Automated Multiphasic Screening

From our experience with automated multiphasic health tests in more that 20,000 children, we have formed the following tentative conclusions. Multiphasic testing, combining a group of tests for administration at a single session, is less costly in time and inconvenience to the patient and provides more useful information to the evaluating and treating physician than does an uncoordinated set of individual tests. Automation of instruments, use of nonprofessional testers, and computer processing of data can markedly reduce the usual cost of acquiring standard data provided that (1) there is a large number of persons from which standardized data are to be acquired; (2) the acquisition of the data can be scheduled so that specialized equipment and personnel are fully utilized; (3) automated equipment is used only when there is a real advantage over manual equipment. These potential benefits of automated multiphasic testing are severely limited by (1) the lack of knowledge and agreement about what standard information is useful for improving the health care of children; and (2) the problems involved in ensuring appropriate follow-up examinations. Our purpose in presenting these conclusions is not to support or condemn automated multiphasic testing or screening, but rather to point out that a number of unsolved problems exist. They will not be solved unless all who engage in automated multiphasic screening, or any kind of screening, arrange their testing and data keeping procedures so that the new knowledge necessary for evaluating programs and resolving unsolved problems can be gained. Until we have such knowledge, we must be modest and tentative in our claims that automated multiphasic screening can contribute positively to the health care of children.