A systematic review of telehealth screening, assessment, and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
Telehealth autism screens can match or beat quick clinic observations, but you must pick tools with clear cut-offs and follow up borderline cases.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Meimei and her team hunted for every paper that tested telehealth tools for autism screening or diagnosis. They found 17 studies covering the kids from toddlers to teens.
Each study compared a video visit, app, or online questionnaire against the gold-standard in-person exam. The team tallied how often the remote tool caught true autism (sensitivity) and how often it correctly ruled autism out (specificity).
What they found
Remote tools spotted autism 70–100 % of the time when it was really there. That range beats the quick five-minute 'eyeball' check used in busy clinics.
But the tools were less steady at saying 'no autism.' Correct rejections ran from 38 % to 100 %. Small studies and different cut-off scores explain the wide swing.
How this fits with other research
Stainbrook et al. (2019) showed that after a rural program added telehealth autism clinics, more families kept their appointments. Meimei’s numbers back up that real-world success with solid accuracy stats.
Bahrami et al. (2025) found that a five-minute in-person impression misses 1 in 4 true autism cases. Meimei’s review says telehealth screens, when done right, can beat that miss rate.
Lavi et al. (2023) validated the 30-item ASKY parent screen for kids 4–18. Meimei’s wider lens says many similar parent-plus-video tools work, not just ASKY, giving you more choices.
Why it matters
Wait lists are long; families drive hours. A secure video screen that hits 90 % sensitivity can move likely-autism kids to the front of the line and spare others a long trip. Pick a tool with published cut-offs, train your team to score it the same way every time, and re-check any borderline cases in person. You just cut wait time without cutting quality.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There is a significant delay between parents having concerns and receiving a formal assessment and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Telemedicine could be an effective alternative that shortens the waiting time for parents and primary health providers in ASD screening and diagnosis. We conducted a systematic review examining the uses of telemedicine technology for ASD screening, assessment, or diagnostic purposes and to what extent sample characteristics and psychometric properties were reported. This study searched four databases from 2000 to 2022 and obtained 26 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The 17 applications used in these 26 studies were divided into three categories based on their purpose: screening, diagnostic, and assessment. The results described the data extracted, including study characteristics, applied methods, indicators seen, and psychometric properties. Among the 15 applications with psychometric properties reported, the sensitivity ranged from 0.70 to 1, and the specificity ranged from 0.38 to 1. The present study highlights the strengths and weaknesses of current telemedicine approaches and provides a basis for future research. More rigorous empirical studies with larger sample sizes are needed to understand the feasibility, strengths, and limitations of telehealth technologies for screening, assessing, and diagnosing ASD.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 2022 · doi:10.1186/s13034-022-00514-6