Digital technologies for assessing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Reviewing current services

QbTest is the only NICE-approved technology that supports faster diagnosis of ADHD for children and young people.

Developed by the company Qbtech, the technology measures all 3 core ADHD symptoms: activity, attention and impulsivity, and it involves a 15- to 20‑minute computer-based test. The results are instantly generated, and the data is compared with a normative control group of people the same sex and age who do not have ADHD.

Via the 15 local health innovation networks, the technology has rapidly spread throughout the NHS across England from April 2020.

The technology first came to the attention of the health innovation networks via the network for the East Midlands: Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM).

HIEM had picked up on a 2013 randomised control trial (funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration [NIHR ARC] East Midlands and done by the NIHR MindTech HealthTech Research Centre) focusing on a new, innovative digital technology called QbTest.

This NIHR research indicated that, when used alongside clinical assessment, the technology showed potential to reduce the time to diagnosis (ruling ADHD in or out) for children and young people.

Implementation

Based on the promising results of the NIHR study, in 2017 HIEM launched a series of pilot projects in real-world settings – 3 East Midlands NHS mental health trusts.

These pilots provided a strong evidence base to suggest that QbTest, when used alongside clinical judgement, could significantly reduce the time to diagnosis; not only transforming patient outcomes, but also freeing up precious clinical time and saving NHS resources.

Based on the success of the East Midlands pilot sites, NHS England commissioned the 15 local health innovation networks to rapidly scale the innovation nationally.

Rollout started in April 2020, focusing on the coordinated, national implementation of QbTest in NHS mental health trusts and paediatric services.

This timing coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting a significant challenge given that the healthcare professional and patient need to be in the same clinical setting for the test to be done.