{"id":55376,"date":"2025-11-11T16:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/?p=55376"},"modified":"2025-12-15T13:02:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:02:29","slug":"faster-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/changemakers\/faster-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Faster Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every year, thousands of families in the U.S. wait months\u2014sometimes much longer\u2014for an autism diagnosis for their child. Without that diagnosis, insurance won\u2019t cover vital therapies, and treatment delays can have lifelong consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest barrier to care,\u201d says Justin Ho, Engr \u201900. \u201cYou can\u2019t access services if you don\u2019t have the paperwork, and that paperwork is very hard to get.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ho decided to change that. In 2021, the Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering graduate founded a telehealth psychology clinic, Jigsaw Diagnostics, which is focused on speeding up autism evaluations for children. The mission was clear: cut monthslong diagnostic wait times to just weeks and make care accessible to more families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout a diagnosis, kids can\u2019t access critical services, and those services can cost up to $70,000 a year without insurance,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe\u2019re ending that bottleneck.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clinic\u2014which has 12 clinical psychologists on staff\u2014has already served more than 2,500 families and currently sees 130 to 140 new patients each month, most of them referred through insurance companies. \u201cWe\u2019re building the kind of system that should have already existed,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ho, who moved from Taiwan to New Jersey at age 10, has always wanted to make an impact. \u201cI was interested in health care from the start,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t want to become a doctor. I wanted to use engineering to help more people at scale.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That mindset drew him to Johns Hopkins. \u201cBiomedical engineering teaches you humility,\u201d he says. \u201cYou learn to prioritize, to problem solve, and to focus on what really matters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a stint in consulting and earning an MBA from Duke, Ho gravitated toward roles in health tech, eventually leading product development at an AI startup focused on autism diagnostics. \u201cWe had something that was FDA-cleared and could help people, but the system didn\u2019t know how to pay for it,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized we had to build something new\u2014 something both families and insurers could use.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWithout a diagnosis, kids can\u2019t access critical services, and those services can cost up to $70,000 a year without insurance,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe\u2019re ending that bottleneck.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Justin Ho<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today, Jigsaw is growing, expanding into attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and neuropsychological evaluations, and offering limited in-person options for families who need them. He\u2019s also exploring how to bring more AI into the background, automating report writing and workflows while keeping humanity at the heart of care. \u201cParents don\u2019t want to talk to a chatbot,\u201d says the CEO. \u201cThey want a real person to guide them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His biggest lesson for aspiring health tech founders? \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to have a great idea. You need to get in the weeds to truly understand the system\u2014how billing codes work, what insurers will cover. The unglamorous stuff makes the innovation possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2014 HEATHER LOWE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

illustration by Joe Kimmel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Ho, Engr \u201900, is breaking barriers
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