Ron Oberleitner, CEO, Behavior Imaging A family member who has experienced health conditions like autism, epilepsy, PTSD or alzheimers in their home can relate to the arduous journey of going from suspicion that something is wrong to an actual diagnosis. However, Ron Oberleitner cast away the role of a mere witness and set his mind to develop alternative means of diagnosing autism, PTSD, and other behavioral disorders to quickly benefit from early treatment. Ron’s key objectives were the transformation of the patient engagement process, and its orientation towards the special audience, and reduction of the time lapse between assessment and treatment. The eclectic mix of his deep expertise in medical imaging and steadfast resolve to design a solution that would accelerate behavioral assessment and early diagnosis led to the foundation of Behavior Imaging
®. The company provides behavior imaging assessment technology, which helps patients or their caregivers capture, store, and share with their physicians ‘behavioral images’—video clips of behavior from home at the exact moment of concern—that underpins the assessment of these medical and behavioral conditions. “Our solutions capture images of varied patient behavior occurring at home, or school which helps doctors to diagnose and initiate the right treatment for autism at an early stage. This is akin to what Xrays can tell a physician to quicken an accurate diagnosis,” says Ron Oberleitner, CEO of Behavior Imaging Solutions.
Amongst other applications, Behavior Imaging has recently developed and tested a smartphone application—Naturalistic Observation Diagnostic Assessment (NODA
™)—especially aimed at expediting autism diagnosis. It enables family members of patients to video record samples of their child’s development and/or concerning behavior so specialists can remotely diagnose or rule out autism—faster and economically. NODA adheres to HIPAA regulation and safeguards video content with encryption mechanism. “NODA has been an incredible way to connect with families at home for their young child’s autism assessment. Behavior Imaging’s tool makes valuable observations of the child at home accessible to me as part of the diagnostic assessment,” says Catherine E. Rice, Ph.D., Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Director, Emory Autism Center.
Our solutions capture images of varied patient behavior occurring at home or school, which helps doctors diagnose and initiate right treatment of autism at an early stage
In other ‘treatment’ applications, interventionists can analyze for instance how patients vent out frustration, so they help parents and teachers implement strategies to prevent or overcome their self-harming behavior. Likewise, after understanding what the child is trying to communicate, the professional can remotely supervise staff or parents to improve a child’s speech or cognitive skills. For expediting needed frequent knowledge transfer, Behavior Imaging Solutions’ online portal—Behavior Connect
™—gives professionals a robust platform to give remote guidance to a patient’s family. The portal acts as a data repository, which is the most crucial element in data-driven treatment. Users can store videos and other sharable assets on Behavior Connect. After a thorough examination of this shared data, a psychiatrist or interventionist may suggest suitable medication. Also, they can interact with the families of the patient and suggest the modalities of care or treatment. “Behavior Connect helps families maintain immeasurable hope by accessing best professionals who don’t have to be local to help them,” says Ron.
Future is even brighter for patients, including how Behavior Imaging will leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to help professionals make quicker and better-informed assessments. While doctors will initially tag the videos for specific behavioral issues, AI can subsequently learn from those clinical decisions to help doctors ‘auto—tag’ new videos. With AI, determining behavioral disorders like autism, aggressive behavior, social disability, and select medical concerns like seizures will be a faster process greatly benefitting doctors and their patients. And with another funded NIH grant to bring AI to market, Ron says, “Time is here that people with autism can remotely connect next minute with the best doctors and therapists remotely to help them overcome their disabilities so they can lead healthy lives.”
