The Health Council launches a “developmental application” to facilitate the diagnosis of developmental and behavioral disorders
The Secretary-General of the Saudi Health Council, Dr. Nahar bin Mazki Al-Azmi, inaugurated yesterday a “developmental application”, one of the national initiatives to implement the national policy for the National Autism Spectrum Disorder Survey, which aims to implement organized procedures to detect autism spectrum disorder in primary health care centers at an early stage, and refer it to Specialized clinics to confirm the diagnosis and provide medical support.
Al-Azmi explained that the initiative to launch a “developmental application” comes within the efforts of the Council, represented by the National Center for Comprehensive Developmental Disorders, to raise the level of community awareness of the services provided to people with developmental disorders in the Kingdom.
He added that the application helps parents assess the condition of their children when there is a suspicion of autism, as it enables users to conduct a survey and obtain an immediate result using an internationally approved tool without the need to go to primary health care centers, in addition to that it helps direct cases that have a suspicion of having autism. Autism spectrum disorder to the nearest specialized clinic to conduct a clinical examination, diagnose the condition, and provide awareness and guidance materials to patients’ families and specialists.
The Secretary-General of the Saudi Health Council praised the efforts made by the National Center for Comprehensive Developmental Disorders to organize and legislate the services provided to people with developmental and behavioral disorders, and to develop them to reach the best results and health indicators, in order to achieve the vision of the Kingdom 2030, which aspires to reach the services of people with developmental disorders to the ranks of developed countries.
For his part, the Director-General of the National Center for Comprehensive Developmental Disorders, Dr. Ahmed bin Muhammad Abu Ababa, explained how to use the application, where the citizen or resident enters his identification number and then takes the test, through a globally approved tool M-Chat and contains a number of questions that are answered by Before the parents of the 18-24-month-old child, and after completing the answers, he receives an immediate result, and it consists of three categories; The first category is normal and does not require treatment or follow-up work, the second category is asked to repeat the test after a month, and the third and final category; Anyone who has a suspicion of autism spectrum disorder is directed to the nearest specialized clinic to perform a clinical examination and confirm the diagnosis, and if the site is activated, it will show him the nearby places he can go to, and in turn he chooses the clinic according to his eligibility for treatment.
For his part, the CEO of Yomou, the technical partner of the initiative, Dr. Fahad Al-Nimri, blessed the Saudi Health Council, represented by the National Center for Comprehensive Developmental Disorders, launching a “developmental application”, which is in line with best practices to raise awareness of the importance of early detection and intervention in the field of autism, noting that this step is complementary. For the unremitting efforts made by various parties to serve autistic people and their families.