JADE: computerization of a structured interview for childhood psychiatric diagnosis

JADE is a new, computerized structured interview system to design, administer, and report results of the National Institute of Health's Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (NIMH-DISC). It has been developed under the auspices of the DISC Group at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. The development of JADE is based on extensive experience in the use of the DISC and with several previous computerized versions. It illustrates the importance to program design of consultation with those experienced in research and clinical application of the system and of the early adoption of a mature software development strategy.