The Autism Care Network (ACNet)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a field site within the Autism Care Network (ACNet) supported by Autism Speaks. The ACNet is a consortium of medical centers in North America focused on quality improvement, along with generation of a research registry used to identify evidence-based standards of medical care for children and adolescents with ASD.

What can the ACNet do for your family?

As an ACNet site, we facilitate access to coordinated care with a team of designated autism specialists that span the Vanderbilt medical community. Areas of emphasis include: anxiety, ADHD, irritability, and sleep disorders, but extensive care includes other medical conditions.

"Being part of the national ACNet facilitates our naturally collaborative nature in the Medical Center to bring the highest level of care across medical disciplines for children with autism and their families,” said Elisabeth Dykens, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Pediatrics.

What does the ACNet do at Vanderbilt?

ACNet institutions benefit from access to standardized clinical protocols and assessments, and a community of autism physicians and behavioral specialists who develop and implement empirically derived treatment practices.

Vanderbilt may submit research proposals that utilize the ACNet Research Repository national database, which provides for high quality data collection on well-characterized individuals across a variety of disciplines and for the development of treatment practice parameters.

The Principal Investigator of the Vanderbilt ACNet is Beth Malow, M.D., M.S. and Co-Principal Investigator is Zachary Warren, Ph.D.

“The ACNet brings together talented individuals from many disciplines — psychology, pediatrics, psychiatry, neurology and others — who share the common goal of creating standards of care for the diagnosis and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders,” said Malow, Burry Chair of Cognitive Childhood Development, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, and VKC investigator. “I am very excited to be part of this mission and to see our Vanderbilt site grow and develop.”

Read more about the ACNet program