Duke Autism Center of Excellence: A translational digital health and computational approach to early identification, outcome monitoring, and biomarker discovery in autism

ABSTRACT – Dissemination and Outreach Core The overall goal of the Duke Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) is to use a translational digital health and computational approach to address the critical need for effective autism screening tools, objective outcome measures, and brain-based biomarkers that can be used in clinical trials with young autistic children. The Dissemination and Outreach Core (DOC) will support this effort in three ways. First, we will facilitate communication of findings to a wide range of audiences, including scientists, practitioners, educators, legislators, autistic people and their families, and the public. Second, the DOC will promote bi-directional communication between ACE investigators and the community of autistic individuals and family members. We will engage in a wide range of community engagement activities that support our relationships and communication with the community. We will promote bi-directional communication through the ACE’s Community Engagement Advisory Board (CEAB), which includes self-advocates, parents, educators, policy leaders, healthcare providers, and business leaders. Two-way communication will also be promoted by leveraging our existing strong partnerships with national and state-level government organizations, autism advocacy organizations, and education nonprofit organizations. We will continue our partnerships with organizations internal to Duke, such as the Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Third, the DOC will support the careers of students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage investigators, in collaboration with the Administrative Core. The DOC will work with the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) to track the effectiveness of dissemination activities and recruitment of research participants, and if goals are not being met, will implement new strategies to reach its goals.