News

Almost 75,000 people (aged 6-18 years) have received an objective assessment for ADHD since the national Academic Health Science Network began to support a national digital innovation programme, QbTest in 2017. This is following a recent evaluation report by the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham demonstrating the impact of using QbTest as part of an improved ADHD assessment pathway.

QbTest is an approved computer-supported objective test which measures attention, motor activity and impulsivity – the core symptoms of ADHD. The results are instantly analysed and presented in a report which compares a patients’ results against a normative dataset based on age and gender. ADHD practitioners then use information from the QbTest report alongside their clinical assessment to inform their decision whether the young person has ADHD or not.

QbTest can supply important data to help inform a clinician’s diagnosis. To date, it is being used in 65 trusts across 131 sites – over half of the NHS providers of ADHD assessments for this age group.

As part of the Focus ADHD national programme, funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative, all 15 AHSNs across England are supporting clinical services to improve their ADHD assessment pathway with the implementation of QbTest.

In our region, nine trusts across 14 sites have adopted the programme with more than 2,000 tests undertaken. Following the evaluation from colleagues at East Midlands AHSN, this equates to a non-cash releasing saving of £956,284 having been achieved in Yorkshire and the Humber, which equates to £343 per patient.

Find out more about the programme and access resources on the East Midlands AHSN website including this video case study on the impact the programme has had on one family.