The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) has served as a gold-standard assessment for diagnosing DSM disorders in children and has been cited in over 805 peer reviewed publications. In 2015, the DSM-IV-TR was updated to DSM-5. While a gold standard instrument, the DISC-5 is also cumbersome: it is a 400-page document with over 4,000 text pieces and a complex branching pattern. An electronic version, the cDISC was once available for the DISC-IV, but the software is no longer functional. It was written on a software platform that can no longer be updated. Our objective is to develop a browser-based software program that will enable computer-assisted administration and scoring of the DISC-5, for use in both research studies and clinical practice. There will be two complementary versions: the NetDISC-5-Parent (P) for administration to parents on behalf of children and youths aged 6-17 and the NetDISC-5-Child (C) for administration to youths aged 10-17. Both instruments will be for administration by lay staff with minimal clinical experience. The software will provide complete scoring, generate user-friendly, individual-clinician reports, and all data will be easily exportable to SAS and SPSS. The NetDISC will run on our existing PORTAL 2.0 platform that was written in C# in a .net environment. The PORTAL platform already runs the NetSCID and Screening Assessment for Guiding Evaluation Self-Report (SAGE-SR) products, as well as the statewide outcomes-tracking systems in Tennessee and Louisiana. The NetDISC will enable users to: select any combination of DISC modules, choose current and/or lifetime sections, and turn on or off optional branching. It will have the ability to programmatically upload translated prompts. A progress bar will show administrators where they are in the survey. It will be possible to skip items, back up to earlier items, change responses, and go forward with new branching. The NetDISC will have hierarchical permission structure limiting access based on ?need to know.? It will be possible to download data directly into a comma-delineated file format, SAS, and SPSS. It will send pretty, intuitive, individual clinical reports with a green, yellow, red alert system. It will have HIPAA compliant encrypted data storage with geo- redundant back up in at least two states, and the ability to transfer data to EHRs via HL7 and HFIR data transfer protocols. Reports will have a drill-down mode for optimal display of information. TeleSage will work closely with Prudence Fisher PhD, the author of the DISC-5, to convert the DISC-5 faithfully into the electronic NetDISC-5. We have planned out a rigorous testing and control system to assure accuracy and fidelity. The NetDISC will fit very well with our existing products: the adult NetSCID Research Version, Clinician Version, and Personality Disorders Version; the SAGE-SR, Clinician Modified, and Clinician Interview Versions; and our self-report Early Psychosis Screener. All our behavioral health diagnostic products would be marketed together for both research and clinical settings.
The current research project plans to develop and test a cloud-based version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-5 (DISC-5). Completion of this project will decrease training time, eliminate scoring and branching errors, increase the speed at which the DISC-5 can be translated to other languages, and create integrative diagnostic reports for the parent and youth versions of the DISC-5. Each of these improvements will ultimately assist clinicians and researchers in identifying childhood mental disorders.
