PolicyLab

Through a mixed-methods approach, our team plans to detail the experiences of families and providers who utilize telehealth services for the assessment of ASD in young children, and determine the acceptability, benefits of, and concerns raised by the use of telehealth for these types of evaluations. We will do this by going straight to the experts—conducting qualitative, phone-based interviews in English or Spanish with DBPs and caregivers of children with suspected ASD who have had a recent telehealth experience. In order to capture a wide range of experiences, we plan to utilize the Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet), a network of academic DBP practices, to recruit eligible participants for our study.

A primary goal of this work is to ensure health care and health care access is more equitable for families. We anticipate that families whose primary language is Spanish will have a unique experience that deserves focused attention. While many researchers choose to include only English-speaking families, we are inviting Spanish-speaking families to participate and have translated our study materials into Spanish. In addition to phone interviews, we will also ask families to complete a demographic questionnaire and written survey. Taken together, this collected data will demonstrate caregiver perspectives on barriers and facilitators to accessing care via telemedicine, with the ability to compare and contrast experiences of various sub-groups, including Spanish- and English-speaking families.