1-minute summary: “Life is hard enough, your ADHD pathway doesn’t have to be”, says Nannette Morris, board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at Focus of Tampa Bay. Alongside April Green, board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and founder at Focus of Tampa Bay, the duo explains how objective ADHD testing helped them develop a holistic diagnostic experience, with personalized patient care options for ADHD assessments.
Patient care journey at Focus of Tampa Bay
Clinicians follow a detailed diagnostic and treatment process, learning about a patient's lived experience, habits, nutrition, and general health. Their comprehensive ADHD evaluation and treatment plans include:
- Computerized objective testing via QbTest
- Standardized behavior rating scales
- Request for blood work and other diagnostic tests as needed
- Diet and nutrition recommendations
- Consultation with an ADHD coach and other resources
The team introduces QbTest initially, alongside other clinical measures, to aid in diagnostic decision-making and to quantify the severity of ADHD symptoms. Healthcare providers also administer it when initiating medication and during dosing changes to ensure the treatment's efficacy for patients diagnosed with ADHD.
QbTest in practice
Creates a strong patient-clinician relationship
The practice utilizes objective data from QbTest reports to effectively communicate with ADHD patients and create a better patient-clinician rapport. Reports act as a reference point when explaining diagnostic decisions, taking into account all the clinical information previously gathered. They also aid in visually highlighting the different areas of their patients’ ADHD – inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
“On seeing the [QbTest] reports, we look for areas that may correlate to the subjective data we have on hand and put all the pieces together before formally diagnosing our patients with ADHD and creating their personalized treatment plan,” says April Green.
After careful analysis comparing the test’s objective data to previously collected patient information through including, but not limited to, clinical interviews and rating scales, either a formal diagnosis is given, or ADHD is ruled out.
Reviewing results immediately with patients and their families helps better understand ADHD symptoms, leading to positive patient outcomes.
“I took an objective ADHD test [QbTest] while seeing April and Nannette at Focus of Tampa Bay. They walked us through the diagnosis process and explained what my results meant. And this helped me understand exactly how my brain works.
Following that experience, it has been so much easier to connect the dots between my behaviors and my ADHD.”
Gannon Johnson
Patient at Focus of Tampa Bay
Optimizes treatment based on patients’ needs
Focus of Tampa Bay prioritizes providing patients with an individualized treatment plan. They evaluate patients holistically using objective and subjective measures and make recommendations that may include supplementation, medication, ADHD coaching, parent behavioral management coaching, and academic executive function coaching.
April commented that “adding objective data to our ADHD diagnosis process helps us find the missing pieces, enhancing patient care. We can then have a streamlined process and treat patients based on their needs.”
Ability to monitor and manage medication through retesting
As part of their membership, the clinic offers its patients one repeat test per year. Retesting with QbTest helps in medication dosage optimization.
Post-medication treatment, if a child continues to struggle with certain symptoms or school grades don't reflect improvement, a retest is administered to look for their optimal dosage. Per routine procedure, follow-up rating scales and parent-teacher feedback are also taken.
When patients undergo pharmacogenetic testing (to see which medication may be better suited for a patient) the clinical team retests with QbTest to assist in identifying an optimal dose for medication. In situations where a patient is already at the highest dosage, it helps them look for non-stimulant treatment options.
“Retests help us make patients, and in the case of children, their parents understand what an optimal dose means. It helps us show how medication is helping [to] improve the different areas of a patient’s ADHD.
It helps us, as clinicians, maintain those optimal dosage levels in situations where patients or parents request an increased dose. We have evidence to support our clinical decisions.”
April Green
Founder & mental health nurse practitioner, Focus of Tampa Bay
They also utilize retesting to avoid prescribing a higher dosage when a patient is already at an optimal level.
“I don’t ever want to diagnose ADHD without QbTest," says April Green
April said that picks up significant data and helps patients see how the different symptoms of ADHD may affect their behaviors. For example, teachers oftentimes miss symptoms of inattention in classrooms. Related behaviors can be disregarded when a child is shy or quiet. Better diagnostic and patient care outcomes are created when objective data (from QbTest) is added to an ADHD pathway.
Nannette Morris added that “patients, and in the case of children, their families love having objective data they can look at. The reports are important for them to understand the diagnosis better.”
Read other case studies to learn how our objective ADHD tests have helped clinicians like you.
About Focus of Tampa Bay
Focus of Tampa Bay is a membership-based healthcare practice offering comprehensive ADHD evaluations and treatment for children and adults. Services are provided in-office and virtually via telehealth. The clinic has been using QbTest as part of its ADHD assessment process since 2019.
QbTest is a computer-based objective tool that measures the three main areas of ADHD to aid in symptom evaluation and diagnosis. April Green incorporated it into her clinic's pathway to create a streamlined solution for ADHD management and improve patient experience.
Add QbTest to your clinic’s pathway
Our medical technology standardizes ADHD pathways, improves clinical understanding of patient symptoms, and aids diagnostic decision-making when used alongside other clinical measures.