At the 2019 Health Innovation Challenge, T.J. Goble – vice president of Appiture – received $10,000 for the second-place prize.

Appiture is a camera integrated app that will assist pediatricians in the process of screening for autism. One way the app would do this is look at how the eye adjusts to the light using your phone camera.

Goble says current test used by pediatricians to identify and diagnose autism are subjective.

“So when you ask a parent, ‘Does your child struggle in something?,’ they’re going to want to say no. Because of that it’s an extremely subjective test and it has a lot of faults,” Goble said.

By reducing the tests to bio-physical responses a lot of bias can be eliminated according to Goble.

“My uncle has autism, So I grew up being aware of what struggles someone with autism might face. There’s still a lot of issues with screening and diagnosing a disorder like this, and if we can improve just a couple of lives, that would be a big impact for us,” Goble said.