Virtual Clinic Will Offer Solution to $25 Billion Autism Crisis

((Engage Interactive, the company I work for, is producing the eLearning component of this project. It's nice to occasionally get work that you can really believe in. - Biff))

Summary: As the incidence of autism grows to epidemic proportions, a Canadian woman has enlisted technology and people to wage war on autism with an innovative approach. Her solution will bring training and intervention guidance directly into the homes of those in desperate need of a new solution.

Fredericton, New Brunswick (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) December 17, 2004 -- “Worldwide, 1 in 250 children are born with autism each year,” said Cynthia Howroyd, President and CEO of Virtual Expert Clinics (VEC). “It was 1 in 10,000 thirty years ago, and the problem is doubling every two years. Costs in North America alone are a staggering $25 billion annually and timely, quality services are still out of reach for many families.”

With personal experience herself as a clinical therapist in autism intervention, Ms. Howroyd has combined a powerful set of digital tools and a team of world-class experts to offer an innovative approach that promises to revolutionize autism service delivery and make it universally accessible.

“This is the first time that experts from a spectrum of clinical methodologies have banded together to use technology as a tool in the struggle to deal with the autism epidemic,” said Ms. Howroyd.

“People have to start looking to the private sector for innovative and creative solutions,” said Ms. Howroyd. “And that’s where Virtual Expert Clinics comes in. We’re creating a set of tools that draw on the best in technology and autism expertise to offer the world’s first Internet-based autism intervention center, the Virtual Autism Clinic (VAC).”

“We plan to leverage the time and cost efficiencies of digital technologies to provide low cost and accessible services,” said Ms. Howroyd. “Parents and interventionists need specialized training that is currently both expensive and difficult to find. The VAC will use eLearning to offer low cost computer-based training that will be accessible in even the most remote locations.”

“Designing tailor-made intervention programs for each child is crucial,” said Ms. Howroyd. “To provide this service, the VAC will use expert software to enable parents and interventionists to enter information about a specific child and generate a tailor-made program of intervention.”

“The traditional model of service delivery can mean long wait lists,” said Ms. Howroyd. “Through the VAC, help is a mouse click away.”

This, according to Ms. Howroyd, is critical since the best results in autism intervention are achieved through programs that run up to 40 hours a week for two years, and begin when the children are around age three.

“Parents in some areas could wait as long as two years before their children begin to receive services,” said Ms. Howroyd. “By then it may be too late to provide them with the best possible outcomes.”

The VAC will also employ tele-health technologies – a combination of digital tools such as email and telecommunications – to offer consultation with some of the world’s leading experts in autism.

“Our advisory board includes Dr. Kathleen Ann Quill of the Autism Clinic in Boston,” said Ms. Howroyd. “Dr. Quill’s impact on autism treatment has been tremendous and her book, DO-WATCH-LISTEN-SAY, is one of the basic textbooks in the field. Having her onboard gives the VAC an inestimable wealth of experience and knowledge to draw from..”

“In my keynote address to the Autism Society of America in 2002,” said Dr. Quill, “I called for a rainbow coalition , meaning cooperation between autism experts who have differing points of view. I wanted to bring hope to families by having professionals work together instead of apart. One of the exciting things about the Virtual Autism Clinic is that it helps me achieve that vision."

Other members of the advisory board include Dr. Cathy Pratt of the Indiana Institute for Disabilities, Dr. Diane Twatchtman-Cullen of the ADDCON Centre in Connecticut, Dr. Pamela Wolfberg of the University of San Francisco, Margaret Spoelstra of the Autism Society of Ontario, Dr. Brenda Smith Myles of the University of Kansas, and Dr. Gary Mesibov of TEACCH at the University of North Carolina.

“By teaming these people up with eLearning, tele-health, and expert software, the Virtual Autism Clinic will be able to provide an innovative approach to training and consultation that will make effective autism intervention guidance available to anyone, anywhere and at anytime,” said Ms. Howroyd. “Current programs cost families and government an average of $40,000 per year. The enormous costs and the lack of services and expertise are a huge roadblock that we intend to help overcome.”

Virtual Expert Systems recently received a $1.25 million venture capital investment through a joint partnership between the Business Development Bank of Canada and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

“The money assists us in hiring a top notch team of developers. These technology experts will work closely with our autism experts to bring a quality solution. We understand how desperately families need this, and we are working as efficiently as possible to meet this need in a timely manner,” said Ms. Howroyd.

Virtual Expert Systems is located in the National Research Council of Canada building on the University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

“Eventually, we hope to extend the clinic to provide e-therapy services for other developmental disorders and disabilities,” said Ms. Howroyd. “But for now, our focus is on autism. That’s where we feel we’re most needed and where we can alleviate the hardships of families and others in this health crisis.”

The URL for the VEC is www.vecinc.com.

Cynthia Howroyd has a Masters degree in Human Communications Disorders from Dalhousie University and was the founder of the Speech & Learning Institute Inc. (SLI), which provided therapeutic services to special needs children in the Maritime provinces for over a decade. Virtual Expert Systems is the technological evolution of the Speech & Learning Institute.

Kathleen Ann Quill has a Doctorate of Education in Applied Psycholinguistics from Boston University and is currently Director of The Autism Institute in Boston. Her books DO-WATCH-LISTEN-SAY (Brookes Publishing, 2000) and Teaching Children with Autism: Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socialization (Delmar Publishing, 1995) are considered to be among the most important publications in the field of autism.

Contact:

Cynthia Howroyd Virtual Expert Clinics Inc 46 Dineen Drive, Suite 347 National Research Council Building University of New Brunswick Campus Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada E3B 9W4 Phone: 506-462-0991 Fax: 506-452-3112 Email: e-mail protected from spam bots Web site : www.vecinc.com

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