An Agent-Based Diagnosis System for Child's Developmental Delay Screening in Taiwan

Abstract

According to a report by the World Health Organization, children with developmental delay account for appropriately 6.8% of the population under the age of six. In Taiwan, there are nearly 190 thousand newborns every year, i.e., there will be approximately 13 thousand new cases with development delay each year. Overseas research indicates that early intervention is better for the prognosis of children with developmental delay, who can then show significant improvements in developmental skills and even recover completely. In Taiwan, the Bureau of Health Promotion at the Department of Health supplies an assessment tool to screen children for developmental delay, but it is inconvenient and time-consuming for primary health care staff to assess children with a sheet of paper, analyze the results, and follow up suspected cases. The purpose of this study was thus to develop a web-based system using agent-based technology, called the Agent-based Children Developmental Delay Diagnosis System (ACDDS), to provide an expert system for health care staff screen the children for developmental delay early, in real time and effectively. After system verification, this real-time expert web-based diagnosis system was found to successfully increase the efficiency of screening, provided mass data storage, and helped medical staff to analyze data to better follow up suspected cases of developmental delay children.