印第安纳大学医学院获700万美元NIH拨款：培训近200名基层医生就近诊断自闭症儿童
位于美国印第安纳州马里恩县印第安纳波利斯市（Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana）的印第安纳大学医学院宣布，获得美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）为期五年、总额700万美元的拨款，用于培训基层医疗医生诊断自闭症，是迄今同类培训研究中规模最大的一项。
过去二十年间，自闭症的报告患病率上升了约400%，但有能力做诊断评估的专科医生远远不够，等待评估的儿童排起长队，乡郊与资源不足地区的家庭尤其困难。
项目由该校儿科学副教授 Rebecca McNally Keehn 主持，将招募印第安纳州、马萨诸塞州与田纳西州近200名基层医生，测试在线学习模块、病例观察与专家一对一辅导等不同培训组合的效果，合作方包括范德比尔特大学医学中心与麻省大学陈医学院。目标是形成一套可推广的培训路线图，让更多儿科医生、家庭医生与执业护士能在家门口为孩子做评估。
Keehn 表示，乡郊、服务不足与历史上被边缘化社区的家庭，在及时获得自闭症诊断上面临最大的障碍；这项工作的一个主要目标，是让居住地、收入或专科医生的多少，不再决定一个孩子能不能及时得到评估。她同时提醒，有发育方面担忧的家庭不必等正式诊断才寻求支持，应尽早与孩子的基层医生沟通。
项目将依托印第安纳州已有的「早期自闭症评估枢纽」（Early Autism Evaluation Hub）网络推进。该网络此前已证明，经过培训与支持的社区基层医生可以显著缩短诊断等待时间。
Indiana University School of Medicine Wins $7 Million NIH Grant to Train Nearly 200 Primary Care Clinicians to Diagnose Autism Closer to Home
The Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, has announced a five-year, $7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to train primary care clinicians to diagnose autism, in what will be the largest study to date on training primary care clinicians to make the diagnosis.
Autism prevalence has increased by 400 percent over the past two decades, but there is a significant gap between the number of children waiting for evaluations and the specialists trained to diagnose them, especially in rural and under-resourced areas.
Directed by Rebecca McNally Keehn, an associate professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, the study will enroll nearly 200 clinicians across Indiana, Massachusetts and Tennessee and test different combinations of training strategies, including online learning modules, case-based observation and expert coaching. Partners include Vanderbilt University Medical Center and UMass Chan Medical School. The researchers will create a training roadmap so more pediatricians, family medicine doctors and nurse practitioners are equipped to evaluate children closer to home.
'Families in rural, underserved and historically marginalized communities often experience the greatest barriers to accessing timely autism diagnosis,' McNally Keehn said. 'A major goal of this work is ensuring that geography, income or availability of specialists does not determine whether a child can access an evaluation.' She encouraged caregivers with immediate developmental concerns not to wait for a formal diagnosis before seeking support.
The project builds on Indiana's Early Autism Evaluation (EAE) Hub system, an established network of primary care clinicians trained to provide streamlined diagnostic evaluations for young children at increased likelihood of autism, which has already shown that wait times for a diagnosis can be improved by empowering community clinicians.
Indiana University School of Medicine official announcement
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：印第安纳波利斯的 Riley 儿童医院（资料图）。CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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