Changing the Current System

20-Time is a project we were introduced to where, in a school environment, students use 20% of their class time working towards a goal they are passionate about. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, also referred to as ADHD, has not gotten the awareness or adequate research, allowing for multiple misdiagnoses as a result of its ineffective diagnostic tests. Through this 20-time project, we truly hope we can make a difference in the way the patients are diagnosed but also spread awareness about ADHD.

ADHD is a behavioral disorder that causes the patients to become less focused, less organized, and hyperactive, as stated in the name of the disorder. Even though, according to the CDC, more than 6.4 million children across the nation are diagnosed with ADHD before the age of 17, it still lacks the proper attention and research. The current system has the diagnosis based on an evaluation of the patient’s personality which allows for inaccuracies and thereby an unjustly diagnosed and medicated patient but also allows for cases where medication and treatment are necessary but no diagnosis is provided.

The purpose of our project is to create a test that tests the cognitive resources and responses to assess the likelihood of the disease based on whether the ADHD symptoms are indicated, answering the question of, “Can a test be created to more accurately diagnose ADHD?” In addition, we hope to spread awareness of this disorder as  the current stereotypes of ADHD play a major role in the lack of medical advancements made for this disorder. Through these diagnostic tests, we hope to provide a means for a preliminary diagnosis to be made, allowing for an increased amount of accuracy in the secondary and tertiary diagnoses.

Since accuracy is one of the most important aspects of our project, we plan on testing the accuracy of our diagnostic test on patients with ADHD and those that currently don’t have it.

Moving forward, we plan on continuing our research so we can plan out all of the details of our test and hopefully start making our diagnostic test.

Throughout this entire process, we will work towards our main goal of making the diagnostic process of ADHD more accurate but to also spread awareness of a disorder (ADHD) that has not gotten a sufficient amount of attention, hopefully working towards changing the system one blog post at a time.