Ridgewood, NJ – Today JoyDew Foundation announced they will collaborate with researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System on developing a Continuing Medical Education mobile health platform designed to teach Emergency Medicine physicians, nurses, and other staff about the characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), accommodating sensory sensitivities, as well as best practices for communication, especially for non-speaking patients. They will also evaluate any change in the medical staff’s ASD knowledge and comfort level in working with this population.
“Our members with autism have personally experienced horrific situations at hospitals in NJ, where they were misdiagnosed, restrained, sedated or not treated at all,” says Moish Tov, CEO of JoyDew. “That’s why we created our “Autism 101” training for medical personnel and first responders, and later partnered with the Jacobi Medical Center Emergency Department to adapt the program for Emergency Medicine, where environmental factors such as heightened sensory stimulation and prolonged length of stay can result in meltdowns and dangerous, inappropriate medical responses.”
To date, 60 Jacobi Emergency Medicine resident physicians have been successfully trained with this curriculum. The unique training includes 5 ED simulation-based scenarios acted out by real patients with autism so medical personnel can witness a variety of autism indicators and learn first-hand how to use various strategies and tools to enable successful visits.
JoyDew, Einstein and Montefiore will create a digital version of this training and related materials. After developing and implementing a training platform with this content, researchers will review data captured by the tool and evaluate its impact on the understanding and behavior of its users.
“Studies show that adults with ASD receive significantly lower healthcare quality, more health risks, and greater communication challenges compared to non-ASD adult patients.” Says Dr. Sunit P. Jariwala, Professor of Medicine at Einstein and Director of Clinical & Research Innovation at Montefiore. “We are thrilled to share with the larger medical community this innovative and powerful digitally-enabled training that significantly improves ASD care in the emergency setting”.
