mechanics, and ‘Marty the Monkey’ who provides continued encouragement and support.
• Accelerated Assessment – By rapidly engaging with the game, children can quickly and easily demonstrate their capabilities to therapists across the three disciplines.
• Results Tracking – Session results are tracked and stored in real-time allowing therapists to track a child’s performance over time.